2014-03-12 Mount Laguna & Lindo Lake

The town of Mount Laguna, at an elevation of 6000 feet, sits along the scenic “Sunrise Highway” in the mountains of San Diego County. It has a store, restaurant, cabins for rent, and campgrounds. Near these, in the middle of ‘town’ is the Laguna Mountain Visitor Center, where bird feeders attract many of the local birds and hence, a good place to stop and look for the local avifauna. Good images can often be collected there. On this visit Purple Finches were the flavor of the day.

At Laguna Meadows, there is a pleasant park-like setting with wide shoulders next to the road for parking. There are hiking and biking trails emanating from this area to penetrate further into the backcountry. The Pacific Crest Trail parallels the Sunrise Highway and thus passes by this area too. Sometimes birds rarely found in the county will show up nearby. I met a Clark’s’ Nutcracker on the trails this day.

Lindo Lake in Lakeside California is a park surrounded by residential and commercial buildings. There are two bodies of water one could describe as large ponds or small lakes, that often attract unusual waterfowl, shorebirds and passerines. Wood Ducks and Canada Geese were very cooperative, and I was able to get some close up and interesting headshots.

Birds I encountered on this day were Purple Finches, Steller’s Jays, Clark’s Nutcracker, Wood Ducks, Canada Geese.