2015-02-20 Ranchita to Borrego

I wasn’t sure where I’d end up this day, but I knew it would be a good day as long as I was ‘out in the world’.

Tri-colored Blackbirds teased me by keeping their distance at the Warner Springs end of the Montezuma Valley Road. Band-Tailed Pigeons congregated in great numbers further east along this route and true to their shy nature, disbursed into the oak woodlands shortly after my arrival to gorge on the richness of fallen acorns, leaving me with to the company of juncos, scrub-jays, woodpeckers and towhees.

A bit further east, Old Mine Road still had 6 to 8 Lewis’s Woodpeckers in the zone between the residential oaks and the low chaparral.

The parking area next to the Tubb Canyon Trail had some rather shy Rock & Cactus Wrens, a Sage Thrasher, a few Black-Throated Sparrows, a pair of Phainopeplas and a cooperative male Costa’s Hummingbird.

Down in the valley of Borrego Springs I made weak attempts to look for Inca Doves, but the friendly confines of Ram’s Hill and Roadrunner Clubs did little to appease my hunger for communing with nature. I decided to make the trek north into Coyote Canyon. There, the birds proved quite scarce.  Except for a couple of hot rodding Navy Jet Jockeys, the sights and sounds were just what the doctor ordered. I managed to capture some of the insect life busy creating the next generation.

Images collected on this trip were of Band-Tailed Pigeon, Costa’s Hummingbird, Red Rock Skimmer, American Rubyspot and Vivid Dancers. These last three are bugs.

Images Below