habitat ~ 01/19/14 ~ Morro Bay State Park - Black Hill

Morro Bay State Park - Black Hill

January 19, 2014

This was purely a social visit, so we barely got out on a short section to Black Hill before the football games started.  The road access is located above the Morro Bay Golf Course, a San Luis Obispo County Parks on CA State Parks land.  Confused?  Yeah, me, too.  It looks like they've been cutting back on watering the greens, because there was quite a bit of yellow.  Good.  I think golf is a gross misuse of precious water for an exclusive recreation.

I love the 360° views from on top this volcanic peak and am sorry my uncle didn't join us.  Every visit I worry may be the last time I see him or my aunt, so I try to make the most of our time together.  Even though he still hikes like a mountain goat for short periods of time, he wasn't really aware of the trails here.  I'm not surprised, because for all the years I've been going to Morro Bay, too, it took Andy's wandering trail running ways to discover this little gem a few years back.  

It wasn't until I started Nature ID that I wanted to learn more about Morro Bay, which I discovered is actually part of the larger Estero Bay.  I appreciate the estuary more than ever now, but finding information online has been challenging, especially 5 years ago when I started this blog.  I don't know if google has customized my search properties and/or if the sites have just gotten better.  Two that I like are Morro Bay National Estuary Program and grad student Eric Mohler's Morro Bay Watershed site.

Morro Bay Winter Bird Festival

January 17-20, 2014

Oh, while we were there, this was going on.  Everywhere we went there were folks with good sun hats, binoculars, and cameras so big that I'm surprised they didn't walk all hunched over from the weight around their necks.  The festival was completely not on my radar, so I was not prepared.  Still, I'm not sure I would have participated anyways.  Every time I stopped an obvious birder to ask them what something was, they weren't very helpful or accurate.  Avid birders are a strange bunch.  Talk about another exclusive recreation, which reminds me of the topic of lack of minorities in birding. While I can't say I feel uncomfortable among affluent, retirement-aged, Caucasian nature folks, after all my uncle and aunt fit quite neatly in that category, I am aware I am "other" or the designated minority friend in most groups.  Hmm, maybe that's why I tend not to join things?  My favorite bird blogger is Steve of Bourbon, Bastards, and Birds.  He crushes birder stereotypes.

ps 02/13/20 - I removed several embedded links thanks to Ryan Blundell at Tideschart.  Here's his tidechart for Morro Bay: https://www.tideschart.com/United-States/California/San-Luis-Obispo-County/Morro-Beach.

hairy woodpecker ~ 01/19/14 ~ Black Hill

 

hairy woodpecker

Picoides villosus

more information

Ta-da!  This has got to be one of the crappiest pics posted to Nature ID.  I digitally enhanced it as much as possible, too, which is something I rarely do.  Oh well, I think it's good enough to make a positive ID.  It's another new-to-me sp.

The first thing that caught our attention was the tree seemed to be dropping bits and pieces.  What the hey?  Turns out this woodpecker was pulling bits of bark off the tree trunk in between brief bouts of drilling.  Well, that's different.  Hey, where's the red head?  Usually, whenever I notice woodpeckers (rarely), they almost always have a red head, which I assume (probably inaccurately) are the clown-like acorn woodpeckers.  The last thing I noticed was that long white stripe.  Visually it didn't make sense to me that it was located in the middle of the back, because I kept wanting to believe it was on the edge of the wing, like with the sapsuckers.  It really confused me until I looked at my pictures and read up on an ID.  Turns out there's a smaller, cuter look-alike called the downy woodpecker (P. pubescens).  I liked the description on Cornell's site that said the larger hairy woodpecker has a "somewhat soldierly look".  True, true.  Oh, and that pulling bits of bark is to find tasty insects.  They're apparently pretty decent at pest management.  Btw, males do have a small patch of red on the back of the head.

Cool.  Slowly expanding my bird awareness...

spotted towhee ~ 01/19/14 ~ Black Hill

spotted towhee

Pipilo maculatus

more information

Considering I still have my bird books out, I might as well continue with the crappy bird photos... hop, hop, hop, nah, nah, nah, you can't get a good shot.  This is a new sp. to Nature ID.  Except for its shape, it looks nothing like the related California towhee.  I like this striking bird, which reminds me more of a bolder and more colorful dark-eyed "Oregon" junco.  What would be the evolutionary advantage of the dark executioner's hood that many birds seem to have?