[EBB Sightings] Briones Larks and Lions

This Memorial morning (May 29), from 7:30 to 10:15 A.M., I hiked the western portion of the 
Briones Crest trail and spotted Grasshopper Sparrows, Lark Sparrow, Horned Larks and a Mountian 
Lion!

I started my journy from the west end of Briones at the Oak Grove picnic area. I headed west on 
the paved road (spotting Warbling Vireo and Or.-cr. Warbler in the riparian).  I started on the 
Briones Crest Trail, checking the cattle pond to the west(Barn and Violet-green Swallows)  before 
I started my ascent on the Crest Trail.  After about 1/2 mile, I heard several W. Mdw. Larks (and 
spotted a few) and heard about 4 Grasshopper Sparrows.  At the last crest, about 1/4 mile south of 
the Santos Trail, I finally got a long look at a Grasshopper Sparrow perched on some thistle 
through my scope.  A hundred feet further, I scopped a Lark Sparrow on a post marking a dead end 
service road.  As I descended the trail, I stopped about 300 yards south before the Santos Tr. 
junction and scoped a pair of Horned Larks foraging on the dirt road at a location above a cattle 
pond located directly under high power lines.  Five minutes later, at 9:10 A.M., I heard some 
Killdeers making a loud chatter.  That is when I spotted with my binocs, a nearby Mountain Lion 
slowing walking west. After about 15 seconds, he disappeared into a gully covered with Calif. 
Buckeye trees.  This gully was just below the cattle pond.

I then left the Crest Trail and descended the Santos trail where I spotted a Gopher Snake and two 
Ash-throated Flycatchers on the level portion of the trail.  I returned via the Abrigo Valley 
Trail, listening to the Bl.-headed Grosbeaks, and spotting a variety of common birds including 
Rufous Hummer, Nuttall's Woodpecker and Western Bluebird.

The Briones Crest Trail is several miles long and circles most of Briones Park.  I believe I was 
hiking a section that did not contain the Blue Grosbeak reported earlier.

Good birding (and Mtn. Lioning) to all,
Ted Robertson