[EBB Sightings] Fwd: Monthly Jewel Lake Field Trip

--- Phila Rogers  wrote:

> Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 15:36:10 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Phila Rogers 
> Subject: Monthly Jewel Lake Field Trip
> To: "audubon mt.diablo" 
> 
>  Dear Birders:
> 
> On a most unpromising morning with fog denser than usual,  I was
> surprised to find a dozen hardy souls ready for the two-hour walk
> around Jewel Lake.  We were richly rewarded with continuous bird song
> beginning with Wilson's Warblers and ending with Winter Wrens near
> where the Pack Rat trail levels off toward the end of the lake.  In
> between, we saw and/or heard Spotted Towhees, Black-headed Grosbeaks,
> Warbling Vireo, Orange-crowned Warbler, Song Sparrow, Brown Creepers,
> Chestnut-backed Chickadees with young, Robins, Lesser Goldfinches,
> Bewick's Wren, Bushtits, Pacific-Slope Flycatcher, Allen's
> Hummingbird,Nuttall's Woodpecker, Swainson's Thrushes,  and in the
> distance -- Western Wood-Pewee, Steller's Jay, Common Raven, Purple
> Finch and somewhere overhead a Red-shouldered Hawk calling.
> 
>  Despite this week of  mostly sunless and cold days, the streamside
> canyon and wooded slopes near Jewel Lake are approaching high summer.
    Creek dogwoods, thimbleberries, and currents are forming fruit, and
the
> deciduous vegetation is lush.  The heracleum (cow parsnip) are
> head-high along the trail.
> 
> I like to consider Jewel Lake my Walden Pond.  Though I don't live
> along its shore, nor do I have the perceptive eye or eloquent pen of
> a Thoreau, I still find enormous satisfaction in visiting a familiar
> and well-loved place in all its seasons and weathers. I think of
> Debbie Viess and her Huckleberry Preserve, Hillary Powers and Lake
> Merritt, and Bob Richmond and the Hayward Shore and so many others
> who know the rewards of a place closely observed.
> 
> Phila Rogers
>       
>        
> ---------------------------------
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