[EBB Sightings] dawn chorus at Jewel Lakes

Dear Birders:

While most of you, wiser and warmer, were still in your beds, Joe Eaton
and I were waiting dawn's first light just outside the locked gate at
the Jewel Lake parking lot.  Mindful of the sighting last week of a
female mountain lion and cub on the dirt road north of Jewel Lake, I
stared into the silence and started at a weird sound coming the
eucalyptus grove.  We both decided it was those pesky, rubbing branches
again. 

The first singer of the day was a junco, trilling out his call to
arise.  A Song Sparrow followed with a shortened song from the berry
patch.  Then the "perp, perp" from a robin which must have been the
avian equivalent of "Let the chorus begin."  The challenge then was to
sort out one call from another -- multiple Black-headed Grosbeaks and
after a warm-up of "whets" the beautiful ascending song of the
Swainson's Thrush.  Only singer expected, but not heard, was the
Western Wood Pewee.  At the end of the lake, in the eucalyptus, we
heard loud calls that mixed in with turkey "gobbles" on the ground.  We
then spotted  another turkey still on its roost.

Seeing a glow of orange light penetrating the heavy fog high on the
hill, we drove to Inspiration Point and found the sun.  Taking the
EBMUD trail north on the grassy-slope that tilts east, we spotted and
heard a Lazuli Bunting and listened to -- without finding -- the
repeated calls of an Ash-throated Flycatcher which further confirms
that the east side of the San Pablo Ridge has more in common with the
drier, inland areas of the coast range.

The best treat of all was hearing a group of California Quail and
seeing a handsome male cross the road.

And how often is one's birding day complete at 7:00 am? 

Phila Rogers


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