[EBB Sightings] Flowers and birds near Vollmer Peak

Dear Birders:

A friend and I spent a couple of hours this morning at Vollmer Peak, the highest point in the Berkeley Hills at the south end of Tilden Park.  The wildflowers were superb, better than I can ever remember.  And in this mild weather they are reaching their peak -- the early flowers overlapping in their blooming with the later flowers like pink mallows and the big sunflower, Wyethia.  Our destination was a north-facing slope along a narrow trail that parallels the old stone wall where the grasses are full of nemophila (baby-blue eyes).  I know of no other nearby place where they are so prolific.  After photographing them, we ate our snack looking over the blue Bay, surrounding by poppies and fiddlenecks.  Returning to the car parked near the corporation yard, we passed a damp, shady slope with an elegant group of bright blue Hound's Tooth (Cynoglosuum grande).  Pygmy Nuthatches chattered in the high pines.

Returning home, I was happy to at last see some of the reported painted lady butterflies, flying fast and it appeared -- heading north.

What a way to spend a spring day!

Phila Rogers