Furtive & Occult Birding (Hidden in Plain Sight!) in San Pablo Watershed & Creek

Rare look at stretch of San Pablo Creek 

The secret’s out (I hope not)

about my go-to / get-away / splendid place

for bird watching

and splendid nature fix.

Ground-feeding Golden-crowned Sparrows

I have devoted much space to writing about and extolling the biodiverse sanctuary of San Pablo Creek and Watershed and my special love for this “small miraculous” riparian / woodland corridor (see links at end). But first, stick around and read this entry about more bird encounters during a recent walkabout.

Woodsy environment host to diverse avian population

Unless you expend carbon fossil energy driving there, instead of devoting 59-year old human powered grit and gumption biking there, it is not an easy, taken-for-granted proposition. Some level of effort and sacrifice is required to get there and be there.

San Pablo Watershed land

And then to muster up the gut-check for the return climb up the ridge to Inspiration Point overlooking the watershed lands, once pristine hill and prairie country carpeted in swathes of colorful native wildflowers mostly vanquished long ago by introduced exotic weeds and grasses.

Surprise! Surprise! A Killdeer!

It’s a 15 mile round-tripper by mountain bike, making for a terrific way to get there and experience the San Pablo Creek ecosystem. At the big cyclist juncture of Wildcat Canyon / Bear Creek / Camino Pablo / San Pablo Dam Road, ditch your bike and leave the world behind to enter a forest sanctuary, charmed and enchanted by the “small miraculous” at every turn in the pretty creek side environment . . . 

Captivating San Pablo Creek

I'm always amazed at how it reminds me one moment of a bend in the Clear Creek Trail in Siskiyou County, the next of an aromatic piney forest on the shores of Lake Tahoe, and the next, youthful visions of bucolic Southern Indiana flooding my senses.

House Finch popping into the scene

How can it be?

Bird haven . . . bird heaven

Purist caveat / disclosure: the intermittent – okay, near constant – din of background traffic on San Pablo Dam Road – a main artery from Orinda to Richmond – can be disheartening, but just try to ignore it. For me, it is a small distraction, a minor defect, in the grand scheme of this place being a superb aviary / nature sanctuary.

San Pablo Creek flowing into the reservoir

I sign in at the EBMUD kiosk at the Orinda Connector Staging Area, and spend 15 minutes stutter stepping down the trail flummoxed by flitty unidentifiable movements in the trees and bushes and ground cover. But no birds spotted in the dense forest understory.

EBMUD sign-in station

For another 10 minutes, maybe twenty, I lamely try to home in on a half dozen flighty birds whose quick and indiscernible movements elude me entirely. Nothing gives, nada, not a single confirmed sighting.

Sparrow (Song?) taking a dip

That’s the general pattern of the outing / the hardly depressing theme of the day. Avian no-shows and teasers. Birds remaining outta sight . . . but not outta mind or outta earshot range!

Mature Pine habitat for furtive and secretive birds

On down winding Oursan / Old San Pablo Trail, I find myself waylaid another 20 minutes, maybe 40, fruitlessly trying to zero in on any number of melodious but unseen birds. I stop, look, and listen, tuning into soliloquy trills and quintet riffs I’ve not heard before.

Quail family out 'n about

But today, no hope of figuring out who is who, what is what, given my severe shortcomings when it comes to aurally ID’ing abstract avian vocalizations. (There must be an app for all this?)

Party of Great White Egrets ruling the roost

No luck today to speak of.

Vulture spread to the max in thermal drift

A "nothing much to get excited about" Vulture

darting across a corner of sky.

Wild Turkey flock pecking around for food

A "drab" family of lumbering Turkeys passing by.

Spotted Towhee assessing

The barest glimpse of a "regular old" Spotted Towhee

bush-diving into permanent obscurity.

Alert Pacific-slope Flycatcher

And a "pedestrian" sighting of a Pacific-slope Flycatcher making a very brief appearance.

Resplendent canopy in the forest

So what to do?

Female Lazuli Bunting looking for her mate

Just shambling along here and there,

absorbed in the Zen moment of doing nothing, really.

Aha! There's the pretty boy!

Checking out the surprisingly fast-flowing creek,

up close and personal.

San Pablo Creek's protean beauty

Exploring bird-rich thistle and grassy meadows,

quickly turning umber shades.

Bane of ecologists, artichoke thistles provide food aplenty for birds

Lollygagging in shady pine forests.

Edge effect habitat for birds and mammals

This is a bird haven.

Bird heaven.

Unidentified Raptor nesting in tree top

Probably my favorite sylvan / riparian enclave in the East Bay.

Ok, top 3.

Mess of feathers evidence of unidentified Raptor attack?

A wonderful day of furtive and occult birding,

not all bad, when you think about it.

Kingfishers, Herons, Flycatchers and more call this home

Consider:

Ol' Tom on the prowl

Wild Turkeys, first a big ol’ Tom

exposing a silvery turquoise fan-tail,

spotted way in the distance, barely photographable . . .

and later a shy feller ducking in and out of a stand of small trees.

Say's Phoebe (I do believe)

Sizeable Grouse-like bird flushed out of the underbrush,

streaking across the creek to never be recognized . . .

Lesser Goldfinch (Adult Male Greenback) cooling off

Insanely symphonic Finches, I presume,

hoping against hope they’re Grosbeaks,

but unseen all day, not a single

singing male or red rump patch observed . . .

Red-shouldered Hawk (I'm guessing)

Big winged Raptor of some sort,

rustled up from hoary perch,

blitzing undetected through dense brush

to a high, hidden branch a hundred yards away . . .

probably “just” a Red-tail.

"Just" a Red-tailed Hawk

Chestnut-backed Chickadees, chirping, unseen – 

how can that be . . . ?

Chestnut-backed Chickadee (seen!) fattening up for winter

A most fidgety Ruby-Crowned Kinglet,

a nano-sec of “watching” him

flirt from branch to branch . . .

Black-crowned Night Heron (juvenile) in hunting mode

Great Blue Heron, barely glimpsed,

up and flying away from unsuspecting perch,

thoroughly obscured

by dense oak / sycamore / pine foliage . . .

White-breasted Nuthatch hard at work

Hard workin' Red-breasted Nuthatch

hammerin’ away like a Woodpecker

 before liltingly flying off.

Alluring spot on the creek

Hard flyin' Northern Flickers,

bustin' wing to alight on distant branch,

espied for but a mere second or two . . .

Western Bluebird sitting pretty up a tree

Pretty Western Bluebirds

enjoying the company of 

pretty Yellow-rumped Warblers.

Rufous Hummingbird in repose

Not a single Hummingbird, can you believe it . . . ?

Yellow-rumped Warbler with nice yellow rump patch

Beautiful notes high in pine tree tops,

emanating from birds I can only imagine

might be . . . which?

Bewick's Wren focused on catching a spider

Black-throated Gray Warblers?

White-throated Sparrows?

Common Yellowthroat, perhaps?

Nope, "just" a little ol' excitable Titmouse

Frustratingly, I’ll never know, but whether seen or unseen, hidden or revealed, manifest or occult, the merest indication of the existence of these special beings amidst my own paltry, trespassing presence is enough for this old birder . . .

Geese feeding by the dozens on flood plain

. . . sweet melodies heard . . .

. . . will always enchant . . .

Colorful plumage of male Finch

Read more of Gambolin' Man's essays on birding

at San Pablo Creek & Watershed and birding in general:

BIRDSPOTTING AT SAN PABLO CREEK & WATERSHED (November 21, 2013)

ESSAYS & MUSINGS ON OUR AVIAN AMIGOS

Heron & Duck

Journey along with Gambolin' Man on his San Pablo Creek & Watershed walkabouts:

LOVE LETTER TO SAN PABLO CREEK & WATERSHED (2016)

PAEAN TO SAN PABLO CREEK & WATERSHED (2005)

Reflections

Bonus Video Playlist (if you can stand the beauty . . . and shaky camera!):

SAN PABLO BEAUTY CAPTURED THROUGH THE SEASONS

Crow in golden light

While you're at it,

take a peek at Gambolin' Man's photo album of 

nearly 1,000 images of San Pablo Creek & Watershed:

SIMPLE WONDERS & SMALL MIRACLES 

OF SAN PABLO CREEK & WATERSHED THROUGH THE YEARS

Rainy day in the forest