First of 2 days in Sequoia National Park. We had arrived in the dark yesterday, so hadn't really seen where we were. We were up in the dark too, but as it began to get light, the floor came alive. American Robins and Audubons Warblers quite a few of each, nice start. We had a few targets here, White-headed Woodpecker and Clarks Nutcracker were just two of them. So, here we go……
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| Dark-eyed Junco |
The first car park we pulled into, had birds flying up off the floor, as we parked the car. This looks good i thought. Turns out they were mainly Dark-eyed Juncos, but there was more stuff there, so lets see…we had some squirrel-like creatures there too, turns out they were Golden-mantled Ground Squirrels, very nice looking they are too. There were some Warblers, Yellow, Hermit and probably Townsends, Chipping Sparrow and Red-breasted Nuthatch as well.
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| Chipping Sparrow |
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| Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel |
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| Red-breasted Nuthatch |
Second stop, was as it turned out, one of the best of the holiday. We walked only about 100 yards, and saw a couple pointing to something on a stump, sadly i only got a glimpse, before someone said 'Black Bear'! Wow, there it was on the opposite side of the area, from where we were. A first for both of us!! We never did see what was on the stump, but whatever it was, it was smaller than the Bear! We continued along the track, slowly. There were quite a few Juncos, and now other stuff too. Definite Townsends Warbler, Brown Creeper (the American version of our Treecreeper), Hermit Warbler, Mountain Chickadee and Orange-crowned Warbler. Then a medium sized Woodpecker, it turned out to be a Williamsons Sapsucker. I put down my camera bag and tried to get some shots, bloody hard work! While doing this, another Woodpecker, was it the same….NO…White-headed Woodpecker, brilliant.
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| Black Bear |
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| Brown Creeper |
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| Hermit warbler |
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| Townsends Warbler |
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| White-headed Woodpecker |
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| Williamsons Sapsucker |
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| Golden-crowned Kinglet |
After watching these for a while, we then saw another, different Squirrel-like critter, Lodgepole Chipmunk, these are cool looking too. Then we found a couple of Golden-crowned Kinglets. we wondered round the rest of the circular walk, we took about 4 hours to walk about 1km, amazing, even for me with the dodgy knee!!! We did have a second Black Bear with a neck collar on too.
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| Lodgepole Chipmunk |
Next stop was a big car park, first bird was another Woodpecker, this time a distant Acorn Woodpecker. Juncos, Sparrows and a pair of Audubons Warblers were around the car park.
We also found some nice looking Butterflies, one or two of which will remain unID'd (Some i have had Id'd since returning home). We had a few Orange Sulphurs, look spitting image of our Clouded Yellows, and we had some Fritillaries too. We found 2 different sorts, one medium sized one and one big one. Mormon and Zerene Fritillary. On the way back to the campsite, we had some more Red-breasted Nuthatches, they were everywhere, but not always showing. Then some Finches flew up into the top of a fairly distant tree, they turned out to be Purple Finches, another lifer for me. Last light and before we got back, a stag Mule Deer stood feeding by the side of the road, brilliant day!
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Audubons Warbler
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Mormon Fritillary
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| Mormon Fritillary |
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| Zerene Fritillary |
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| Zerene Fritillary |
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| Mule Deer |
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