Greetings all,
Just a few notes on my most recent visit to the Lookout. I made it up late
Friday and stayed through Tuesday evening. It was typical Hi Mountain
weather, ranging from cold and 30+mph winds, to hot and still, to dripping
fog, and everything in between. Had signals for several Pinnacles birds
throughout my stay, and a few Ventana birds on Halloween. With all the birds
at Pinnacles now, seems like we should almost always have a bird or 2 to
track from the Lookout. Other bird activity was relatively low, with just
the local red-tails, band-taileds, juncos, titmice, Anna’s, TVs, ravens, a
few lesser goldies, and one marvelous fly-by from a peregrine. Also had 2
common poorwills on the road by the gate one evening.
There were quite a few human visitors on Saturday and Sunday, mostly on
horseback. Seems like the Central Coast Longriders are getting some use out
of their investment in our gutters and cistern. On Saturday I was joined by
a Search and Rescue team from SLO who were doing some orienteering practice
http://www.condorlookout.org/archives/photos/2005/slo_search_rescue.jpg
Their crew leader hadn’t been in the Lookout for over 20 years, and he
vividly remembered seeing the fire finder in the middle of the upstairs cab!
On Tuesday morning I thought I’d be a hero by calling in a small fire south
east of Lopez and Sausolito Ridge. I called it in to USFS and they explained
that it was a CDF prescribed burn in Phoenix Canyon.
http://www.condorlookout.org/archives/photos/2005/PhoenixCn_fire.jpg
The dispatcher was very thankful for the call, though. It was wild to watch
how fast this fire grew, from a little plume of smoke to giant columns of
smoke and visible flames in under 30 min.
On my way down the hill, about 1/2 mile below the campground on, I
encountered this juvenile bocat trying to ambush a covey of CA quail
http://www.condorlookout.org/archives/photos/2005/bobcat1.jpg
http://www.condorlookout.org/archives/photos/2005/bobcat2.jpg
This guy was tiny, not much bigger than a large house cat. I was surprised
to see him hunting all alone, maybe mom was hiding somewhere nearby.
I’ll be back up to the lookout this Saturday and Sunday, so drop by and say
Hi!
Cheers,
-Paul Andreano
