Castle Rock Trail - Mount Diablo Foothills May 2009

A really warm day and a trip to a new place - Mount Diablo Foothills to walk along Castle Rock Trail. Another one of those days when the most interesting things got away - there were several orioles flying around one of the picnic areas, but none of them would be compliant enough for me to take a photo. Next we stopped to look at some bird or other and then Karen jumped into the air when she saw a snake moving away from her feet. Not 100% sure, but think it was a gopher snake - it moved off and presumably disappeared into a hole as we couldn't find it.

Probably the most interesting thing we saw were the pair of Nuttal's woodpeckers going in and out of a hole in the trunk of a tree (presumably feeding the little ones as they'd go in with various bugs hanging out of their mouths and then re-appear with nothing in them). Talking of bugs, the first bird pictured below (the bluebird) seems to have found itself a very tasty beetle. I'm also quite pleased with the White-Breasted Nuthatch that appeared from nowhere next to us as we were leaving the park, then systematically decided to up and down each fencepost relieving them of any bugs. Birds photographed:

American Goldfinch
American Robin
Dark-Eyed Junko
Gray Flycatcher
House Finch
Lark Sparrow
Lesser Goldfinch
Nuttal's Woodpecker
Red-Tailed Hawk
Red-Winged Blackbird
Turkey Vulture
Western Bluebird
White-Breasted Nuthatch

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