After Breakfast, figured out my taxes...wish they'd model the tax booklet and forms after the way Biologists key out plants and animals!...hmmph...brain felt so dreary that I hurried back to the Cabin from the mailing at the Post Office... geared up...and got out!...went over to the Rocky Slope...Flicker pic...at Stony Point, wasn't sure where to go, but crossed the Road to Two Top Meadow...and stood in shock, thinking some vandals, pranksters!, had whittled away at an Aspen...got my boots muddy paddling over for a closer look...and looks to have been a vandal with teeth!...note in the pic of the two fallen trees, the third fallen tree in the middle...there is some story to this that I'll have to research!!...I sat and had lunch by the River, contemplating the possibilities of Beavers in the Valley, and Running Deer came along walking a pet dog...tried to explain best I could the import of the Trees...with camera and binocs...she cant hear, and speaks with her hands and expressions...but I think she understood...I'll have to show her the pics!...picked up, and continued downstream, looking for anything remotely resembling a Beaver home...continued all the way to El Cap!....happened on the little Wren...think it's a Wren...haven't looked it up yet...and it's the little bird that makes the nasal hank hank hank call...I didn't think I'd ever see this bird...though I hear it often!...it was on a large dead standing tree, and I startled it...them, actually, there were two...but they just went around to the other side, and I was able to sneak around for the pics...near El Cap I got the pics and clips of the Sparrow with the white and black stripes, and the Pileated Woodpecker...heard the Woodpecker while filming the Sparrow...but thought the sound came from inside the Log!...bad luck, as if I had just looked up, I could have gotten some knockdown pics and clips of Pileated...glad for the ones I got though!...and really like the Chubby Sparrow!!...thought to loop around...thought to go all the way to Fern Spring!...but went back the way I came...Oh...saw Mallard pair on the way out....on the way back...back at the Beaver Trees...a little group of Deer...pic...can really see the Mirror Slide from Two Top!...continued over to Swinging Bridge...Bear plop...no Bear though...was racing the fading light...wanted to get to Owl's Cottonwood before the light faded off Half Dome...made the turn from the Road on the Boardwalk to CAD Beach...and the Mergansers were there!...three Males!!...and one Female...who seemed to have their attention!...see clip...I was too slow..and trying to fiddle with the didgi scope..or I would have a great clip of all of them...still kinda neat...went through Chapel Meadow to Owl's Cottonwood..but no luck...disappointed and crossing Chapel Bridge, I saw either Hawk or Owl swoop up from Bobcat Meadow and cross the Merced and over to perch in the Cottonwood!...began pursuit, and what I thought then was Hawk, flew over to another Cottonwood...see pic...it was Owl!!...and while pursuing this Owl..another landed in the Ponderosas...oh!...I put the 12x on the Ponderosa Owl...and tried to approach the first Owl, but it left sometime during the sneak up...dont know how I missed it!...anyway...I went back to the Ponderosa Owl..which flew just a bit right over to the Burned Snag...Zeke's Perch...clip and pic for sometime...I want to put it together with the other clips and pics I have of Owl and Hawk on this old Snag Tree!!...almost dark, I picked up and went back over to Chapel Bridge and around to Lower Falls and to the Cabin...a long walkabout!!...hazy clouds warm...sometimes a clear moment...took some scenics...Sentinel Falls is on the sometime list...to go right up to it on the Talus...oh...Mallard pair was at CAD Beach too...and they flew off before I could get pic or clip...too!!
6 comments:
David, are you talking about the bird in the first pic? that's a nuthatch. They are like brown creepers, only they always start at the top, and work their way down the tree. Creepers do the opposite, so they don't really compete with each other. Nice cooperative neighbors :-)
I have to pull out my pictures and see if these are the same ones we saw a couple years ago (did they look fresh?). They're near the air-quality station right? AKA, near the old hotel dump where you see shards of old dishes. AKA across from Manure Pile. AKA, a quarter/half mile upriver from Devil's Elbow.
I've wondered about that and have never seen any other evidence and have also wondered about these trees.
Yes, Rhonda, the little bird is a Red Breasted Nuthatch, not a wren, ...didn't know about the up and down of Creepers and Nuthatches!...Creepers drive me nuts as they climb out of camera range before I get the camera..ranged!!
Tom, the trial behind Camp 4 bends to the Road just beyond the Tents, and across the Road by the Merced is a swampy little area with Aspens and Willows...think their Willows...that's where the trees are...and they were freshly gnawed on...and there were some that looked to have been felled years ago! Curiosly, I kicked some pottery shards on the Merced gravel bank hereabout...but Devil's Elbow is by El Cap, isn't it?
Well, Devil's Elbow is by the east end of El Cap, and the spot I'm thinking of is a ways up from there. I think if you walk straight through the woods from Manure Pile Buttress you get pretty close.
Interesting that you found fresh ones. The ones I saw a couple of years ago looked fresh. They must be the ones that look old now. But I've not see tracks or lodge anywhere in the valley.
The potter shards are from the old dump. A park archaeologist told me when that dump was active, but it's basically old dishes that were probably broken when dumped there.
Took a clip when I was there of the Trees...posted it up today, Wednesday, 15th. Hope you can find the pics!!
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