A Reunion with Cassin's

One of the items in my "bucket list" was to visit Yosemite National Park. I have been living here in America for almost 25 years and never have I gone to one of the most famous wilderness parks in California.

My son had gone earlier with his friends and I was still hemming and hawing whether to follow or not. When he assured me and my wife that he would be getting a room for us at a nice hotel in Madera at dirt cheap rates, I no longer had an excuse.

My son, Kurt, was already out hiking when we arrived. So Cynthia and I decided to visit the local water treatment plant (which is always great for birding). As expected, there were the usual peeps and dowitchers and the most skittish ducks we ever encountered. They would spot us from half a mile away and would suddenly take off in flight. The highlight of the day was a Peregrine Falcon surveying its surroundings from the ground!


Next morning after enjoying a sumptuous (free) breakfast (this not your regular "continental" style - they really had some good stuff -scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages..), we attended the services at Calvary Chapel in Fresno. Then it was sightseeing time at Yosemite. We were awed by the majesty of HalfDome and thrilled by the beauty of Bridalveil Falls.


As we were leaving the site of the falls, Cynthia and Kurt both heard some chirping above us. Dodging the huge crowd of tourists, we found a place where we can scan the trees without disturbing the throng of vacationers. There were a few birds darting from branch to branch about 50 feet up in the pine trees. I managed to squeeze off a few shots and it was only when I uploaded the pictures when we got home that I realized that what we saw were some Cassin's Vireos - a welcome addition to my year list. It has been quite some time since I last saw a Cassin's and this is actually the first time I got a picture of it. Not a good one, but enough to allow for a positive ID.





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"I have always depended on the kindness of birders." *

I am by no means an expert birder. I can get by in identifying the more common birds we encounter on our birding trips. I mean I don't think I will ever make the mistake of calling a Vermillion Flycatcher a Summer Tanager. But tiny sparrows, those darn empids, peeps, and of course, gulls, are another story.

My other "handicap" in birding is that I'm not good at locating birds. I would read on a yahoo listserv, for example, that an unusual bird was seen on the left side of a creek that runs north to south and is frequenting the flowering mulberry bush next to the bridge. I would get to the general vicinity but would never find the bridge, much less the mulberry bush.

And so, a lot of times, I depend on the kindness of other birders to either identify a bird for me or take me to the location of a target bird, or both. Then there are those glory days when a birder would offer to do such things for me and my wife without us even asking for it. "Angels", my wife calls these people.

Such was the case Saturday when we went to Santiago Oaks Regional Park in Orange County to look for the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker as posted in Neil Gilbert's blog. Despite the precise directions given by Neil, we could not find our target bird. We were about to give up after three hours of searching and was getting ready to go home when we met Jim Rowe. Almost nonchalantly he asked if we have seen the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. When we replied in the negative, he graciously offered to take us where it usually hangs out. Sure enough, it was there as if summoned by the power of a kind birder to wait and show itself to a couple of "lost" seekers.

Earlier, in our meanderings around the park ,we got a photo of what we first thought as an empid, possibly the Pacific Slope Flycatcher that Neil mentioned in his blog. I sent that picture to Neil for verification and he very nicely pointed out that the bird we saw was actually a Hutton's Vireo. It may not be the flycatcher we hoped for, but the vireo was also a very welcome addition to our year list which at the end of February stood at 168 species seen. Not a bad tally and we owe most of them to the kindness and helpfulness of fellow birders like Jim and Neil, among others.


Note: Since the beginning of the year, I have adapted my blog titles from famous movie quotes and movie titles. This blog will be the last (maybe) to do so. Frankly, my dear, I'm running out of ideas. :-P
* A Streetcar Named Desire, 1951