Giant Sequoia
El Capitan
Our first full day in the park started off with 2
Great Blue Heron and my first ever
AMERICAN DIPPER on the river on the drive up to Tuolmne Grove where we went to look at the Giant Sequoia trees. I of course was also looking at the birds! The first bird of note I actually ID'd on call even though I'd never heard it before. It was from reading accounts of the one and only
Red-Breasted Nuthatch in Britain and it being found by its call that sounded like a toy trumpet. All of a sudden I heard this toy trumpet and up to my left was a family group of 4
RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH busy feeding up and down the trunks. After getting a good look at them I caught up with the rest of the group but not before adding my 3rd lifer of the day in the shape of a scalding HOUSE WREN. lifer number 4 soon arrived with a couple of fairly elusive
MOUNTAIN CHICKADEE. A few mammal ticks were being noted with
California Ground Squirrel,
Chickaree and
Lodgepole Chipmunk.
Steller's Jay
Steller's Jay
Side View Of Half Dome
We then went into the park proper and the new lifers came thick and fast. A couple of STELLER'S JAY were by the medical area and a WHITE-THROATED SWIFT was seen zooming past a rock face. Then the first warbler of the trip came in the shape of a handsome BLACK-THROATED GREY WARBLER flitting through the trees. A female WESTERN TANAGER and a BROWN CREEPER were soon added as were an American Robin and a Chestnut-Backed Chickadee.
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