Created 13-Sep-26
Deer move cautiously away as we enter Escobar Gate. Western Bluebirds flock to the young Blue Oak opposite. Down the hill a bit, Acorn Woodpeckers collect acorns as the morning warms up.
Ancient “Phainopepla Tree”, a dead Valley Oak, has a commanding view of grassland and forest, even the fog cascading over Windy Hill. (Now it functions as a granary tree for a collective of Acorn Woodpeckers; high on a ridgetop, it also offers a lookout perch for raptors and songbirds.) Birders see more than winged creatures: large empty oak gall remains in Coast Live Oak. Orb-weave Spider lurks in the grassland. Lomatium, Lessingia, and Tarweed add color to the summer palette.
We visit a spring below the Birding Transect Trail – documented in the second gallery. No surface water is visible, but the area is greener than the surrounding grassland and chaparral. John Rawlings asked me to take some photos – here they are. Hedge Nettle flourishes, with grasses and flowers close by. Beyond the spring, a patch of dry plants (Centaury?) fronts a surprisingly compact and dense stand of Hayfield Tarweed – why are its boundaries so well defined? A few fronds of Soap Plant still stand, dropping seeds. Please add your IDs and comments, if you can; it may be difficult to ID a plant from these photos without viewing the whole plant in context.
The brown land waits for rain.
Ancient “Phainopepla Tree”, a dead Valley Oak, has a commanding view of grassland and forest, even the fog cascading over Windy Hill. (Now it functions as a granary tree for a collective of Acorn Woodpeckers; high on a ridgetop, it also offers a lookout perch for raptors and songbirds.) Birders see more than winged creatures: large empty oak gall remains in Coast Live Oak. Orb-weave Spider lurks in the grassland. Lomatium, Lessingia, and Tarweed add color to the summer palette.
We visit a spring below the Birding Transect Trail – documented in the second gallery. No surface water is visible, but the area is greener than the surrounding grassland and chaparral. John Rawlings asked me to take some photos – here they are. Hedge Nettle flourishes, with grasses and flowers close by. Beyond the spring, a patch of dry plants (Centaury?) fronts a surprisingly compact and dense stand of Hayfield Tarweed – why are its boundaries so well defined? A few fronds of Soap Plant still stand, dropping seeds. Please add your IDs and comments, if you can; it may be difficult to ID a plant from these photos without viewing the whole plant in context.
The brown land waits for rain.
9/6/2026 Bird Transect from Escobar Gate
Visitors 19
16 photos
Created 13-Sep-26
Modified 13-Sep-26
Around the Spring
Visitors 13
11 photos
Created 13-Sep-26
Modified 13-Sep-26
Dan Quinn