After yesterday’s bonanza of birds over on the coast, I decided to stick closer to home today. I also wanted to whittle down some of the birds on my county target list. With those two criteria in mind, I headed south to a little post just outside the quaint town of Santa Margarita. The spot is at the junction of Hwy 58 and West Pozo Rd. Lewis’s Woodpecker had been reported there recently, and I wanted to see whether I would have any luck.
Turns out, yes, sort of! I heard, saw, or photographed, five of seven likely woodpecker species here: the target Lewis’s, along with Acorn, Nuttall’s, Hairy, and Northern Flicker.
For today’s excursion, since I knew where the location was and had driven by it several times in the past, I decided to navigate my own self rather than using my GPS. This is a good way to get to know an area better, particularly after you get lost and have to turn around and repeat the scenery you just saw! Yes, I blew right through the actual location on the way to where I thought I was going! (The “Pozo” sign I’d been counting on as a landmark wasn’t actually where I’d expected it to be, so once I missed that, I left Pozo Road and turned east on Highway 58 toward the Carrizo Plain!)
Fortunately, while I’m slow, I’m not completely stupid, so in a few miles I realized my mistake, turned the truck around, and made it safely to my intended destination. It’s a wonderful little spot, in a small valley with plenty of open space, low hills all around, and a little stream with some mature oaks and riparian species.
I wasn’t entirely sure where to look for the bird, but I decided to try my luck by heading for the biggest trees around. For the first half hour or so, it was a bit hard to listen for birds, as the traffic on the road was actually “heavy” (meaning there’d be no more than 15 or 20 seconds at a time when I was unable to hear either engine noise or the loud susurrus of tires on asphalt, enough to make any gentle woodpecker drumming impossible to hear). During this time, I focused on the fields around me, with a Red-tailed Hawk on a telephone pole, a Western Meadowlark or two singing but eventually fleeing because of a raucous pair of American Kestrels about a half-mile away, and a group of Brewer’s Blackbirds hanging around the open field.
I also wandered the fence line on both sides of the road, checking out Savannah and Song Sparrows, Yellow-rumped Warblers, an American Robin or two, and even hearing a Bewick’s Wren’s call cutting through the frequent road noise. A Bald Eagle surprised me by flying over the intersection while I was as far away from it as I got on this trip, so I didn’t get any photos. A Northern Flicker’s characteristic loud yelp made it easy to tell one was around, although, as I’ve discovered with this woodpecker, it’s very good at using obscuring twigs and branches to foil my attempts at a good portrait:
Fortunately, after that first half hour the boaters on their way to the lake and the residents of Pozo and Las Pilitas had all seemed to filter through, and conditions improved substantially. It was then that I was able to hear some gentle drumming from a Hairy Woodpecker in the oaks on the south side of the street. While stalking this bird, I was rewarded with some reasonable views of my target bird, the Lewis’s Woodpecker. Like the flicker, though, the striking green and pink Lewis’s is well able to choose the most obscured and shaded spots of a tree to forage, frustrating the photographer to no end.
Nevertheless, I was able to hit both goals in about an hour of birding: stick close to home and cross one more species off my county target list. Not a bad morning at all!
Here’s a little gallery of what I saw:
