Ternwatch

The California Least Tern, shown here, is on the endangered species list. The idea here is to launch as many fledglings as possible so if global warming does comes to pass the population will be as large as possible[it's the conservative thing to do]. The San Diego Audubon in cooperation with the US Department of Fish and Wildlife and the City of San Diego has set aside five tern nesting areas of which Mariner's Point is the most active with over 100 active nests.

Here I am during a Ternwatcher shift at Mariners Point in San Diego's Mission Bay on Wednesday morning.

Deadhorse Ranch State Park - Tavasci Marsh Trail

Mallard at Tavasci Marsh near Cottonwood, AZ.

 Blue Heron at Tavasci Marsh north of Cottonwood, AZ.

Jerome, Arizona from Tuzigoot National Monument north of Cottonwood, Arizona.

Courthouse Butte Bell Rock Loop Trail

We hiked this on Friday afternoon:

A female Phainopepla

Parson's Spring Trail - Near Cottonwood, AZ

From Thursday's hike on the Parson's Spring trail.

My friend Wayne at the trailhead looking at the trail map.

 On the trail.

Summer Spring pool along the trail.

 Phainopepla male[lower] and female upper.













This must be from BEFORE I fell in the creek...

Jerome, AZ Copper Mine

Looking down a mine shaft at Jerome,AZ. Copper was discoverd here in about 1876 and actively mined until the 1930's then again during WWII until the early 1950's.

Below is a view of the town of Jerome, AZ from the Tuzigoot National Monument to the east:

North Fortuna Summit

On Thursday my friend David and I hiked up North Fortuna Summit in San Diego's Mission Trails Park. It was a bit over 6.3 miles of pretty good trail but mostly pretty steep.

Ternwatcher 2017

This morning I did my 1st Ternwatcher shift of the season from 8-10am at Mariner's Point on Mission Bay. After a short visit with Dave from Fish and Wildlife, he makes daily short visits, I settled down for my shift.

There were LOTS of CA Least Terns flying around and occasionally landing who looked like they wanted to drop an egg... but I didn't see any who actually did that. Dave said there were in fact some active nests with eggs in them but I was never able to spot them.

I also saw a flock of brown pelicans fly over, a horned lark, some house finches, and two western gulls.

Learn more about California Least Terns at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_least_tern