Cottontails, Woodpeckers, & Mission Trails. Oh My!

On a whim, I decided this morning that I was going to hike the Father Serra trail in Mission Trails Regional Park to spend some time at the Old Mission Dam. With all the rain we’ve been getting here in San Diego I wanted to see how full the river had become. The paved trail starts at the MTRP Visitor Center and loops about 3 miles across the park to the Kumeyaay Lake Campgrounds with a lot to see in between. I stopped to look at the seed pods of Wild-Cucumber, listen to the sounds of the White Crowned Sparrows foraging in the leaves, and investigate the taco shaped leaves of the Laurel Sumac. It’s amazing how much life there is within inches of the road, if you just take the time to pay attention.

Once I got to the Dam, I found a quiet bench where I could pull my binoculars out and watch the American Coots diving under the water. The water was much higher than it was the last time I was here and with the sound of rushing water pounding my ears I could barely hear the Coots’ song as they excitedly found a spot with a lot of food. I’m slowly getting better at using my Vortex Diamondback 10×42 binos and was able to quickly find a few Anna’s Hummingbirds in the trees and a Cottontail off in the distance working its way through the brush. I had planned to spend more time at the Dam but something inside me told me to keep going along the trail and make it all the way to the campgrounds. It was only another .75 miles and I felt like I would see something cool if I went that way.

Once at the camping site, I picked another quiet bench and decided to try something I learned about when in my hunting class in Washington. When we walk along a trail, we disturb nature around us in ripples; like a pebble thrown into a puddle. If you sit in one place long enough, and stay as still as possible, those ripples eventually disappear and nature slowly starts to come back. It was after about 10 minutes of sitting at this bench that I got to witness the mating ritual of the male Anna’s Hummingbird for the first time. The males will fly up to 100 feet in the air, turn around, and fly back towards the Earth as fast as they can. At the last possible second, he swings back up in a “J” shape and you can hear his tail feathers whistle and make the well-known tweet. I sat there with my mouth literally open because seeing this ritual was on the top of my bird watching bucket list. I stayed there for a few more minutes in shock before I decided it was time to walk back to the car.