San Jacinto Wildlife Area

Posted on by Ed

Today Kay, Mary and Fay went to visit Tracy in LA and I gout up early to head east to Riverside County and the San Jacinto Wildlife Area. I beat any traffic and got there just before daylight. This gave me time to review my notes and see the first light of dawn over the mountains and head in Davis Rd. I entered the Wildlife Area just before sunrise, and was a bit surprised to find no sign of a headquarters, or really much sign of government presence. The map box had cobwebs, but the place had plenty of birds. It’s a man-made wetlands mitigation that uses recycled water to create 19,000 acres of in large part wetlands.
There were lots of ducks, lots of sparrows, raptors, and I had lots of time to try to ID the little guys.
I also played more with my camera than I typically do so here are some photos.

At the first pond were egrets right on the road
At the first pond were egrets right on the road

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Ferruginous hawks, at least 3 seen today.
Ferruginous hawks, at least 3 seen today.

Expected Prairie, but saw Peregrine
Expected Prairie, but saw Peregrine

Spent a lot of time looking at sparrows.
Spent a lot of time looking at sparrows.

Decided this and many like it were Vesper Sparrows.
Overall a great day and a place to visit again next month when migration starts.