A Trip to the Mountains, Part 3

It's been a wonderful trip to the mountains and the weather has been very enjoyable. I took a few more shots of the birds around the camp and headed for home stopping at a beautiful garden and orchard just a few miles past the town of Julian. The garden is a hidden treasure and a labor of love planted and cared for by the owner of Mom's Pie shop at their Wynola location on Highway 78. Yes, I bought a strawberry rhubarb pie to take home and share with my family. It was absolutely delicious! 

A few more shots from the campsite. These are California Quails. Notice the scaled pattern around the belly. 

 

I wanted to get a flight shot but all I got was a mess of feathers everywhere! Boy, they are hard to focus on when they fly.

A White-crowned Sparrow was snacking on some Manzanita berries. Noticed that the coyotes eat these berries too. 

A Western Bluebird perches on a dead branch of the Manzanita bush. 

 

Coughing up a pellet: It's the process of regurgitating all the indigestible materials that were eaten usually within the last 24 hours. Looks like a ball that is made up of undigested material. It is called a  pellet

He just coughed up a pellet and appears to be looking at where it landed. 

Spotted a cute Oak Titmouse.  Baeolophus inornatus measures 5.75 inches long with a wingspan of 9 inches. 

A surprise visit by a female Nuttall's Woodpecker. You can tell it's an adult female by the absence of red on her head and nape. Juveniles of both sexes have red on the crowns of their heads.  I'm not sure how she snuck in the area without the Acorn Woodpeckers spotting her but I can tell you that she was very quiet and did not make a sound as she went about looking for insects. 

 LOL... those crows are opportunist and this one found himself an apple to eat. 

Heading home but stopping for pie at "Mom's Pies".   Beautiful lavender flowers surrounded the gate to the garden. 

There were dozens of yellow butterflies surrounding the flowers.

Drinking the nectar.

Lots of bees around and they insisted that the butterflies leave and would buzz them if they landed too long on any one flower. 

 

Delicious looking apples.

 

Yellow ones too. 

This Red-shouldered Hawk made it clear that this garden and orchard were his territory. 

 

The guards of the garden.

Got my pie and it's time to head for home... 

It takes about 1 hour and 40 minutes to get back home from Julian and even though I had a wonderful trip, it sure was nice to get back home. Have a great week everyone!