06 June 2008

Gaining altitude

Spent most of today in the Crystal Basin trying to get to grips with some of the upland stuff before spending a week in the High Sierra proper. Managed to add a couple of species to my parulidae list, Hermit and MacGillivray's, very nice. Both gave good views too, considering the usual view of an oporornis, it was a nice surprise to have stonking male flick across the path and feed in the bottom of some low scrub, at times in full view. Other 'goodies', in chronological order, included: Mountain Quail (shit arse-end view), Townsend's Solitaire, White-headed Woodpecker and Pygmy Nuthatch (three species of nuthas today). All very nice, bordering on lovely.

Had some fun behind the wheel today too. Discovered an excellent way of winding up yanks, pretend not to know you can turn left at a red light, winds them up a treat (to the point where they pull a loud, but ineffective, wheel-spin as you pull off minutes later). The next motoring joy today was driving for about a quarter of a mile on the wrong side, before the appearance of a large white 4x4 snapped me back into US mode. It was only a side-road, and I was thinking about birds, I can't be expected to do everything at once.

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