Wednesday, June 9th, Cold Creek – continued
Some of the goodies I saw at Cold Creek
were Black-throated Sparrow, Spotted Towhee, Violet-green Swallow, EASTERN Kingbird,
Western Scrub-Jay, and Scott's Oriole (second time I had seen that bird). A heard a bird
singing and could not find it, but while looking came across a magnificent Indigo Bunting.
I watched it as it sang for a while and then admired the flash of blue as it flew off. Two
out of range Lark Sparrow were a nice addition.
I was somewhat disappointed in some of the scenery as I noticed a lot of the trees on the mountains had been clear cut. (I was later advised that a fire years before had burned the trees.) I left the park and drove along one of the roads where I came upon a "wild" burro. It may have been wild, but it certainly was tame – as I was taking pictures of it, the burro came up to my car. It came so close that I had to close the window to prevent it from sticking its head inside.
Tule Springs
Next stop was another place I had gone before, Floyd Lamb State Park. This is also known as Tule Springs. A sign there stated that this was one of the few areas in the United States that was inhabited as far back as 11,000 BC. This was the place where I had seen my first Yellow-headed Blackbird and when I saw them again , I was immediately impressed by their beauty. Their bold white wing patches were quite striking. I was taking pictures of them from a distance when a man came over to me and sprinkled some bread crumbs on the ground. The birds came closer, in fact, too close for me to get pictures. The air was filled with the strange cries of these birds as well as of those of several Peacocks which have been introduced in the park. I found the blackbirds much more attractive than the Peacocks. Other birds at Tule Springs were Pied-billed Grebes, Ruddy Duck (very attractive in its breeding plumage and bright blue bill), and Bendire's Thrasher.
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