Date: 2/14/25 8:12 pm From: Steve Schubert via groups.io <s_schub1...> Subject: [slocobirding] poorwills @ Islay Creek Rd.
Hello all,
This evening, 2-14-2025, I went on a 1 hr. mtn. bike ride along Islay Creek Rd., Montana De Oro State Park, at sunset and the darkening skies of dusk. Along the 3 miles stretch of the dirt road up canyon and the bordering slopes along this riparian corridor (from Pecho Rd. inland to beyond the old barn and the locked ranch gate across the dirt road) there were 3 pairs of hooting Great-horned owls, numerous Wrentits and several California thrashers singing until about 20 minutes past the sunset until faint twilight, and 2 Common poorwills flushed from the road. One poorwill silhouette flew close overhead vocalizing with soft call notes and relanded on the road behind me as I rode by. The poorwills were along protected stretches of the road inland with no breeze or windchill compared to the brisk, strong onshore winds along the immediate coast.
At dusk, along the ecliptic were planet Venus in the SW above the faint glow of sunset, Jupiter directly overhead, and Mars high in the east among clear, starry skies following the prior day overcast skies, gale-forced winds and heavy rainfall.
