Date: 9/29/26 10:43 pm From: David Trissel via groups.io <dtrissel...> Subject: [SanDiegoRegionBirding] Good Day in the Lagunas (Evening Grosbeak, Zone-tailed, Townsend's Solitaire, Crossbill, Clark's, Pinyon, Cassin's Finch)
Geoff Veith and I spent five hours in the Lagunas today, hiking in from the 19-mile pullout at 8:00am and spending most of the time at the "Water of the Woods" location, which is also called Los Rosales Lake on the map. It was VERY birdy.
Although the continuing CLARK'S NUTCRACKERS are now ubiquitous out there, it was still fun seeing them throughout the day. But, the PINYON JAYS are few and far between, and we only heard two the entire morning. If you are hoping for Pinyon Jays, you may want to adjust your expectations (or try farther north at the top of the Big Laguna meadow).
A continuing ZONE-TAILED HAWK made an appearance and was harassed by ravens. Note there are several Red-tailed Hawks in the area and one is a nice dark-morph that can be confused for the Zone-tailed.
At least one TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE was around, with one in the pines right above the "berry bush" at the lake where the grosbeaks have been seen very sporadically over the last week. Another was spotted by others farther east near the south end of Big Laguna Lake.
We had a flock of RED CROSSBILLS fly directly over us at the "berry bush", calling away. I was able to ID two males and a female. There may be a larger flock up there.
There are plenty of CASSIN'S FINCHES in that same area. We were able to get good views of both males and females. Lots of Lawrence's Goldfinches as well, along with our FOS American Pipits in the mud on the edge of the lake. There is a Fox Sparrow along the edge of the lake there as well.
Last, but not least ... At noon we had given up all hope of seeing the EVENING GROSBEAKS that we had heard a couple of times earlier in the day, high up in the pines at the lake edge. Just as we were starting back towards the trailhead, we spotted a female grosbeak in a small pine at eye level. This pine hangs over the edge of the lake, and there were additional grosbeaks, including a couple males, down on the ground at the edge of the lake. We then noticed that the grosbeak in the pine was accompanied by a few more grosbeaks. In total, we think we had at least 10 EVENING GROSBEAKS in a single flock. I would not be surprised if there were 12 or more. They moved together, first to the ground, then back up into the small pine, and then all went high up in a large pine on the west side of the trail. In our haste to get the alerts out, and still hearing them calling to each other, we looked away for a moment, and they moved out of sight. We think they continued west, perhaps down the slope and roughly towards the "berry bush" area.
For those hoping to chase, the coordinates for the small pine are:
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