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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hamhed" data-source="post: 3666515" data-attributes="member: 70825">Day 7Not in our original plans, eBird reports of Lewis’s Woodpeckers and Pinyon Jays in the San Jacinto mountains had us driving there on this chilly morning.  At 4400 feet (1341M), Lake Hemet greeted us with 24º temps (-4C) but clear skies and a nearly immediate sighting of a Lewis’s Woodpecker.  Before we could park and leave the car, I stopped a man driving slowly past us and made an instant connection with Duncan, whose last name we never knew.  He is a wildlife biologist, keen on local birds and knew the birder who had been reporting the woodpeckers.  When he found out we were also hoping for the elusive and unlikely Lawrence’s Goldfinch, he had us follow him to a friend’s house where we saw them almost as we exited our car.  In the yard were a pair of Lewis’s Woodpeckers, Acorn Woodpeckers and our first Purple Finches of the trip.  Lesser Goldfinches and Western Bluebirds crowded the water dish that also attracted White-crowned Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos.  No seed required; these birds were after water.We returned to explore Lake Hemet Road.  The lake itself held only Coots but more Lewis’s were sighted.  Mountain Chickadee, Hairy Woodpecker, Fox Sparrow and Pine Siskin were added to the trip list.  Two Red-tailed Hawks and an American Kestrel were noted but the prize find was a small spring behind a utility shed.  Like the water dish we’d just watched, this spring drew a constant stream of various birds.  We left around midday, driving back east, looking for and finding the Ramona trailhead, an eBird hotspot.  A large flock of Pinyon Jays were in the pines around the gravel parking area but moved quickly away as we exited the car.  I caught one brief glimpse of a White-headed Woodpecker moving with them.  A few miles further, the next stop was a brief walk on the breezy, chilly and birdless Pacific Crest Trail, which crossed the highway.  We drove on, losing about 4000 feet in elevation to the Coachella Valley, ending up at the Coachella Valley Preserve, home to a stand of the stately CA fan palm.  Situated nearly directly over the central section of the San Andreas Fault, as was much of the Coachella Valley, our visit was fortunately not interrupted by the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate having a squabble.  After the pines and chill of the mountains, the landscape of tall, shaggy palms surrounded by desert tumbleweeds was a bit surreal.  We enjoyed our warm, afternoon ramble before a short drive to Indio where we stayed the night at yet another Airbnb location.Bird lists here:<a href="http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41224343" target="_blank">http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41224343</a><a href="http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41224351" target="_blank">http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41224351</a><a href="http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41224359" target="_blank">http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41224359</a></blockquote>

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