These birds are aptly named, as they harvest acorns and store them in ”granaries” for use during the seasons when oak trees are not producing. Listen for a variety of calls, including “wacka-wacka-wacka (etc.)” and the name of our former president, “Barack!” You can find them in the forest nearest the highway, e.g., from the South Plateau Trail, which has oak trees mixed in with the pines. This isn’t the most common woodpecker at Point Lobos, but its characteristic clown-like face and harsh vocal sounds make it the most easily identifiable. The Point Lobos docents, supported by the Foundation, have produced a brochure titled A Guide to the Birds of Point Lobos, which can be printed from this website or obtained from the Information Station. The innate drive to migrate in some birds makes them world travelers, and either brings them to Point Lobos briefly in their travels or for longer periods to find food and/or a place to raise their young. And birds have characteristics that set them apart from any other animal, including their feathers and hollow bones that enable them to fly, and two organs, the crop and the gizzard, that enable them to take on food quickly and grind up hard seeds to make them palatable. One of the long-range travelers, the Arctic Tern, journeys from the Arctic to the Antarctic and back each year, and, in the process, probably spends eight months of that year in constant daylight. Because they possess a wide range of physical capabilities, with most sharing the gift of flight, birds are able to inhabit almost every corner of the earth. We are fascinated by their brilliant colors, their ability to fly, their great diversity (over 9000 species worldwide), and their antics. Many of them nest at Point Lobos but tend to be more secretive about it than the shorebirds.īirds have fascinated people for millennia. However, a hiker might encounter any one of several kinds of harmless snakes, including the garter snake.įor want of a better term, we are calling the birds that make a living further inland than shorebirds “land birds” because they spend little or no time away from land. No poisonous snakes have yet been identified at Point Lobos. A visitor can commonly see an alligator lizard, western fence lizard, or western skink sunning itself on a rock or scurrying around in the underbrush. But visitors may see droppings (called scat) or footprints along trails anytime, a reminder that animals have recently walked that trail too. These include raccoons, skunks and dusky-footed wood rats. However, many animals that live in the Reserve only become active at late in the evening, at night, or in the early morning, when the Reserve is closed. Predators that eat small mammals and birds – such as bobcats and gray foxes – can occasionally be seen in the Reserve. Ground squirrels are probably the most visible, as their favorite places to burrow are in the soil along near the shore and among the coastal scrub plants. These include ground and gray squirrels, pocket gophers, black-tailed mule deer and brush rabbits. Visitors will have the greatest opportunity to see those that are active during the day. Over 20 species of land mammals live at Point Lobos, and several other species – such as coyotes and mountain lions – occasionally enter the Reserve from surrounding areas.
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