San Dieguito River Valley

Song Sparrow

I took another trip out to the San Dieguito River Valley, this time on my mountain bike. I was hoping to cover more ground and explore the large trail system that has been built near the Mule Hill area. I rode out past Raptor Ridge and settled on taking a few pictures there and then headed back, it was a cold,windy and drizzly day and there was not very much wildlife action. There were plenty of clues visible on the trail that wildlife does exist out in this area, lots and lots of large scat, mostly coyote was scattered on the trail. At one point on the trail I smelled something pretty foul and after looking around in the tall grass I saw the source, a deer carcass that was rotting away. I can't say what the cause of death was but it was clear that the carcass had been chewed on, probably by coyotes and mountain lions and maybe some of the raptor birds as well.

Here are a few pictures from this visit and you can see all of my pictures from the San Dieguito River Valley here

Great Egret near the Highland Valley area

Red Tail Hawk soaring above Raptor Ridge

Song Sparrow near the strawberry fields in the Highland Valley area

Deer carcass near Raptor Ridge

You can see the chewing, gnawing of the top spine bones on the deer carcass

Further away from the carcass were the leg bones

In another area away from the carcass were the mouth and jaw bones

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San Dieguito River Valley

Hawk hunting for food

The San Dieguito River Park is an effort to preserve the 346 square mile San Dieguito Watershed which stretches from Del Mar to Julian near the Volcan mountains. It is the 4th largest watershed in San Diego county. Trails are accessible to hikers, mountain bikes and equestrians.

Taking advantage of the daylight savings change I decided to stop at the Escondido trail head near Lake Hodges on the way home from work and see how the trail system is doing. It has been 4-5 years since I was last there, running in the Lake Hodges 50k trail race a few years in a row.

Within a mile of walking on the trails I saw a hawk circling above and around a small mountain area. I stopped to take a few pictures, it was obvious he was hunting for food in the field below. After 20 minutes or so I noticed he was not circling back around to my side on the mountain any longer. I figured he was off hunting somewhere else so I continued further down the trail and around the mountain. Turns out he had caught a rabbit and was in a tree eating his dinner.

After a few pictures of the hawk eating the rabbit (and fighting off the crows) it was time to turn back and head home. On the way back I saw another smaller hawk, a Turkey Vulture, a White-tailed Kite and so many different kinds of other birds I gave up keeping track of them. As the sun started to set I heard coyotes howling up in the foothills.

I spent a lot of time trying to research what types of birds and hawks I saw but was really unsure after looking at so many different variants of hawks that exist, If you know more about hawks and can identify which species they are please leave me a comment..thank you!

Hawk hunting for food

Hawk zeroing in to catch something

Hawk still searching for game in the field

A Turkey Vulture swoops into the field also

Many birds are in the San Dieguito River Valley

This seems to be a smaller hawk, maybe a different species or a juvenile

This hawk looks serious

Interpretive sign that indicates Golden Eagles live in the area

This hawk finally catches a rabbit in the field

Hawk showing off his catch to me as I watch from afar

This rabbit was large

The hawk easily holds the rabbit on the limb while he eats

The hawk knows I am watching, he stares at me every second

Cool moon in the sky

A White-tailed Kite was also hunting the fields for food

Man I'm fast..!

Funky bug on the Fiddleneck plants

These bugs were about the size of a grain of rice

These spiky weeds are growing everywhere right now

Spiky weeds..I think they look cool

Mandatory scat with bones picture

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