They seem to be coming out of the woodwork! This is one of the fledgling White-breasted Nuthatches that have been begging in the trees here in the campground. On both Friday's and today's Bird Walks the group encountered several family-sized flocks of Pygmy Nuthatches swarming through the pines with no shortage of begging little birds. In addition I have been seeing larger groups of Cassin's Finches moving around along with several fledgling Robins recently. And it looks as if the Western Bluebirds nesting near my trailer have also fledged their brood in the last 24 hours since yesterday the adults were still making frequent trips to the nest cavity.

Friday after dinner I made the short drive out to East Creek Meadow in hope of finding the Pronghorn fawns on the sunlit side of the park road and hit the jackpot. I counted a total of 9 of them (plus the adults). This one kept trying to grab a teat whenever the doe stopped to graze but she would just move on right away - guess mother knows best when it is the proper time for nursing. I managed to catch a few others: here's one strolling alone, three hanging out together, and, finally, these two playing around butting heads.

My most recent bird walks have begun in a different location that where I been starting previously and each time the first bird of the day was one of the Say's Phoebes that were quite obviously feeding young in a nest in the rafters on the front porch of a building adjacent to the parking area for Sunrise Point. This morning's group was treated to seeing 3 birds fresh from the nest being fed insects on a regular basis by a pair of very busy adults. We also got to see one of the adults "dive bomb" a Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel each time it ventured near the bush that the fledglings were perched in - and we could clearly hear the phoebe smacking the squirrel. Luckily for me the little one's were still in that same bush when I got off of work - I went back a couple of hours later and they had moved on for the night.