Lake Chabot

The other day I had to get blood drawn for a rabies titer – essentially I need to prove to the state every two years that I still have enough of the pre-exposure rabies vaccine in my system to keep me immune – and I was convinced I’d be waiting at the lab for hours, despite having an appointment. The lab happens to be about two miles from Lake Chabot, so I stashed my backpack and camera in the car in hopes I’d have time for a short hike afterwards. To my surprise and delight, I was in and out of the lab in about 3 minutes, but although it’s not one of my number-one spots, I still decided to go to Chabot instead of someplace further away. The reason I’m not in love with Chabot is because I don’t see much wildlife there, although there IS a pair of bald eagles that nest there that I need to find at some point. And actually I saw on ebird that a bald eagle had been seen from a certain trail near the lake recently, so I had mapped a route of a few miles that would take me on that trail. It actually ended up being not great. I never expected to get lost in this park, especially so close to the recreational area, but I didn’t find the bald eagle-sighting trail. Instead, I ended up on a trail so steep and slippery from dry dirt and leaves that I had to climb (instead of walk) down in parts, which I was not expecting and not super happy about. Needless to say I saw zero eagles. On the other hand, the weather was simply stunning.

I didn’t see much wildlife, as usual, but I came across this bird sitting on the ground very near the trail, preening and seemingly totally unconcerned that I was just feet away from him. When I got home and IDed him, he turned out to be a black saddle homing pigeon, so I guess he belongs or belonged to someone and that’s why he wasn’t afraid of me.