66 POINT LOBOS RESERVE 



the bob-tailed young ones can usually be seen in May. A characteristic of 

 their nesting sites, which are from 4 to 10 feet from the ground in cavities 

 in stumps of rotted pines, is that practically all of them are closely sur- 

 rounded by thickets of young pines or are screened by low boughs of taller 

 trees. The entrance then, while close to the ground, is hidden from view. 

 The birds contribute to the concealment by making quick silent flights to 

 the nests without any pause at the entrance. By nesting at this low level 

 the chickadees avoid the stratum normally inhabited by the pigmy nut- 

 hatches. These might be fierce competitors of any small bird attempting 

 to nest in the cavities within the vertical zone frequented by it. 



Monterey Pigmy Nuthatch 



Visitors are attracted to birds of this species because of their almost 

 continuous notes, and also because of their large numbers and gregarious 

 habits. As many as a hundred of these small birds will be here in nesting 

 season, though they are present in some numbers throughout the year. 

 The nesting period is a long one, preparation of nests sometimes beginning 

 in February. Nuthatches dig their nesting cavities in pines or the dead 

 remains of pines. The sites selected are high ones, averaging 30 feet above 

 the ground and running as high as 60 feet. While the two species of birds 

 have about the same forage beat and cruising radius, often indeed seem 

 closely associated, the nuthatch seeks (at least in the season of greatest 

 food scarcity) static insect food in crevices of dry cones, twigs, and smaller 

 branches, and it uses its specialized digging tool, the bill, to dislodge or 

 uncover these insects. In other words, the nuthatch has a food source bej'ond 

 the usual reach of the chickadee. And then, too, with suitably rotted boles 

 of trees available, it digs its own nesting cavity. 



Pigmy nuthatches appear always to dig hurriedly and persistently. Blue- 

 birds are the most formidable competitors of this species for nest sites, and 

 in several instances, in which the entrances were of sufficient size, they have 

 temporarily'- or even permanently ousted the smaller birds from the cavity. 



Road Runner 



Road runners are present in sufficient numbers, and their chosen sur- 

 roundings are so close to the routes traversed by visitors, that these birds 

 attract special attention and are an emphatic reminder that Point Lobos 

 shares many characteristics with the arid interior of the Southwest. Road 

 runners are not known to approach the sea so closely north of Monterey 

 County. 



One mannerism of the road runner is to raise its feathers to expose the 

 skin of the back to the sun. While foraging, the bird may flip its wings 

 open widely at intervals of a few seconds, possibly to frighten the grass- 

 hoppers into action so that they may be detected more easily. 



On one occasion, a road runner was discovered in the narrow roadway 

 south of Vierras Knoll. It kept in the road ahead of an automobile which 

 was speeded up to pace the bird. At the rate of exactly 10 miles per hour 

 the bird appeared to be too closely pressed and it suddenly veered off into 

 a patch of lupine bushes on the uphill side of the road. 



Headquarters for each road runner, or pair, seems to be in an area of tall 

 bushes, mainly Ceanothus in this locality. From such centers the birds for- 

 age out among the smaller bushes, or the adjacent grass-covered ground, 

 sometimes as far as a quarter of a mile. When disturbed by a human, either 

 on foot or in an automobile, a road runner out in the open will nearly always 



