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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