The view west from the observatory, downtown LA peeking through the low clouds

Birds at the Mt. Wilson Observatory

Los Angeles is hard to beat for outdoor variety. My neighborhood has beach and city parks and marsh. Within an hour, I can be in high desert or rugged mountains. one mountain spot I like is the Mt. Wilson Observatory. At an elevation of 5,710, this open-to-the-public complex has various telescopes, a tiny museum, a yummy cafe, and hikes with stunning views of the L.A. basin. The telescopes on site have been used to prove there are galaxies external to the Milky Way galaxy, that the universe is expanding, and that dark matter exists. The grounds are covered in oak and pine trees. And it’s a great place to walk around and see some birds.

Thanks to its elevation, a trip to Mt. Wilson produces birds that I don’t usually get to see along the coast at an elevation of 29 feet. With my family scattered across California one weekend (a kid in Berkeley, a kid in the Central Valley, and a spouse in Palm Springs), I had a Saturday free to wander. I chose to head up to Mt. Wilson in the afternoon, followed by some night-time owl hunting along the Angeles Crest Highway. It didn’t disappoint.

Lewis’s Woodpeckers were flycatching at the rim

I arrived at Mt. Wilson about an hour before sunset. Almost immediately, I spotted some Lewis Woodpecker’s perched atop trees near the parking lot. These uniquely colored woodpeckers–green back, gray collar, pink belly–are fun to watch as they swoop off their perch over the ledge and catch bugs in flight. This time of year, there are thousands of acorns fallen from the oak trees. And that means there were Acorn Woodpeckers all over gathering them up. I also spotted a Red-naped Sapsucker working the trunks of trees for sap and bugs. I also got to see higher-elevation birds like Band-tailed Pigeon, Steller’s Jay, and Mountain Chickadee.

Once the sun set, I headed up the Angeles Crest Highway into the San Gabriel Mountains to see if I might find an owl or two. If you’re lucky, you can find Great Horned Owls, Western Screech Owls, Northern Pygmy Owls, Flammulated Owls, Northern Saw-Whet Owls, and a rare Spotted Owl in these mountains. Two of those–the Saw-Whet and the Spotted–would be lifers. The California subspecies of Spotted Owl was proposed for listing as endangered in 2023. Because of their threatened status, eBird reports are masked. But I think one was heard in Red Box Canyon near Mount Wilson in 2024. Northern Saw-Whet Owls, by contrast, are more numerous but nevertheless elusive. They’re also incredibly cute. 

The 100-inch Hooker Telescope at Mt. Wilson, used by Edwin Hubble to discover we’re just one of millions of galaxies in the universe

I stopped along the two-lane highway every few miles, whenever there was good pine tree cover around. I’d get out, sit and listen for a few minutes, and then (after inevitably not hearing an owl) play a recording of a Saw-Whet. They don’t apparently start hooting and calling spontaneously until January. I was hoping I could get a response call if one was nearby. At one spot on the drive up, I did get one quick response from what really sounded like a Saw-Whet’s whine call. But it never called again, and I didn’t get a recording. One the way down, just before I got too low in elevation, I got another response call. This time it went on for about a minute. In the recording, the owl first calls at about 16 seconds in, and does so every 15 seconds or so until the end.

It never came closer, and I never saw the bird. But it still counts as a lifer. All in all, a nice ridiculously close and easy trip up into the mountains.