gnarly this morning

Woke up early on a quest for the Dusky Flycatcher. It, like 2 others that live in the park, belongs to the genus Empidonax, a notoriously difficult bunch of birds to identify. One's best shot lies with hearing the song, and from my experience they stop singing by 7 am. So up I was, wandering around the open, brushy chaparral habitat above the Rostrum. And I found it! The Dusky Flycatcher! Alas, it was skittish enough to keep a good 50 feet between me and it. Thankfully, the Manzanita bush had no problems with me getting all up in its face with the camera.