Fr. Charlie and I went to Mt. Ord on August 6, 2019. We got to Forest Road (FR) 1688 at about 8 am (after a 1 hour drive). The weather was overcast, with some sprinkles. There were reports on ebird.org of quite a few birds on Mt. Ord, but we didn’t see many. I only got photos of a couple of common birds. We had an expert bird guide once at Boyce Thompson who told us that the birds aren’t as active in overcast conditions. I was skeptical about that, but it was true that day, because when the sun came out, so did the birds. Could it be why we didn’t see many birds on this trip?
We hiked south on FR 1688 (elevation approx. 5500 ft) around a half circle loop for about 0.5 miles to where the camping area is. We then cut straight north through the camping area, and back to the road, for a nice little loop trail.
Next, we drove higher up to where the gate blocks the road to the top (elevation approximately 7200 ft). We hiked a short way up the road to the Roosevelt Lake viewpoint. There was a field of New Mexico Thistles in bloom that attracted a lot of insects, including Pipevine Swallowtail butterflies, Sonoran Bumblebees, and White-line Sphinx moths.
The weather was great! The high temperature was in the low to mid 70s. We left at around 2:00 and arrived home at about 3:00. Mt. Ord is always a fun trip, even if the birding isn’t great.
