Ursol's Wisdom

Fly your drake through the trees HIGH UP in the quest area. You don't have to click on the pinecones, thank God, but you do have to fly through them. This is possibly the worst quest in DF.

Rustpine Cones can be found on the ground, but you can fly through them with your dragonriding mount. It makes this quest way easier. They show up as bright red spots in the trees in the quest area.

I know I am pretty late to the party, but for those late like me, and by now you probably have your Dragon Isles Pathfinder all done, just mount any non-dragon-riding flier mount. With that, it is much easier with more control and obviously not as fast.

Oh and for me, they looked like black cone silhouettes in the branches versus red dots like someone mentioned earlier.