Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area

March 22, 2015

Soundtrack:

• Elliot Smith -- From a Basement on a Hill

Pongo and I got a late start on Sunday, so we stayed fairly close to home.  We went to the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area, which I always enjoy visiting even though I've never had an outstanding wildlife viewing experience there.  It's normally been a low-key two or three hours hanging out and taking the auto tour to see the ducks and blackbirds.  Yesterday was no different.

Great Egret -- Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area, CA

One thing I can say is that there always seem to be a lot of great egrets there.  I'm not sure why that is, but I tend to get my best great egret photos from this place.

Great-tailed Gackle -- Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area, CA

We saw this gackle alone in a tree singing his heart out.  Such strange sounds come out of this bird's mouth.

Red-tailed Hawk -- Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area, CA

Western Meadowlark -- Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area, CA

The strangest sight was these two cormorants sitting on a power pole like hawks.  I've never seen such a thing.  Crazy birds.

Double-crested Cormorant -- Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area, CA

Bixby Bridge

You Can't See a Dream

January 18, 2015

I was thinking of doing a series on Pacific Coast bridges in my other blog and realized I don't have any photos of Bixby Bridge in my collection, so I decided I needed to fix that before proceeding with that series.  I set out to rectify that yesterday.

Great Egret & Brandt's Cormorant -- Pacific Grove, CA

Great Egret

I got off to a late start, arriving in Pacific Grove around 3:00 in the afternoon.  I'd have time to drive along the bay and hit the butterfly sanctuary before heading down to Bixby Bridge, which is about fifteen miles South of Carmel.  Fog was kind of settling in over the town as I arrived.  It wasn't enough to make the pictures particularly moody, unfortunately.

 Pacific Grove, CA

The butterfly sanctuary turned out to be a bummer for a couple of reasons.  First, there weren't many many butterflies there.  Monsanto has been a pretty good job of killing them off with its Round Up weed killer.  Monarchs are fussy little things that feed almost exclusively on milkweed, which Round Up is very effectively killing off across the country.  As of last year, the butterfly numbers were down ninety percent from twenty years ago.  This year's count is 16,300, which I think is up from last year but still very far below the six figure counts of the past.

Monarchs -- Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary, Pacific Grove, CA

The second bummer was that I broke my 250mm lens.  Well, it still kind of works.  My tripod fell over while I was setting up for a shot earlier in the day and discovered in the grove that the auto focus no longer works on that lens.  It's the cheaper of my two lenses so if one was going to break I'm glad it was that one.  There's some comfort there, I guess.  I could have done without that, though.

 Black-tailed Deer -- Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary, Pacific Grove, CA

After visiting the butterfly grove, I headed down to Bixby Bridge.

Big Sur, CA

How many bridges have songs written about them?  More than I'm aware of, I suspect.  Death Cab for Cutie's "Bixby Canyon Bridge" is one of my favorites of theirs.  It tells something of a story, the writer's disappointment with not finding the soul of Jack Kerouac beneath the bridge.  Sometimes we build things up and can't help but be disappointed when we encounter the reality of these things.

Bixby Bridge, Big Sur, CA

Bixby Bridge, Big Sur, CA

Rainbow Beach, Big Sur, CA

Alameda / Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline

The Birds Have Returned

Well, it looks like summer is officially over.  The estuary is once again brimming with birds.  A large flock of scaups has taken up residence off shore.  There are hundreds of them out there.  The hawks and owls are back.  The shore birds are slowly increasing in number.  I've been making semi-regular visits on my way to and from work to track the progress.

Red-tailed Hawk -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, Oakland, CA

I'm pretty sure the red-tailed hawk I saw was the same one that was here last year.  It's not the prettiest bird by any stretch.

Burrowing Owl -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, Oakland, CA

Cooper's Hawk

I've seen a burrowing owl on several occasions over the last couple of weeks on different mounds.  Usually I see him/her on #2, but this morning it was on #3.  I took a few pictures before it disappeared quickly into its den.  I thought I had startled it, but then a young cooper's hawk buzzed the den within a couple of seconds of the owl's disappearance.  I guess you've got to be careful when you're only as big as a large potato.

The hawk settled down on a tree nearby.  I couldn't get a good picture before it flew off, though.  It kind of bums me out that a cooper's hawk would try to eat one of these little owls.  We've all got to make our way in life, I guess.

Burrowing Owl -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, Oakland, CA

Great & Snowy Egrets -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, Oakland, CA

Egrets are year round residents.  Brown and white pelicans aren't always present, but I'm not sure what their timetable is.  Just passing through?  They're fun to watch.

Brown Pelican -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, Oakland, CA

California Towhee -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, Oakland, CA

Brown Pelican -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, Oakland, CA

Brown Pelican -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, Oakland, CA

Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area

April 20, 2014

Pongo and I spent a low-key day today at the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area near Davis.  I didn't want to spend too long away from home, it being Easter and all, but a weekend seems wasted if I don't make at least a short trip somewhere.  It's also getting harder to leave Pongo behind considering how much he enjoys these trips.  So, I kept the drive under two hours and made sure the adventure contained enough wildlife to keep Pongo entertained.

Western Meadowlark -- Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area, CA

When I take Pongo to Yolo, the first thing we do is walk under the interstate to the big field where he can walk around.  I still don't trust Pongo off leash, but he showed today that he may be ready for it in a year or two.  We'll see.  Yosh got him a twenty-five foot leash, which we used today for the first time.  He did really well on it.  Not much tugging at all, and he keeps an eye on me and waits if I stop just as well on that leash as he does on the regular six footer.  There's hope for this rescue dog.

Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area, CA

I'll grant you, the picture above isn't the most exciting picture ever taken.  It's green, though.  Really green.  That's the way the wildlife area looks right now, at least the parts that aren't currently underwater or were recently underwater.  There were a lot of yellows, too.  I love this time of year.  The wild flowers are everywhere.  They won't last long, but while they do they're magnificent.

White-faced Ibis -- Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area, CA

I hate to break up the color scheme, but these Ibises were the coolest birds Pongo and I saw today.  Well, aside the the lone harrier, but he was at least a hundred yards away before flying off.  What's the plural of Ibis?  Ibises?  Ibii?  Ibis?  Dunno.

Marsh Wren -- Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area, CA

At one point I stopped to take pictures and we found ourselves in the middle of a heated sing-off.  On one side of the road was the marsh wren pictured above.  On the other side of the road was a song sparrow (below).  It reminded me of Sundays in Harajuku.  There's a street that they block off and bands line both sides of the street all playing to their hearts' content at the same time.  It sounds like a jumbo jet from a distance.  These two birds weren't nearly that loud, but it seemed like they were trying to prove something to one another.

Song Sparrow -- Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area, CA

Most of the migrating birds have left for the summer, but there are still a few ducks hanging around.

Gadwall -- Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area, CA

Mourning Dove -- Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area, CA

Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge & Silver Lake

Day Three

February 23, 2014

Soundtrack:

• The National -- High Violet
• Bob Dylan -- The Rolling Thunder Revue

Sunday.  My parents attend church regularly.  I avoid church regularly.  I was on my own for the day.  So, I planned to head up to Rainier.  It's about three hours away from my parents' house.  That's a reasonable day trip distance for me.  I've never been there.  It should be fun.

Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, WA

I didn't make it to Rainier.  I got distracted.

Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, WA

Pied-billed Grebe

When I saw the sign along I-5 for Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, I immediately changed my plans.  Well, not quite immediately.  I thought I might have time to do both, but if not I would fall back to plan B, which was to see how close I could get to Mt. St. Helens from the North (suspecting that the Johnston Ridge Observatory would be closed for the season).  One of the great things about travelling alone is that plans can be just rough sketches that are tossed out on a whim if something interesting comes along.

Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, WA

Nutria

I began with the Ridgefield auto tour.  I saw three bald eagles on the drive.  They sure have made a comeback.  I grew up in Salem and spent plenty of time going up and down the stretch of I-5 between Seattle and Salem.  I never saw a bald eagle when I was a kid.  Now they're downright common in Washington, and almost as common in Oregon.  If you need proof that taking environmental action can have a positive impact, look no farther than our national symbol.  Nice to see the bald eagle isn't going the way of California's official animal the grizzly bear, which can no longer be found in the state.  There is hope for the future.

Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, WA

I enjoyed the auto tour.  There wasn't a huge number of birds and animals to see, but there was enough to keep it fun.  It's a beautiful area.  I'm going to have to visit in the summer.  I suppose there won't be a lot of birds, but I'd like to see how this place changes through the seasons.

Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, WA

There's a nice walking tour at Ridgefield as well.  It winds through both forest and wetlands.  I didn't see a whole lot of animals, but it was the middle of the day so that wasn't too surprising.  There was a beaver lodge in one of the large ponds.  Beaver have made a big comeback, too, at least around Salem.  That's another animal I never saw as a kid.  We spent a lot of our summer days on the Willamette River, too.  I went canoeing with my brother a few years ago and they were all over on the river.

Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, WA

After wrapping up the walking tour, there was no chance of making it to Rainier with any amount of light.  So, I headed toward Mt. St. Helens.

Silver Lake, WA

There's a visitor's center at Silver Lake.  It has a nice one mile trail that makes for an easy, peaceful hike.  Don't bother paying admission to see the visitor's center's exhibits, it's a half-assed experience.

Hoffstadt Bluffs, WA

I continued up 504 toward St. Helens until I got to the forest learning center.  It was raining and I was entering the snow zone and it was starting to get dark, so I decided to turn around and head back.  For the second visit in a row for me, I'd made a trip to Mt. St. Helens without getting a single photo of the mountain.  At some point in the early afternoon the clouds had come in and completely obscured the damned thing.  I'm sure I'll get another crack at it someday.

Hoffstadt Creek, WA