The American River

White Water Rafting

August 13, 2015

I went white water rafting with folks from work yesterday.  It was a lot of fun.  We dropped in just below the bridge over the South Fork of the American River near Lotus, CA and drifted a dozen miles or so down to Folsom Lake.  Well, we drifted down to where Folsom Lake is located in non-drought years.  There's no lake there this year, it's still a river at that altitude.

South Fork American River, CA

Our guide freely admitted to taking great pleasure in getting us all as wet as possible.  He made a point of having us hit every big rapid sideways.  I'm pretty sure he and the other guides take bets on who can knock the most people out of the boat.  We only lost one brave soul, although I came pretty close on at least one occasion.  

South Fork American River, CA

Our Crazy Half -- South Fork American River, CA

I had a lot of fun.  It reminded me a lot of floating down the Willamette with my family when I was a kid.  Well, the quiet parts, anyway.  We even hopped out of the boat and swam around.

Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area, CA

Mallard

Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area was directly on the way home, so I stopped off for a tour.  I wasn't expecting to see a whole lot of wildlife given it's August.  I was hoping for a coyote or otter sighting.  No such luck.  I'm not sure they even have otter there.  I saw a few white-faced Ibis and a score of great egrets and a few ducks, that was about it.  Still, it felt good to get back in a familiar environment.  Rafting was fun, but to be honest I enjoyed the quieter parts of the river more than the rapids.

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

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

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

Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge

All Your Ducks Are Belong to Us

November 3, 2013

Soundtrack:

• The National -- Trouble Will Find Me

My original intent for this trip was to see the sandhill cranes in the Central Valley.  I altered that a bit when I decided to take Pongo along.  We'd need a place where we could hike, and the reserve I was looking at for the sandhill cranes only has an auto tour.  Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge has a nice trail to walk and they're dog-friendly, and Yolo Wildlife Bypass Area is right on the way if we take Interstate 80 all the way to Sacramento.  It would be a day for seeing birds.

What do you mean it's not a "real" duck?

Yolo Wildlife Bypass Area is between Davis and Sacramento.  Interstate 80 drives right through it.  If you're driving through there at the right time of year you will see thousands of birds from the interstate.  Obviously, getting down into the wildlife area will get you a lot closer to the action.  Dogs are allowed to walk around on the North side of the freeway.  Unfortunately, most of that area was closed off.  There was a road that was open to foot traffic and it allowed us to get to the train tracks where we found another road that we followed for a while.

American Kestrel -- Yolo Wildlife Bypass Area, CA

We didn't see too many birds on that walk.  We saw a kestrel eating something on top of some abandoned farm machinery and a couple of hooded mergansers in a creek.  That was pretty much it, though.

Great Egrets -- Yolo Wildlife Bypass Area, CA

The driving tour through the wildlife area proved to be a little more fruitful.  I've generally encountered lone greater egrets, but here they were grouped together in a small flock.  They're just simple white birds, but they sure are elegant.  We also saw a few northern harriers hunting in the fields.  This would turn out to be a big day for seeing harriers.  I saw well over a dozen of these birds between the two wildlife areas.

Yolo Wildlife Bypass Area, CA

I was a little disappointed with the number of birds we saw at Yolo.  I was expecting flocks of ducks and geese.  We saw a few ducks and a bunch of coots.  I'm not sure if we were too early in the year or if birds weren't around because it was mid-day.  I'll definitely have to try it deeper into winter.

Tundra Swans -- Golden State Highway, CA

I took a little detour on Route 99 North of Sacramento.  Well, frankly I was just going the wrong way.  I'd looked at a map to the Sacramento refuge online and it showed it right off of 99.  Turns out there's two 99s.  The one I wanted parallels I-5, it's called 99W.  D'oh!  It worked out pretty well, though.  As I was driving up 99 I saw a flock of large white birds in a flooded field.  I thought maybe they were the sandhill cranes I'd hoped to see, but when I got close I saw they were swans.  Cool, right?  These were some big birds.

Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, CA

Northern Harrier

There's a two and a half mile loop trail at Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge.  It's a nice little hike with a lot of little burrows trail side that Pongo could explore.  We watched the harriers hunt over the field and saw a couple of small flocks of birds off in the distance, but honestly the trail had less to offer in terms of wildlife than what we'd seen at Yolo Bypass.  I was a little disappointed and even considered skipping the driving tour.  That would have been a big mistake.

A few birds scattered about -- Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, CA

I have never seen as many birds in one place as I saw on that driving tour.  I've heard stories about how the sky would turn black in the Central Valley from all of the birds overhead and I can only imagine what it must have been like before all of the water was diverted to farms.  It's a lot easier to imagine now after seeing these big flocks of wintering waterfowl on the refuge.

Snow Geese -- Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, CA

Pongo loved this drive.  He'd sit in the passenger seat and watch the birds through the window.  His ears would perk up whenever we got to a particularly loud section and he'd hop to the back of the car whenever we passed something he thought was interesting.  The highlight for him, though, was clearly the raccoon we saw on the side of the road.  Pongo wanted at that raccoon.  He barked and jumped up onto the dashboard to try to get around me and out my open window.  There's an ancient hatred between dogs and raccoons, the carnage would not have been pretty if he'd made it out the window.

Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, CA

Northern Pintails

California must have been an amazing place a hundred and fifty years ago.  Of course, back then I'd have had to have been concerned about grizzly bears.  These wetlands were their habitat.  We think of grizzlies as being mountain animals because that's the only place you'll find them in the lower forty-eight today.  That wasn't the case in California, and that's why we'll probably never see the state's official animal returned to the state.  Grizzlies lived where people live today.

Snow Geese, Ross's Geese & Various Ducks -- Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, CA

It started out slowly and there was a wrong turn or two in there, but the trip Pongo and I took into the Central Valley turned out to be a pretty good one.

Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, CA