Happy Halloween!

There's a tree towards the end of the auto tour at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge that looks sort of Halloweenish to me. Whenever we drive up on it, I snap a photo because there's always a bird or two sitting on the branches.

This time there were two Ravens...

The one on the right, a female, was making a neat sound, possibly serenading the male next to her...

Here's wishing you a safe and happy Halloween!

Gray Lodge Wildlife Area Viewing Platform

As promised, here are the photos we took from the Gray Lodge Wildlife Area viewing platform...

The scenery is absolutely gorgeous and even if there weren't any birds here, I'd probably still come here to visit!

It doesn't take much to rile up the geese...

This mockingbird sang a song much different from the one we have at home...
He must hear different birds in his territory to mimic.

Female Brewer's Blackbird

I don't know much about dragonflies, but there were thousands of them flying around as we walked down the trail. This one looks like he's been painted with the same color as a Ruddy Duck's bill! (Read the post where I compared a Ruddy Duck's bill to my favorite nail polish here.)

 And these ones (which are probably doing something x-rated 😳) are red...

After Halloween, I'll do a post about which bird is my least favorite...

Gray Lodge Wildlife Area

We sure saw a wide variety of birds during our visit to the Gray Lodge Wildlife Area!

Lots of White-fronted Geese have already flown in and there are plenty of wigeons and pintails, too...

We walked to the viewing platform and saw a Great Egret high up in a tree...

...and a Great Blue Heron looking out over the territory...

And here's a cute little Black Phoebe perched on one of the trail signs...

Tomorrow I'll post photos from the viewing platform!

Juanita Lake

Because the heavy fog at Lower Klamath and Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuges put a slight damper on our birding trip, we did some exploring around the area so that our three hour drive wasn't for nothing.

Luckily, Juanita Lake is only a few miles off the main road and, boy, is it a beautiful gem! There is a campground and a paved trail around the entire lake, too. The elevation there is high enough to where there wasn't even a whisper of fog.

There were even a few trees showing their fall colors around the lake...

We heard a few nuthatches doing their yank-yank call up in the pine trees and this robin was kind enough to pose for us...

Next time, when we have the entire day to explore, we'll take that walk around the lake!

Foggy Birding :(

You can't win 'em all!

We made the 3-hour drive up to the Lower Klamath and Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuges and couldn't believe our eyes when the entire area was covered in...you guessed it--FOG. Thick, soupy, claustrophobic fog.

The weather forecast didn't mention a thing about fog, but hey, what can you do when Mother Nature does her thing? We stuck around for a couple of hours, waiting to see if it might burn off, but no such luck. We've never had a birding trip turn out to be a complete loss before! Thank goodness this Great Blue Heron was hanging out at the entrance of the Tule Lake NWR auto tour or else I wouldn't have any bird pics to post!

This was the view from the blind on the Discovery Marsh Trail, across the street from the visitor center...

Determined to remain positive despite the disappointing weather conditions, we drove out to nearby Juanita Lake and were thrilled to find that the fog had spared the lake completely. I'll be posting those crystal clear photos in tomorrow's post...

Drive-thru Birding

Ring-necked Pheasant

Here are the highlights from our latest drive through the auto tour at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge...

Snowy Egret

  

Great Blue Heron

Western Meadowlark

Great Egret

Happy Birding!

Colusa County Birding

As I've mentioned before, the back roads between Llano Seco and the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge offer some of the best birding in our area. County Road P and Road 61 are a couple of our favorites. Here's a map to help show you what I'm talking about.

Anywho, we spotted a rookery of Snowy Egrets on Road Z...

 This female Belted Kingfisher had a nice little fishing spot on Road 61...

And this Common Gallinule and Pied-billed Grebes were swimming in the irrigation canal below her...

Here are some Great Egrets on the south end of Road P...

 ...along with a male Belted Kingfisher on the same road...

 On the north end of Road P, we came upon a Great Blue Heron...

...plus, tons of Greater White-fronted Geese and a group of White-faced Ibises...

This just goes to show that you don't always have to go to a wildlife refuge to see birds. They are all around us and sometimes you just have to be willing to go off the beaten path to find them.

Birding is an adventure that continues to amaze and surprise me!