And the award for best road goes to...

Today's post is jam-packed full of photos from one of my favorite places on the planet. Road P.

The south end of County Road P in Willows, California, to be exact. I've mentioned this backroad gem before and it's because we've found some of the best birding opportunities here where you'd least expect them. Road P (Road 60 is the crossroad) is located near the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge and there have been times we've seen more birds here than at the refuge. This time was no different.

 In fact, we drove up on an egret party of sorts...

There were Great Egrets (about forty of them altogether!), Snowy Egrets, Great Blue Herons and even twenty or so White-faced Ibises, all congregated together in and around the irrigation ditch.

We usually see a few Kestrels on this road and have even seen a Cormorant, Osprey and a Kingfisher who makes his home on this road, but we've never come upon such a large group of egrets before.

 As wonderful as the refuge is, Road P consistently delivers when it comes to birds!

 Tomorrow, I'm sharing the bird we just added as #164 on our Big Year list. And (you guessed it!) we saw it on Road P...

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!

The Kingfisher of Road P

Yesterday I posted pics of the cormorant we saw on County Road P in Willows, CA, on the way to the Sacramento NWR. What I didn't mention was the cool little kingfisher that was just up the road.

Can you spot her in the tree on the left, to the right of the silos?

There she is, right smack dab in the middle of the photo...

I don't know if I've ever seen a bird as charismatic as a kingfisher. She was a delight to watch and luckily there is very little traffic on this country road so that we could stop and get some pics.

As birds always do, she flew off and later we saw her down the road on a telephone wire.

I like knowing that this little road in the middle of all the picturesque scenery is her territory.

I hope to see her again the next time we drive by!

My Future Address?

And here you thought that was all of the photos from County Road P!

I think this might be my favorite road ever, and we often see just as much wildlife here than we do at the Sacramento NWR.

Some people might dream of owning a mansion in Beverly Hills or a villa in Spain, but I would love having a little farm on County Road P in Willows, CA.

Just look at all the birds we spotted on our way to the refuge...

White-crowned Sparrow

Sandhill Cranes

Female Brewer's Blackbird

Great Blue Heron

Red-tailed Hawk

Look at those beautiful clouds in the background! The lighting and weather couldn't have been better for a birding photo shoot!

Black Phoebe

Tomorrow I'll post one last round of pics (for now!) from my favorite road. Kestrel anyone?

Preying on Road P

Herons and Egrets aren't the only birds we see on our favorite country road.

County Road P in Willows, California has also been known to have a hawk or two hanging out on telephone poles, surveying the farmland for its next meal...

These high voltage birds of prey are so fierce!

Tomorrow I'm excited to share an entirely different bird we spotted out in the country...