I got up around 7:00 AM, and gave the dogs their breakfast and Gibson his medication. I left a message for Brian that he might have to let Melissa’s dog out to pee if he was leaving for the hospital late in the morning. Then Esteban and I went for a drive/walk at the Yolo Bypass and the West Davis Pond (they’re within minutes of one another).
There was very little traffic on the way to the bypass which kind of surprised me. At the bypass, I saw a lot of the usual suspects along the auto tour route, including the Bittern and the Great Horned Owl. It was overcast, chilly, and breezy outside, and the owl was hunkered down deep in her nest. I’m assuming she’s sitting on hatchlings now, and that they’re still small enough to fit under her. I’m looking forward to seeing how many she has. [There are lots of people posting photos of owls with owlets at the Gray Lodge preserve; I might go there over the weekend to check that out. I need an owlet fix.]


Anyway, toward the end of the drive, I got to see a small flock of White-Faced Ibises. They get their white faces in the breeding season, and I saw three or four of them showing off their breeding plumage. So cool.



[After I got home, I went through my email and there was one from one of my former naturalist students who is a docent at the bypass. He sent a photo of an entire field of downingia in bloom there that I missed. I was actually considering driving that way as I was leaving the bypass but decided not to. Dang it!!]
Then I went over to the West Davis Pond. The “pond”, a drainage culvert, was pretty much completely dry, so there were no waterfowl, beyond noisy Canada Geese, to see. I spotted some Western Bluebirds and Mockingbirds, but little else. In the pollinator garden. I was hoping to see lots of interesting bugs, but it was still pretty chilly outside, so there wasn’t a lot of action. I did get two see some Tiger Swallowtail butterflies and Painted Ladies, though, which is always a treat.


CLICK HERE for the full album of photos.
I also saw Gene Trapp and his wife JoEllen Ryan there. They maintain the gardens along the ditch, and Wednesdays are volunteer days there, so there was a handful of folks pulling weeds and pruning bushes. Gene was exhausted from shoveling and laying down woodchips that morning, so he had me sit at a picnic table with him for a while to catch up.
[The table had been a gift from a Sikh man who walked along the path by the gardens every morning. He would stop to talk with Gene or JoEllen when they were out there, and one day JoEllen said it would be really nice if the volunteer crew had a place to sit and set out their tools…A few days later, the man had the picnic table was delivered to the site. Wow!]
Gene said they’d placed a trail camera out by the ditch to see what wildlife was out there when the water was gone. They got some good images of some opossums (good enough to be able to distinguish between individuals) and families of racoons. One family had several leucistic babies in it, four out of five, and the light-colored ones showed up like “ghosts” on the camera footage. There was also one, Gene said, that was semi-leucistic and had reddish overtones to its like fur. How pretty!
After about an hour, Esteban was getting too cold and his hip was hurting from walking, so I carried him back to the car and we headed home.
Species List:
- American Bittern, Botaurus lentiginosus
- American Coot, Fulica americana
- American Pipit, Anthus rubescens
- American Wigeon, Anas americana
- Bee, European Honeybee, Western Honeybee, Apis mellifera
- Black Phoebe, Sayornis nigricans
- Blessed Milk Thistle, Silybum marianum
- Blow Wives, Achyrachaena mollis
- California Flannelbush, Fremontodendron californicum
- Canada Goose, Branta canadensis
- Cheeseweed Mallow, Malva parviflora
- Cinnamon Teal, Anas cyanoptera
- Concha Ceanothus, Ceanothus concha, Ceanothus impressus + Ceanothus papillosus var. roweanus
- Gadwall Duck, Mareca strepera
- Grasses, Carolina Canarygrass, Phalaris caroliniana
- Grasses, Rabbitfoot Grass, Polypogon monspeliensis
- Great Blue Heron, Ardea herodias
- Great Egret, Ardea alba
- Great Horned Owl, Bubo virginianus
- Greater White-Fronted Goose, Anser albifrons
- Greater Yellowlegs, Tringa melanoleuca
- Great-Tailed Grackle, Quiscalus mexicanus [flyover]
- Green-Winged Teal, Anas carolinensis
- Gumweed, Great Valley Gumweed, Grindelia camporum
- Hollyleaf Redberry, Rhamnus ilicifolia [buckthorn]
- Hoverfly, Margined Calligrapher, Toxomerus marginatus
- Lavender, Spanish Lavender, Lavandula pedunculata
- Mallard Duck, Anas platyrhynchos
- Marsh Wren, Cistothorus palustris
- Mourning Dove, Zenaida macroura
- Northern Shoveler, Anas clypeata
- Nuttall’s Woodpecker, Picoides nuttallii
- Painted Lady Butterfly, Vanessa cardui
- Red-Tailed Hawk, Western Red-Tailed Hawk, Buteo jamaicensis calurus
- Red-Winged Blackbird, Agelaius phoeniceus
- Ring-Necked Pheasant, Phasianus colchicus [heard]
- Rio Grande Wild Turkey, Meleagris gallopavo intermedia
- Sage, Black Sage, Salvia mellifera
- Savannah Sparrow, Passerculus sandwichensis
- Snowy Egret, Egretta thula
- Tule, Common Tule, Schoenoplectus acutus
- Vetch, Hairy Vetch, Vicia villosa
- Western Bluebird, Sialia Mexicana
- Western Meadowlark, Sturnella neglecta
- Western Redbud, Cercis occidentalis
- Western Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly, Papilio rutulus
- White Sweetclover, Melilotus albus
- White-Crowned Sparrow, Zonotrichia leucophrys
- White-Faced Ibis, Plegadis chihi
- Wild Mustard, Sinapis arvensis
- Yarrow, Fern-leaf Yarrow, Achillea filipendulina [yellow]


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