I got up around 6:30 this morning and headed out to the Cosumnes River Preserve for a walk. It was 38º when I got there, and I was glad I’d brought my heavier coat with me.
There were far less birds there today than there were when my friend Roxanne and I were last there on the 15th, so birdwatching was exceedingly disappointing. I saw two photographers and a small group of birders out along the boardwalk, but none of them were having any luck. The crisp fresh air was nice, but from a nature walk standpoint it was pretty much a bust… But then I saw the North American River Otter, Lontra canadensis.
I took the trail that went from the boardwalk to Franklin Blvd., and then walked along the side of the road where there’s a slough that runs alongside it. I saw the otter on the opposite side of the slough, preening. I moved as quietly as I could and got photos of through the scrubby trees that stand between the road and the water.
I saw the otter preening, swimming, and digging in the mud to roust out some catfish. He caught one of them, ate it and then swam right up in front of me to check me out before heading off on the rest of his morning jaunt. The closest he got was about 8 feet, so I was able to get a good shot of his face floating on the surface of the water, and also got quite a few videos of him.
When I got home, I made sure to get him recorded in the “Otter Spotter” database with the River Otter Ecology Project .
When I was driving home, I saw quite a few hawks in the trees and along the fence lines, a pair of American Kestrels and a Prairie Falcon. But the standout was a gorgeous juvenile Golden Eagle sitting on the top of a short tree right at the freeway access point. I couldn’t get photos because there were cars behind me all the way. Dang it!
Species List:
American Coot, Fulica americana
American Kestrel, Falco sparverius
American Pipit, Anthus rubescens
Brewer’s Blackbird, Euphagus
cyanocephalus
Canada Goose, Branta canadensis
Golden Eagle, Aquila chrysaetos
Greater White-Fronted Goose, Anser albifrons
Greater Yellowlegs, Tringa melanoleuca
House Finch, Haemorhous mexicanus
Marsh
Wren, Cistothorus palustris
Northern
Harrier, Marsh Hawk, Circus hudsonius
Northern
Pintail, Anas acuta
Northern
Shoveler, Anas clypeata
Pied-Billed
Grebe, Podilymbus podiceps
Prairie
Falcon, Falco mexicanus
Red-Winged
Blackbird, Agelaius phoeniceus
River
Otter, North American River Otter, Lontra canadensis
My friend and fellow Certified California Naturalist, Roxanne, picked me up around 6:30 and we went over to the Fox and Goose Pub for breakfast. It’s an old-style English pub that serves a “full English breakfast” and just about anything else you want. It’s in an area off of 10th and R downtown where the warehouses are all being refurbished and has turned into a real artsy-fartsy area with live theaters, restaurants and art galleries. I didn’t even know it was there. She always finds the neatest places.
Me at the Fox and Goose Pub
Because it was so early in the morning, we were able to park right next to the front door. (No other traffic around.) All of the food was very good, and the service was excellent. Next time I go there I’ll try the full English breakfast even though it sounded like a LOT of food to me: two eggs, grilled banger, bacon, grilled tomato and mushrooms and authentic Heinz baked beans, served with your choice of toast. [Every time I hear the phrase “full English breakfast” I think of Simon Pegg in “Run Fat Boy Run” in which, while he’s trying to deal with his stress he has “a full English breakfast with extra breakfast”. Hah!]
After breakfast, I wanted my photo taken with the bronze fox and goose sculptures outside the building, so Roxanne obliged me. Then we headed over toWilliam Land Park to walk the ground there until the zoo opened at 9:00 am. We walked around the pond there and cut through the WPA Rock Garden. We saw a variety of ducks and some Cackling Geese and watched a Belted Kingfisher zip back and forth from one tree to another around the pond. (It moved too fast more me to get any pictures of it.) We also spotted a small flock of Dark-Eyed Juncos near the open amphitheater stage and some of the ubiquitous Black Phoebes.
There were gingko trees in the garden that were shedding their lovely yellow leaves – and their incredibly stinky fruit. I told Roxanne that the fruit smelled exactly like vomit, and, of course, she had to sniff one to make sure. Hah! I wish I had taken photos of her reaction! That fruit really smells awful.
Because Roxanne and I always find the weird stuff… We noticed ice plant covered with these weird white structures. They were actually female scale bugs with their white “ovisaco” behind them (in which they lay their eggs). I couldn’t tell if we were seeing the species Pulvinaria delottoi or Pulvinariella mesembryanthemi. Pulvinaria delottoi is found in California (from Africa), but most of the images I researched made me think the ones we saw might be Pulvinariella mesembryanthemi which now seem to be all over the place. In the closeup photo in the album, you can sort of see the insect a little bit better. They’re actually quite intricate little buggers under their shields.
Ice Plant Scale bugs, Pulvinaria delottoi or Pulvinariella mesembryanthemi
Right about 9:00 am, we walked across the street to the Sacramento Zooand spent several hours there, just walking around and taking photos of all of the critters. We’d especially wanted to see Gizmo, the new baby Red Panda, but when we went to the Red Panda enclosure he wasn’t there. So, we walked over to where the lions were and got some great photos of them. Both the male and female lion got up off of their giant cat tree and walked through the glass corridor that takes them to the other end of their enclosure. The corridor bows out so people can gather all around it to see when the lions pass. I got some photos and video of the female lion walking through it in front of the male, looking at the people like she was picking out food cafeteria-style. Hah!
Lions in the hallway.
As we were walking around the
lion’s enclosure, Roxanne and I found where Gizmo and his mom were being kept
when they weren’t in the big exhibit. They were in the area where smaller cats
and other little animals were normally kept.
Usually, the Red Pandas sleep for most of the day, but because Gizmo is
growing, he needs to be fed a lot and is more active. Both he and his mom were walking around their
temporary digs, which included a raised platform that let them walk over
visitors’ heads. I thought it was funny
that people were standing under the platform taking photos of the pandas with
their cell phones – but all they were getting were shots of the animals’
bellies and the bottom of their feet.
Hah!
Gizmo, the Red Panda baby
I tried to get some pictures of
Gizmo – who had more white on his face and body than the adults do – but the
enclosure was small with a lot of weird angles and fencing separating the
pandas from us humans, so I didn’t feel that any of the pictures really turned
out the way I’d hoped they would.
Along with Gizmo, we also got to
see Coconut, the young Snow Leopard. I
saw his mom, Misha, at first but didn’t see him, and then the docent pointed
him out. He was right against the fence near my feet! I’d never seen him that close to the fence
before and was surprised to see him there.
Some kids and their parents came up to the enclosure to look at him, and
when they started to walk away, Coconut got up and “stalked” them across the
front of the enclosure. Yikes!
Misha the Snow Leopard
The other baby we saw was this
year’s young flamingo. It was standing on the shore of the duck pond, sort of
to the left of the flock of adults that were half in and half out of the
water. So, it was kinds of a babies’
day.
The meerkats were hilarious, as they
always are, and the Mongoose Lemurs were eating breakfast when we saw them, so
all of them had their heads in buckets. When we were watching the River Otters,
their keepers approached with their food, and both of the otters ran to the
door of their enclosure and stood up straight on their hind legs trying to see
their keepers. So funny.
Meerkat madness.
Part of the big pond in the front
of the zoo is being refurbished for a new alligator exhibit, and all the work
has rousted out the rats that used to live in the overgrowth there. In response to the now more visible rat
population, I think, we saw a young Cooper’s Hawk sitting on the fence around
the work area. Roxanne spotted it first
and took me softly by the arm and pointed the bird out. It sat there, unphased by the people all
around it, for quite a while, so we were able to get quite a few photos of it.
Along with the wild hawk, we also saw quite a few wild Wood Ducks taking
advantage of the protected pond and the free food the zoo supplied.
A juvenile Cooper’s Hawk, Acipiter cooperii
Around lunchtime, we went into the zoo’s café and shared a big plate of fries and glasses of beer before heading over to the reptile house to finish off our visit.
I got up around 7:00 am and headed out to the Effie Yeaw Nature Preserve for my weekly volunteer trail walking gig. The weather was lovely, about 49º at the river and mostly sunny. I really needed to get outside into my happy, green “therapy place” and start recovering from the trauma of yesterday.
Not a lot to see today, though, although I did get to see one of the big-big bucks, the 5-pointer. He was sitting down right on the side of the trail and didn’t move as I walked by and took photos of him… until I stepped back to get a shot of the doe behind him. I guess he didn’t like that and got onto his feet and stepped out a little bit, before going back to stand by the doe. They both eventually walked off, him following her across the trail and into the woods. Such a handsome thing.
I was out the door by 6:30 to go with my friend and fellow naturalist, Roxanne Moger, to the Cosumnes River Preserve. Roxanne was acting as chauffeur today, so she did all of the driving.
It was chilly there, in the 40s, crisp and clear; very autumnal. The sun was just starting to work its way up through the morning clouds and there was a bit of ground fog in some of the rice fields and pastures. Roxanne had never taken the short route around Bruceville and Desmond Roads near the preserve, so we went there first. There were flocks of Greater White-Fronted Geese and Canada Geese, and couple dozen or so Sandhill Cranes in the fields, so we got out of the car a couple of times to get some photos of them.
Sandhill Crane, Grus canadensis
Sandhill Cranes
Morning “fly-in” hours are the best time to see the cranes in that area. There were both adults and juveniles in the groups. We saw a couple of Great Egrets and a Great Blue Heron out there as well.
In another field, we saw some Greater Yellowlegs walking around and a very large gull sitting on an outcropping watching a Northern Harrier eat its breakfast on the ground. There were actually a lot of hawk out today. On the preserve we saw both Northern Harriers and Red-Tailed Hawks, and along the freeway both going to the preserve and coming back home, we saw more Red-Tails and a Swainson’s hawk.
There was a waning moon overhead, so tried to get some photos of birds flying past it. The White-Fronted Geese were the most “cooperative”. Whenever their flocks would startle and take off into the sky, I’d focus my camera on the moon and activate the shutter whenever birds passed by it. Got a few fairly good shots out of that exercise.
Greater White-Fronted Geese, Anser albifrons, flying over the moon
Geese Flyover
We walked along the boardwalk and the slough that runs along the road for about 2½ hours before heading back toward Sacramento. We saw eight hawks along the highway on the way there.
Species List:
American Coot, Fulica americana
American Pipit, Anthus rubescens
Ash Flower Gall Mite, Eriophyes fraxinivorus
Black Angus Cattle, Bos Taurus var. Black Angus
Black Phoebe, Sayornis nigricans
Black-Necked Stilt, Himantopus mexicanus
Broadleaf Cattail, Bullrush, Typha latifolia
Canada Goose, Branta canadensis
Cinnamon Teal, Anas cyanoptera
Club Gall Wasp, Xanthoteras clavuloides
Gadwall duck, Mareca strepera
Great Blue Heron, Ardea herodias
Great Egret, Ardea alba
Greater White-Fronted Goose, Anser albifrons
Greater Yellowlegs, Tringa melanoleuca
Herring Gull, Larus argentatus
House Finch, Haemorhous mexicanus
Mallard duck, Anas platyrhynchos
Marsh Wren, Cistothorus palustris [heard]
Northern Harrier, Marsh Hawk, Circus hudsonius
Northern Pintail, Anas acuta
Northern Shoveler, Anas clypeata
Pennyroyal, Penny Royal, Mentha pulegium
Purpletop Vervain, Verbena bonariensis
Red-Tailed Hawk, Buteo jamaicensis
Red-Winged Blackbird, Agelaius phoeniceus
Rough Cocklebur, Xanthium strumarium
Sandhill Crane, Grus canadensis
Savannah Sparrow, Passerculus sandwichensis
Say’s Phoebe, Sayornis saya
Tricolored Blackbird, Agelaius tricolor
Tule, Common Tule, Schoenoplectus acutus
Valley Oak, Quercus lobata
Western Gull, Larus occidentalis (second winter, juvenile)
White Ash, Fraxinus americana
White-Crowned Sparrow, Zonotrichia leucophrys
Willow Pine Cone Gall Midge, Rabdophaga strobiloides
A long day. Up at 4:30 am to go out with my dog Esteban to the Sacramento and Colusa National Wildlife Refuges. This was the first long drive I’ve taken him on since I adopted him, and I wasn’t sure how he’d do. For the first part of the trip, he whined on and off, like a kid in the backseat groaning “are we there yet”, or something. But otherwise he was good in the car, for the most part.
Esteban. I’ve had some folks ask what kind of dog he is. I’m not sure, because he’s adopted and I don’t know much about his background, but I think he’s a Chihuahua and Dachshund mix with maybe a little Jack Russell Terrier in there. Anyone want to pay for an DNA test for him?
We got to the Sacramento refuge first around 7:00 am just as the sun was rising. It was about 45º when we started on the auto tour route. There was a hazy overcast that lasted all day so there weren’t any stark shadows; the light was diffused.
I wanted to go early to see some of the “fly in” and also to get a chance to see some of the crepuscular animals that generally aren’t out later in the day – like coyotes, otters, raccoons, deer and the like. Good thing I did! I got to see all of those except for the otters (but I did find an otter “latrine site” if that counts.)
There are still a LOT of dry areas in both preserves… and the migrating birds are coming in, so they’d better start getting more water out there or the birds will go somewhere else.
Along the auto tour route at the Sacramento refuge, one of the first things I saw was the backside of a deer poking out between the tules. When I got a little closer, I realized it was one of four deer (looked like two does and a pair of older fawns). They were close enough to the car that I was able to get a few photos of them before they took off. Esteban could see them but didn’t seem to recognize or startle at them. He just sniffed the air.
Then, a little further down the route, I saw something big standing on the shoulder of the road in front of me. It was backlit by the rising sun, but I thought it was probably a coyote (albeit a large coyote) or maybe a Mountain Lion… Turned out to be a coyote. When I got closer to the place where it was standing, it took off along the mowed areas between the stands of tule. Got a lot of “butt shots” of that guy, but nothing really good.
Coyote, Canis latrans
Further along still, near the gate to the permanent wetlands loop (which is closed this time of year), there’s a 4-way crossing where the wetlands and sloughs abut one another. Along the edge of the road there, I could see something “dark” tuck in near the slough. When I got closer, I was surprise to find that the “dark” was actually two raccoons!
They were wet up to their shoulders with water and climbed up near the road again, right next to the car, to shake off. It was then that I was able to get photos of them before they realized a human was looking at them, and they waddled away into the undergrowth. I hardly ever get to see the raccoons out there, and when I do, they’re usually really far away, so it was quite a treat to be able to get a view of them so close. Racoons are usually solitary animals, so I was kind of surprised to see two together. Maybe it was a mom and her teenaged kid.
There were no eagles out today, but a lot of hawks: Red-Tails, Red-Shouldered and Harrier. And, of course, Snow Geese were there in abundance. Literally thousands of them. They were soooo noisy you could hear them all over the place.
At one of the park-and-stretch sites along the route, I let Esteban out on his leash, and he was totally freaked out by the geese near the road, especially when parts of the flock took off in tandem, honking loudly and flying in circles. I don’t know if he recognized them as “birds”, but he did not like that noisy whirling mass bursting up in front of him and flying overhead.
I also saw quite a few Turkey Vultures. In one of the trees where a couple of vultures were sitting there was also a Peregrine Falcon. It looked so tiny next to them. No doubt, the vultures were sitting around waiting for the falcon to catch something so they could have the leavings. Raptor co-op.
Turkey Vulture, Cathartes aura
Oh, and I also spotted a pair of Great Horned Owls in a tree along the route. They were pretty obscured by twiggy branches, so I didn’t get any real good photos of them, but it was still great to see them.
There were quite a few different sparrow species out today, and I saw a handful of Western Meadowlarks. Those populations will increase over the next few months.
At the Colusa refuge, it was pretty much the same as it was at the Sacramento refuge with the landscape currently dominated by thousands of Snow Geese and Ross’s Geese. One surprise though was when I was driving the auto tour route there, and a large three-point buck came walking out from among the tules. Yikes! That was unexpected.
The last time I was at the Colusa refuge, I was lamenting because I didn’t see as many Black-Crowned Night Herons at the end of the route as I had on previous occasions. Usually, there’s 30 to 50 herons out there. The last time I was out, I only saw about a dozen. Today, I saw few more, and some of them were occupying the trees near the one-way bridge, so I felt a little better. They apparently hadn’t been completely displaced and found new day-roosts to occupy.
Black-Crowned Night Herons, Nycticorax nycticorax
Among the other birds, I also saw a White-Faced Ibis, a couple of Pied-Billed Grebes, a Common Gallinule and an American Pipit while I was there.
Before leaving the Colusa refuge, I stopped at the picnic tables with Esteban and we had a little lunch before heading home again. We got back to the house a little after 1:30 pm so that was a l-o-n-g 8- or 9-hour day in the car for the dog and me.
I headed over to the Effie Yeaw Nature Preserve for my weekly volunteer trail-walking gig there. It was 48º at the preserve when I got there. Still chilly enough that there was a little bit of ground fog in the shadier parts of the preserve and rising steamy fog on the surface of the American River which was neat to see.
I saw a lot of Acorn Woodpeckers and Scrub Jays today, all of them vying for the acorns remaining on the oak trees. The Acorn Woodpeckers were also shuffling their cached seeds between limbs and sometimes even between trees, getting things to fit properly in the holes they’d drilled so the acorns didn’t fall out.
Lots of deer out again today, too. I only saw one of the really big bucks, the three-pointer with the really tall antlers, but saw quite a few does and their fawns and yearlings. I’ve gotten so I can pretty accurately tell the male from the female fawns just by looking at their faces. The females have “softer” features than the males. But to get to the point where you notice that, you have to look at a LOT of deer.
One spike buck was following after
a loan doe but trying to be “cool” and not let her see that he was following
her. Hah! Those horny guys are so funny.
About halfway through my walk, I had to stop to change out the ScanDisk card. They fill up sometimes, and the whole camera “chokes” until I put in a new one. Of course, that happened just as I came across a pair of young bucks that were starting to joust, a two-pointer and a spike. I got a video snippet of them, but they were mostly obscured by tall grass and weeds.
I’m thinking that next year when I put together my species list, I’ll also do a count of how many of each thing I see. I may have to guestimate when I encounter large flocks of birds and fields of wildflowers, but the data might prove interesting in the long run. I can also submit my data to some of the online citizen science venues like Ebird (https://ebird.org/home). There’s also a list of different citizen science projects through #CalNat at http://calnat.ucanr.edu/California_PPSR/.
On my way out of the preserve, I got some photos of Golden-Crowned Sparrows bathing in the small demonstration pond near the nature center, and I got my first glimpse of a Red-Breasted Sapsucker this year. I’ve seen them there before, but this was the first one for this year.
I walked for about 3½ hours and then headed home.
Species List:
Acorn Woodpecker, Melanerpes formicivorus
California Ground Squirrel, Otospermophilus beecheyi
