New Years is for the Birds

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I felt well enough today to head out on a little excursion so I went west into the great Central or San Joaquin Valley of California. It was an amazing day… big fluffy clouds filled the sky and raindrops would fall now and then but for the most part it was sunny and warm. In the morning the snow-bright Sierra were shining and I paused to take a few pictures of the mountains as I headed down into the valley.



I headed first towards Pixley National Wildlife Refuge. Well, I think it would be more aptly named Pixley National Dairy Cow Refuge. They were about the only animal I saw out there of any kind. I was about to give up when I found a pond teeming with Black-crowned Night Herons, there must have been 40 or 50 of them!



Then I headed over to Kern National Wildlife Refuge and it actually has good public access unlike Pixley. Some of its roads are closed this time of year but that was fine by me because that left me to be the sole person out walking on them. And, wow, I am definitely going to go back to Kern NWR! I saw so many birds including 5 Hawks, 4 Great Egrets, Red-winged blackbirds, a Roadrunner, a Curlew, and terns, coots, grebes, sandpipers, teals, and ducks galore. The air was filled with bird calls of which I love that of the Western Meadowlark the most.









It was a beautiful day for photography as the clouds drifted above and let through beams of light. I even saw a rainbow!

They tell me most of the San Joaquin Valley used to look like this - marsh and lake and wetland as far as the eye could see. Early settlers had to skirt the foothills on both sides to move north. Millions of waterfowl, great herds of antelope, elk, and deer, plus a rich diversity of other wildlife inhabited this area. Unfortunately, most people thought of it as a wasteland and sought to drain it and convert it to agricultural farmland.

The Kern NWR was established in 1960 to replace a small portion of the vast Central Valley wetland nearly destroyed in the 1800's. It is about 11,000 acres about half of which is flooded in the fall to create habitat vital to migratory species on the Pacific Flyway. It is also home to many endangered and threatened species including the Bald Eagle, the Peregrine Falcon, Sandhill Cranes, White Faced Ibis, American White Pelicans, the San Joaquin kit fox, the Tipton kangaroo rat, and the blunt-nosed leopard lizard.

Anyway, I had a fun time exploring this little-visited gem of the Central Valley and I don’t feel so bad about not being able to go to Death Valley this weekend now :)”

“I went for a walk through the land winding through this estuary by me. I got in pretty far, then started getting attacked by mosquitos. I don't know why I didn't think of there being a mosquito problem there.

I did get to see a nesting Osprey, and an interesting looking duck for my short time there.”

“great pictures!!!!”

“Nice trip report. I'll have to get down there one of these days. You make it sound great.”

“Very cool, BC, just the way to bring in the New Year. Great pics, too!”

“Thanks, guys. I found out there is one trail leading into Pixley NWR and that it is probably the best place to find wintering sandhill cranes in the valley. Anybody wanna go?”

“Nice pictures. Funny, the marsh photos all look like Merritt Island NWR 3 hours south of me, below Daytona.”

“Good stuff, man. Thanks.”

“Bearcrossing I was wondering about your DV trip..I kinda of figured with these storms you would not go. Glad you are feeling better & was able to get out. The pictures are beautiful, how lucky you were to see the herons and the other birdies!
We are still shoveling ourselves out here in Tahoe & hopefully I can tomorrow do a snowshoe walk to the river...been cooped up in the house for 4 days

Thanks for your beautiful pictures!”

“I'm off on weekends bear crossing so we'll have to get together sometime. I'm just up in Lodi so its not too far for a day trip.”

“Lodi is up by Sacramento, right?”

“Thats a cool place..I used to take day hikes round there. thanks for the lovely pictures :D”

“SpiritCoyote, you're welcome, thanks for looking :)”

“I finally got the trip report and even more photos up on my website :) http://www.tarol.com/kernnwr.html”