December 31, 2012
Nobody was on the I5! Just us for mile after mile as we drove from Vancouver to Portland.
Nobody!? Okay, maybe a few cars but they were few and far between. There were long stretches where we were the only ones on the road.
The secret.
Drive the I5 before midnight on December 31.
What a treat to sail through Seattle unimpeded.
At midnight, we celebrated the new year when stopped for the night at the first rest stop south of Portland. This rest stop is the nicest one on the I5 and by far the best place to spend the night.
Yes, we acquired a golden retriever over the summer. Relatives were allergic to their beautiful rambunctious dog named Sona. She quickly assumed her place in our family. Sona loves to see the sights as we travel in the RV. She competes with Emma to see who gets to ride shotgun when we mount-up.
Sona
January 1, 2013
The weather continued cold and rainy. We started the day at the Oregon outlet stores south of Portland then powered down the I5 toward Grants Pass. Late in the evening we were nearing Grant's Pass when the fog closed in. We slowly felt our way off the I5 and landed in a parking lot at Wolf's Creek. The first bird sighted in 2013 was a 1) Northwestern Crow.
Emma's quote of the day. "Never under estimate my honey's ability to take credit for something".
January 2
A pre-breakfast walk around the hamlet of Wolf's Creek netted:
2) American Robin 3)Western Scrub Jay 4) Stellar Jay 5) Hermit Thrush
There were a few patches of snow at 1970 feet as we crested Grants Pass. As expected the sun and blue sky finally appeared as we descended from Grants Pass and headed into California.
There were several birds at the Rouge River rest stop.
6) Red-breasted Nuthatch
7) Brown Creeper
8) Black-capped Chickadee 9) American Crow
10) Acorn Woodpecker. 11) Rock Dove 12) Starlings
13) Red-tailed Hawk
We traveled by the the snow covered lava cone of Mount McLoughlin then climbed the Siskiyou Pass. The 4,310 summit is the highest pass on the I5. There was lots of snow beside the road but chains were not required on this bright sunny day. 1] Mule Deer
The first rest stop inside California is one of the best on the I5 and the birds like it too.
14) Ruby-crowned Kinglet 15) Dark-eyed Junco 16) Canada Geese 17) Bald Eagle
18) Red-breasted Sapsucker.
It was a beautiful sunny afternoon as we rounded Mount Shatsa and headed into Reeding for the evening.
Mount Shasta
We saw my first lifer of the trip in the Reeding RV Park. This dapper little fellow was flashing his crown about in the tree tops but came close enough for this photo.
19) Oak Titmouse
Also 20) Brewer's Blackbird.
January 3
Sona's early morning walks around the campground are also good times to bird. However, it's tricky holding the leash and focusing the camera on a moving bird at the same time that Sona charges after a squirrel.
21) Golden-crowned Sparrow
22) Northern Mockingbird
23 ) California Towhee
24) White-breasted Nuthatch 25) House Sparrow 26 Morning Dove
Northern California has been getting a fair bit of rain this winter. We sailed down the central valley through Sacramento and the other industrialized cities of the region. As we headed further south you could see the smog subtly
obscuring the mountains on either side of this wide valley.
27) Turkey Vulture 28) Red-winged Blackbird 29) Great Blue Heron
30) Great Egret
January 4
We slowed our southerly pace now that we are in California. We headed to the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge (NWF) and a day of birding. The bird walks in the NWR are fun and the auto tours are excellent for taking bird photos. The RV acts as a blind as it does not startle the birds as we drive along. I break "Long Tom" out of storage and poke this 600 mm lens out the RV window. This can be particularly challenging if the shot is on the passenger side and Emma or Sona is sitting there. It's not the easiest thing in the world to wield a 600 mm lens around in a confined space but I haven't clocked them yet.
31) Black-necked Stilt
32) Northern Harrier
33) Greater Yellowlegs 34) American Pipits 35) Savannah Sparrow 36)Yellow-headed Blackbird
37) Wilson's Snipe 38) Mallard 39) American Coots
40) Kestrel
41) Tree Swallows 42) Merlin 42) Red-shouldered Hawk
2] Coyotes
The San Luis NWR is one of the sites that is reestablishing the Thule Elk. At dusk we saw them.
3] Thule Ek
January 5
We went to the nearby Merced NWR. It is not as developed as the San Luis NWF but the birds like it.
At both refuges, there were lots of small birds and many raptors dining out.
Merced National Wildlife Refuge
44) Peregrine Falcon
45) Dunlin 46) Least Sandpiper
47) Killdeer
48) Loggerhead Shrike 49) White Pelican 50) Snow Geese 51) Ross's Goose
52)Gadwall 53) Northern Shoveler 54) Northern Pintail 55) Long-billed Curlew
56) Herring Gull 57) Black Phoebe 58) Northern Flicker 59) White-crowned Sparrow
60) Song Sparrow 61) Western Meadowlark 4] Desert Cottontail
62) House Finch and White-crowned Sparrow
January 6
We woke up just north of Bakersfield and headed to the Pixley NWR. It was just a small reserve but made for a nice morning walk.
63) Coopers Hawk 64) Green-winged Teal 65) Lesser Sandhill Cranes
The Cooper's Hawk was hunting sparrows. It was fascinating to watch.
The sparrows hid in a tumbleweed bush.
The hawk faked an attack on the south side of the bush.
The sparrows shuffled to the north side of the bush.
The hawk faked an attack on the north side of the bush.
The sparrows panicked and flushed helter skelter out the south side and headed to the next bush.
But, the hawk had anticipated this and was on them.
The speed of the whole episode was amazingly fast. It all happened in a few seconds.
It really highlighted for me the importance of native habitat. The sheltering bushes were essential for the small birds and without them they had no change in open cultivated farmer's fields against a raptor. We need more native plants and National Wildlife Refuges.
Pixley National Wildlife Refuge
The freeway driving got intense around Bakersfield as we headed east.out of the central valley. The van was shak'en, Emma was quak'en, the locals were taken every space on the road. The pass to cross the Sierra Nevadas is only 4,000 feet high. We quickly arrived in Mohave and well after dark spent the night in the Red Rock Canyon State Park.
January 7
Wow! Red Rock Canyon is beautiful. Who knew. We arrived in the pitch black last night and didn't see the soaring red canyon walls till morning. We were camped up against the sheer red walls of this gorgeous canyon.
A Red-tailed hawk was slowly soaring over the lip of the canyon cliff-face looking for breakfast.
Red Rock Canyon
Red-tailed Hawk
Breakfast 5] Desert Ground Squirrel
We went for a short hike through the terrain of this beautiful canyon.
Red Rock Canyon
Joshua Trees
We saw 66) Say's Phoebe, 67) Black-throated Sparrow
We attempted to go to the Butterbredt Spring Wildlife Refuge. There were no roadside signs to get there but the initial road was great as we headed into the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Turned out the well paved road stopped at the entrance to a massive wind farm and a dirt track continued on up the canyon to the wildlife refuge.
It saddens me when I think of the millions of migrating birds that have been killed by the spinning blades of the windmills. In the past centuries, humans set up mist nets to catch song birds and ship them to restaurants for consumption. Now we just cut them in half as a by-product of producing energy.
To get energy in the past we created dams and were surprised, after the fact, when we wiped out salmon runs. We tried to mitigate this decimation with fish ladders around the dams. Now, seals are swimming up some rivers to eat the salmon at the bottle neck by the fish ladder.
As a society we are taking steps to reduce the carnage caused by modern windmills, habitat loss, pesticides etc. These steps are helpful but so many bird species have declined by 70 to 90 percent. We need to do more.
We stopped in Barstow for the night.
January 8
At 5:45 a.m. we headed out to Mojave Desert National Preserve. As the sun crested the horizon we drove south along the Cima entrance to the preserve. We took the three mile hike through the Joshua Tree Forest to Cima Dome. Beautiful!
Walk Through Joshua Tree Forest
Joshua Tree
Climbing to the top of Cima Dome
It started to go vertical. I saw no way to scale the vertical rock face. Emma and Sona waited in an alcove while I explored the vertical rock face around the corner.
I thought I was stopped until I saw a small seam between two rock-faces which enabled me to squeezed my way up the vertical chimney. It was 40 feet straight up and I scrambled out on top. The wind was howling pretty good as I stood up on top to take the following picture.
View From the Top
I forgot that going down is trickier than climbing up. Looking down the 40 foot chimney was a lot scarier than climbing up it. At least when you climb up you can see where you are going. Emma was down around the corner in her alcove and I heard her say .... "Pick-up the pace, I'm getting bored."
I thought to myself that from my perspective, terrifying not boring was more like it. Instead I called out, "I'll be down there in five minutes honey".
Hmmm .... If I slipped I would be down a lot faster than that. Anyway, I'm writing this so I made it.
Jim at the half way point in the hike.
After the hike we drove to the turn off to mid-hills campground. After a kilometre the paved road became a nasty dirt road.
We should have turned the RV around but naturally we continued. We had to drive 5 miles an hour on that awful road. Covering the 15 miles took well over an hour. We rose steadily from 3,500 feet to 5,700 feet. The campground was in a beautiful secluded depression with juniper trees and some snow on the ground.
Emma and Sona overlooking the Mojave Desert
Emma Looking For Birds
There were lots of birds at the top of the mountain ... Western Meadowlarks, White-crowned Sparrows, Loggerhead Shrike ...
It was cold at 5,700 feet and we were low on propane. We decided to leave the campground and drive to the RV park at Twentynine Palms.
