Friday 25 January 2013

Twentynine Palms to Yuma - Jan. 9 to 18

January 9 and 10
We had a quiet few days in Twentynine Palms and enjoyed a side trip to Indian Cove in Joshua Tree National Park. We took the short interpretive trail along a wash which was up against a large bolder ridge.

                                                                       Indian Cove
    



 January 11
We entered Joshua Tree National Park by the Oasis of Mara entrance. This palm oasis is slowly reverting back to desert as the water supply diminishes. There were several 70) Phainopeplas beside the short interpretive walk.


Phainopepla 
                                                                  
The north section of Joshua tree National Park is part of the high Mohave Desert so we saw lots of Joshua Trees as we made short stops to walk at Belle and White Tank campgrounds.

                                                                   Joshua Tree

                                                                            Joshua Tree


                                                                Belle Campground  

At the white Tank campground there is a short trail through the Mojave Desert to the Arch Rock.

                                                  Arch Rock Trail at White Tank Campground


                                                                        Arch Rock Trail


                                                                  Arch Rock

We started to descend a 1000 feet through  a canyon that transitioned from the Mojave Desert to the Colorado Desert. The Joshua Trees disappeared and were replaced by Jumping Chollas and Ocotillo.
A 71) Roadrunner sprinted across the road.

                                                                  Cactus Garden


                                                               Jumping Cholla


                                                                Jumping Cholla

   We descended further and leveled out in the Colorado Desert.This desert has a lot of plant variety with Creosote Bushes being the dominant  species. These plants were nicely spaced out. They have a spreading root system that inhibits the nearby growth of other plants. As a backup they also secrete a herbicide that also discourages other plants.

                                                                 Colorado Desert

 
                                                                     Yucca Cactus 

Late in the day we arrived at the Cottonwood Springs campground in the south section of Joshua tree National Park.

                                                       Sunset at Cottonwood Springs 
 


                                                          Sunset in the Colorado Desert



January 12
I awoke early to take predawn photos of the sunrise.   Surprise!
There was frost on the windows and snow on the ground. I went for a half mile walk in the predawn light to the Cottonwood Springs Oasis.




                                                              Snow in the Desert

 

 
                                                                Cottonwood Springs

 It was cold but beautiful with snow on the ground in the Colorado Desert. As the sun rose the snow started to melt and lots of birds were scurrying about in the thickets. I saw a new lifer, Le Conte's Thrasher.

                                                               72)  Le Conte's Thrasher

                                                                Le Conte's Thrasher


                                                                 Blacktailed Jackrabbit


                                                                          73) Cactus Wren


                                                           74)  Ladder-back Woodpecker

 
                                                                   Morning Dove

 We headed East to Blythe and on to Yuma in Arizona. Last time we went this way we hit a major sand storm but today was all blue skies, sun and calm weather.





North of Yuma we stopped beside the road to take pictures of the Arizona mountains.


                                                                    Jumping Cholla

  


 We cruised into Yuma in the late afternoon and went to the visitors centre. The same birds were at the visitor's centre as last year ... 75) Vermillion Flycatcher, 76) Gila Woodpecker , and 77) Yellow-rumped Warbler.

                                                        Visitors Centre in Yuma Arizona



















Friday 11 January 2013

Vancouver to Twentynine Palms - Jan. 1 to 11, 2013

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.