Review: Billingham Hadley Digital camera bag
This is the first of numerous posts I’ll write over the next week (or two or three 😉 about my recent trip up to Portland, Oregon, and back down the lovely Oregon coast.
We loaded up the car, filled up the tank ($3.65/gal for 87 octane in SF), and hit the road at 8:30am. The drive to the Central Valley was uneventful and mercifully traffic-free, so we made good time to I-80, then I-505, then I-5. This drive takes us right past Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, which I can never pass without stopping by.
Sac NWR has a driving loop of several miles with a lookout platform in the middle, and typically has excellent birding. This time, being midday in summer, is far from the peak (typically Dec-Jan), but we still saw some good birds. A juvenile Great Horned Owl flew by and perched on some dried reeds, giving us pretty good, but distant, views, and several dozen White-faced Ibis grazed in the wetter areas.
Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus)
The NWR management drains most of the ponds during the summer, leaving only a few permanent ones, which, predictably, has the most wildlife in them. At the viewing platform we saw many Great Blue Herons, as well as a line of what looked to be Greater White-fronted Geese, with a lone Snow Goose. Although both of these species are common (really common, as in tens of thousands of them!) here in winter, I was surprised to see them mid-summer. As we walked down the platform’s ramp, an unusual birdsong caught my attention and I soon spied a Blue Grosbeak (LIFER!). This lovely blue bird sat and sang for us for a minute then went on its merry way.
Blue Grosbeak (Passerina caerulea)
We’d been hoping to catch a glimpse of the resident Bald Eagle, which has called Sac NWR home for years, but we did not. A flock of Western Kingbirds flycaught along the riparian corridor, and a scattering of Western Meadowlark browsed the dry bushes where the winter ponds used to be.
Western Kingbirds (Tyranus verticalis)
A rustling in the bushes turned out to be a couple of female game birds of some sort. Although they didn’t look much like the female Ring-necked Pheasants I’ve previously seen, I’m sure that’s what they were, as Pheasants are very common here.
Geese that should have migrated quite a while ago!
Other than that things were pretty quiet, but I was happy to get one life bird, and several year birds – hopefully I’ll make it back in early December when the Sandhill Cranes, Tundra Swans, and Snow Geese are in full force!
Birds seen:
– American Avocet
– American White Pelican
– Black Phoebe
– Black-necked Stilt
* Blue Grosbeak
– Great Blue Heron
– Great Egret
+ Great Horned Owl
– Mallard
– Mourning Dove
– Ring-necked Pheasant
– Snowy Egret
– Turkey Vulture
– Western Kingbird
– Western Meadowlark
+ White-faced Ibis
+ = year bird, * = life bird
From Sac NWR, we continued north, refueling the car and ourselves in Redding ($2.99/gal for 87 octane) , then north north north. Past Redding the scenery gets very pretty, with the slightly snowy top of Lassen Peak, then the dominating 14,000’+ snow-capped summit of Mt. Shasta to the east, and rolling hills all around. Unfortunately in the several times I’ve done this drive, I have yet to find anywhere good/safe to pull over to take a photo of this majestic mountain.
A couple more hours of rolling hills brought us to Ashland, Oregon, our destination for the night. After checking in at our hotel, the Flagship Inn of Ashland, we drove downtown and walked along the main street, stopping here and there at the stores along the pretty downtown drag. After a tasty, authentic British dinner at The Black Sheep, we returned to our hotel and called it a night.
Trip Index:
- Day 1 – SF to Ashland, OR <– You are here!
- Days 2, 3, 4 – Portland, OR
- Day 5 – Portland, OR to Pacific City, OR
- Day 6 – Pacific City, OR to Florence, OR
- Day 7 – Florence, OR to Gold Beach, OR
- Day 8 – Gold Beach, OR to Eureka, CA
- Day 9 – Eureka, CA to San Francisco
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WOW, I can’t wait to see what else you have to post! What a wonderful list of birds you found and stunning photos as always! Did you say 3.65$ for gas? Ugg
What was your round trip mileage Adam, I am leaving Friday for Key West and thats going to be about 2400 round trip. Thank goodness I filled up today for $2.69, these are some really nice shots, especially the owl.
Monarch: Yep, $3.65 for 87 in SF – makes me glad that I do very little day-to-day driving! It was a dollar cheaper per gallon in Portland, and to add insult to injury, ALL gas is full-service in Oregon (you’re not allowed to pump your own).
Bernie: Well I was going to save that for my last post, but since you asked, it was 1584 miles round-trip, the longest road trip I’ve been on since I was a kid. 2400mi is quite some ways, but I envy you going to the Keys – I’m sure the birding there is fabulous!
Ahhh, be still my heart… How intuitive of me to arrive at this destination 😉 OMG, I have a passion for birds and especially many that you mention, the OWL, the heron… Suh-weet, thank you for sharing 🙂
I’m a southern girl, but I had the pleasure of living in Ashland for a couple of years, a sweet little town. Be sure and visit Lithia Park…right off the main street. I used to soooo love to go there, beautiful.
Here’s a link with a few pics of Lithia Park (doesn’t do it justice) and some history on it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithia_Park
Dove 🙂
Glad you enjoyed them, Dove! We walked around Lithia Park briefly – next time we’ll explore it more since we have the lay of the town now. I agree that Ashland is a sweet little town – we’ve been there twice so far, and look forward to our next visit.
They make attendents pump the gas there. It’s because they realized back in the day, that if they went to self-serve there would be a lot of folks out of jobs.
I miss Oregon, sadly I will only be there for one weekend this month, but at least I get 1 day to play in Powells.
Hi Adam – great pix. I am looking forward to the rest of your pictures from the trip. A blue grosbeak at Sac NWR? Wow! It would be a lifer for me, too.
Hi Adam – I adore, love and admire deeply your grobeak shot what a beauty! Just so you know I fall into the same problem going to Portland from the other side – a full dollar cheaper. It makes me want to buy a bunch of gas can’s and fill my trunk up with them when I head back… okay, okay I’m not that insane… but it’s tempting. (I have a great horned owl on the property as of recently but I just can’t seem to track him light enough to get the photo!) Your shots are fabulous!
Mongoose1: Thanks for dropping by – enjoy your day at Powells!
Mary: Thanks! We were very happy to find the Blue Grosbeak.
Aullori: I know what you mean – we had the same fantasy about bringing cans of gas back with us to sell at a profit 🙂 Lucky you to have a GHOW nearby – I hope you get a chance to photograph it, but they’re toughies for sure! The few photos I have of them aren’t all that great. I have one tattoed on my calf, so you can guess that I’m quite fond of owls 🙂
hi adamo! loved all your trip pics! regarding a photography spot for mt. shasta: take the northernmost exit for mt. shasta city, go back across the freeway, and park anywhere. the view is great and there’s no traffic plus easy re-access to I-5.
would love to do this coast trip with you gys someday. . .
tata!
Thanks, Mom 🙂 I’ll keep that viewpoint in mind next time we’re near Shasta (which will probably be the next time we come and visit you & Brian).