Warm Temperatures in Central California

Woodson Bridge Wildlife Area

After a “hotel” breakfast, which was not much of a breakfast, we headed east from Corning, Ca. toward the Woodson Bridge National Wildlife Area, another stop on the Sacramento River. We birded first at the City Park next to Woodson Bridge. We seem to have a lot of luck finding excellent birds at City Parks. We stood still and looked up and the trees were busy with birds.

We saw a great number of Acorn Woodpeckers (Melanerpes formicivorus) here, but we got very excited when one of them turned into a Nuttall’s Woodpecker (Picoides nuttallii). The back of the bird is patterned like a black and white ladder, so we say a bird like this is “ladder-backed”. Nuttall’s is only seen in the western United States. This was also a life bird for us. This was very exciting.

In the river next to us, large fish were jumping completely out of the river. Across from us on the other bank of the river, a woman was muttering to herself. She seemed to be pressing something into the ground with her feet. Berry thought she may be psychotic. Robert wondered aloud why she was not in a hospital. This is a birding blog, not a social problem forum. A strange interlude, no doubt.

• Northern Mockingbird
• Red Shouldered Hawk
• House Finch
• White Crowned Sparrow
• Western Scrub Jay
• Western Meadowlark
• Dark Eyed Junco
• Nuttall’s Woodpecker
• Acorn Woodpecker
• Red Shafted Northern Flicker
• European Starling
• Belted Kingfisher
• Turkey Vulture
• Black throated Gray Warbler
• Yellow Rumped Warbler
• Black Phoebe
• Common Raven

Black Butte Lake

Leaving Woodson Bridge, we traveled southwest to Black Butte Lake. We actually followed a police car down the country road toward the lake. The squad car stopped at the scene of a bleeding man sprawled in the gutter. The poor fellow had been cut somehow, an accident or a fight. The police stared hard at us as we drove slowly past. This was just another strange interlude.

The lake itself seemed to be in the throes of a nasty drought. The lack of water caused by the drought meant the lake level was forty feet lower than normal. We walked on the beach, which used to be the bottom of the lake. We walked to the boat ramp and used our spotting scope to look at the Western Grebe(Aechmophorus occidentalis) and American White Pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) in the water. Leaving the lake area, driving toward Orland, Ca. we passed more irrigation canals. In some the water was moving slowly and in others we clocked the water at 5 miles per hour. Poking into the canal, we spotted a Lesser Yellow Legs (Tringa flavipes) and several Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus).

• Savannah Sparrow
• Western Grebe
• American White Pelicans
• Lesser Yellow legs
• Wild Turkey
• Acorn Woodpecker
• Black Throated Gray Warbler
• Killdeer

Thermalito National Wildlife Reserve

We drove past a large, square body of water, probably agricultural in nature. There were a lot of Western Grebes (Aechmophorus occidentalis) here. We also birded the agricultural fields and their canals for about 45 miles going southeast to the “Thermalito Afterbay Outflow”. This area is part of the Oroville National Wildlife Reserve. On the adjoining Feather River, which runs through the Reserve, we saw huge fish jumping out of the water. Our literature says that the salmon begin running in the Fall, so we believe the huge fish jumping were probably salmon.

In the reeds along the bank, we watched a beautiful Green Heron (Butorides virescens) poke its beak in the water and pull up something to eat. This is one of Robert’s favorite birds. Down the bank a bit, a large Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) waded through the green muck near the bank and stabbed the water with its enormous beak, snagging a small fish to eat as well.

• Red Tailed Hawk
• American Coot
• Pied Billed Grebe
• Western Grebe
• Red Winged Blackbird
• Killdeer
• Savannah Sparrow
• Great Egret
• Great Blue Heron
• Osprey
• Green Heron

This area has a warm, Mediterranean climate. There is a breeze but there is not the cold of the coastal areas that we experienced earlier. After another great day birding in central California, we stayed at the Holiday Inn in Oroville, Ca.

Robert and Berry

photos courtesy of wikipedia