Wednesday morning Andrea and I ventured out on bicycles into the darkening gloom to the Jackson Bottom Wetlands off highway 219. It wasn't raining until we arrived, but fortunately we had rain coats. I was actually excited for the rain, since it meant I could justify using my new "rite in the rain" birding notebook. There were several trails to choose from, and we took off walking after securing the bikes under the education center's awning. Along the trail were many bird nest boxes and we got to see swallows sitting still for a change. There were also feeders for sapsuckers: wood boxes with parallel lines of holes drilled in them. What a neat idea!
In just under an hour we saw the following species:
- American Goldfinch
- Lesser Goldfinch
- Tree Swallow
- Red-winged Blackbird
- Killdeer
- Mallard
- Bewick's Wren
- Common Yellowthroat
- Cedar Waxwing
- Brown Creeper
- Great Blue Heron
- Barn Swallow
- Ring-necked Pheasant
- American Robin (of course)
As we were heading back to the bicycles, thinking the rain would be bearable with places like this to explore, it started to dump buckets and that's when we realized the folly of going off with no rain PANTS...
Getting home without drowning, we celebrated with hot showers and beer, followed by a viewing of the online Tour of California coverage
We then made popcorn for the first time EVER using just a skillet. It was extremely gratifying to realize we no longer needed to buy the pre-packaged campfire popcorn packs.
No comments:
Post a Comment