Rob Cash Travel Photos

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The 2012 Southern California trip

Thu 19 1st day

Lots of rain in Oregon until Grants Pass. Decided to stay in Medford. Rising from the Willamette Valley at xx the deciduous trees seemed to be blooming or leafing from the inside out. The diffused light of the overcast sky brought up the light green in the gray green moss and lichen, which got thicker on the inner branches leaving the outer branch tips bare. Dark conifers added contrast increasing the sense of glow. Until Sunny Valley, which appropriately had a shaft of sunlight breaking through the clouds, restoring the green of the moss/lichen back into the grays of their normal light.

Fri 20

The trip started with a weather expectation inversion. Sunny and lovely in Medford, cloudy with hints of rain at the California border. Sun broke out around Shasta presaged by a cloud opening revealing the mountain looming over the roadway.

South of Red Bluff the Sacramento NWR sits west of the freeway. It's a wetlands with few trees along the old dikes, so songbirds are not as attracted to it as waterfowl. There were lots of Western Kingbirds and Yellow-rumped Warblers, but not so many different kinds of ducks. Plenty of coots, of course. An American Bittern was a treat, along with Black-necked Stilts, one American Avocet, and lots of Great Egrets, including one small one (cattle?). Several jackrabbits, a lizard, and turtles put in appearances. One brown butterfly I didn't get a good look at. Gray Lodge Wildlife Area (Ca state) was quite similar so didn't spend much time there.

Ducks: Gadwall, Shovelers, GW Teal, Cinnamon Teal, female Ruddies, Mallards

All this involved driving around some of the Sacramento Valley. Being used to what seems like wide open space in the Skagit delta does not prepare for the expanse of this valley. Fields still only plowed are huge. The far end of orchards disappear in the horizon. Lots of walnut orchards plus many more that I couldn't ID and lots of new ones. One sign indicated a rice farmer (probably out planting trees).

I got into Sacramento late afternoon.

Sat 21

A leisurely start before going to the Crocker Art Museum to see some Wayne Thiebaud paintings, and lots more of course.

Sat 21 (cont)

I spent a marathon four hours at Crocker and didn't see everthing carefully. It's not especially big as museums go but has a lot of stuff. First the moderns including the Thiebauds and other pretty good examples of some of the Bay area figurative movement. Interestingly, photographing the art is permitted, so I took full advantage, including lots of detail shots of Wayne's world. Lots of newer stuff, too. A big exhibit of Edgar Payne, an early 20th century painter who got captured by the west from seascapes and eastern landscapes. Another of Judy Chicago. I don't care much for her work but it was interesting as it showed her part in changing attitudes to women's art. Works on paper and in glass were also on special display along with an installation by a Chinese artist who made a bunch of figures similar to those found buried (at Xian?) mixed with modern war equivalents. And a decent collection of Oceanic art (Papua, New Guinea etc).

I looked around Sacramento a very little bit, then on to Escalon to visit a friend I hadn't seen since about 1975. A group of us hung out together in the early 70s, one of whom was the artist who interested me in art. Fun to catch up but sad too as she has multiple health problems. Fortunately she has a good pension as a retired teacher.

Sunday 22

Sunday morning early I went to Stanislaus River Park near Oakdale, a pretty park, fairly birdy (many Acorn Woodpeckers!), and even a couple butterflies. Then visiting with friend and on to overnight in Bakersfield.

Monday 23

After getting a room in Yucca Valley and an early dinner, There was plenty of time to make a first exploration of Joshua Tree NP. The rock formations are insane. One place they tilt one way, a different place another. Huge colonies of boulders have sprouted all over the place. Curved in, curved out, rounded, heaped, sprawled, big one little ones and some really big ones. And then there are the banks of rocks, sort of stacked, sort of rectangular, waiting to fall as their predecessors have. All sizes. And then there's the road going down a river course, dry, but making one wonder about how much water could flow through there in a flash flood. Scary even under clear skies. The river bed appears formed by an upthrust, then a slump since the rock layers on either side tilt up and away from each other.

First stop was at Barker dam, a pleasant little hike through rocks to a dam made by a rancher, catching water for his cattle. Not much water left this late in the year but it still attracted some birds, and a small daylight hunting bat. At first it looked like a weird swallow, but it flapped its wings more like a butterfly and it never stopped or soared.

Ash-throated Flycatcher, Hummingbird?, Wilson's & Townsend's Warblers

Near dusk I went to Keys Viewpoint, spectacular in the deepening shadows.

Tuesday 24

Big Morongo Canyon first thing. I planned to get up early. Got there at 7:35 but it only opened five minutes before so I could let off berating myself for being so late. As I was told, the best birding around. Water flows naturally year round, lots of trees, mostly willow and cottonwood, so plenty of the necessaries for our bird friends. I started with the short walk around the major wet spot and saw three warblers (lots of all), Wilsons, Yellow, Common Yellowthroat. Away from the water there were lots of Phainopepla, a bird found trolling through the bird book with no expectation of actually seeing one. Much less a whole bunch. Lots of other birds too, see list.

Bird List: Summer Tanager (one), Ash-throated Flycatcher (a few), Wilson's & Yellow Warblers (lots), common Yellowthroat (a few), Robin, Purple finch (lots nesting in palmtrees), Western Kingbird (lots), Gray Flycatcher, Robin, Rock Wren (a few), Thrasher (good photo but need more books and/or help with id) bird on wire at end - no id yet, backlit photo

After Morongo, I wanted to check out the Salton Sea, but of course must drive through Palm Springs, so now I can say I've hobnobbed with the rich and famous. Lots of palms. And golf courses.

I had checked out the area on google satelite but was unprepared for the extent of farming around the Salton Sea, concentrated mostly on the north and south ends, including a number of date palm orchards (appropriate term?). Just as in the documentary I saw a couple weeks ago, many of the small towns are thoroughly depressed. Built on the promise of recreation there was a property boom, then bust as the lake input water got diverted. The lake was formed years ago by engineering error when Colorado R. water broke through to fill the dry lake bed. Until recently farm irrigation runoff kept the lake level up, but water being so scarce, everyone involved with controlling the water recovered all of it so the lake is drying up. Unfortunately it's the only remaining green shore area for migrating birds. Every bit of the ocean shoreline is developed from south of the border to well north of Los Angeles.

The only good birding I saw was at the south end. Lots of Black- necked Stilts, Avocets, and some shorebirds in the distance with longish downward curving bills, Curlews perhaps? Too stocky for Ibis.

Nearly completing a circle of the lake, I turned north for the south entrance of Joshua Tree NP and another treat, looking at all those weird and wonderful rock formations. Not to mention the weird and wonderful vegetation. But enough of Joshua Tree - thinking about Mojave desert.

Wednesday 25

I am so much a part of the northwest I bring rain wherever I go. Even the desert. No point in moving for sunshine. It rained overnight and was overcast as I started north to the Mojave Preserve. Mitchell Caverns, state maintained, was closed due to funding issues. At the visitors center (Phainopepla, and unid flycatcher) I learned that the thin black lines mean dirt roads, from there north and around to where I wanted to go. The roads were not wonderful and since it was spattering rain (map note: roads may be impassable in inclement weather) I chickened out and headed back south and around to the other entrance to go through Kelso to Baker.

This is high desert, dotted with mesquite except for huge flats, like lake bottoms, between the mountain ranges, where there's nothing but dirt. And salt, as around Amboy where it's being mined. The mountain formations must look different under the overcast, the colors probably more visible and yet subtle. In the desert the bony structures of the earth are much more visible than in the northwest.

Kelso is a train depot in the middle of the Mojave. Trains still go through there but I doubt that they stop at what's now a museum and lunch counter. House sparrows and YR Warblers.

Got into Baker early enough to find a room in the one remaining open motel and head for Zzyzzx, six miles down the freeway. This was going to be another desert garden resort but didn't make it. Or at least not for long. It's a spring on the edge of a great salt flat. Now a desert research station, it can be a very good bird watching spot. That evening I saw, can you believe?, two coots. I crossed thousands of miles and several deserts to see two coots.

Thursday 26

Rain in the night, still a little rain when I left the one and only open motel in Baker, CA.

Not discouraged by seeing only two coots the evening before, I stopped again at Zzyzzx in the morning with much better luck: a coyote, a rabbit, a White-faced Ibis, a Willet standing on the operating fountain in the middle of the pool, a pair of Cinnamon Teal, a small flock of Wilson's Warblers, and a Yellow- rumped Warbler. Oh, of course, the two coots were squabbling. And an unid shorebird (I think unid should be a new recognized breed of shorebird to help shorebird-impaired birders like me).

There's a short section of dirt road which had several puddles from the rain and there was standing water in a few places on the salt flat.

Back through Baker, the gateway to Death Valley. I had kind of hoped it might rain while going through Death Valley as that must be a fairly rare event, but as I drove north the skies cleared leaving fluffy white clouds perfect as a photo sky backdrop. It must have rained there, though I saw no sign, because it had clearly rained in the two valleys on either side. I had pictured one of theose deals where you can see the rain falling toward you but the heat evaporates it before it hits the ground. Well, no rain and the highest temp the car recorded through Death Valley was 96.

Death Valley is extraordinary.

The place beggers my poor desciptive ability, so I'll stick to the odd things. There is life in Death Valley. In fact there are two resorts there, oases with trees and busloads of people. Mesquite lives in sections, some so arid the pattern of spacing the plants themselves enforce becomes clear. When conditions are that arid the plants give off chemicals (alleopathy) to discourage any other plants closer than their root systems can spread.

Important to the exerience to me are the two parallel valleys on either side. Driving north from Baker through the eastern one makes me wonder how much more of a desert can there be? Sliding down into the valley on the other side of Death makes plain how the presence or absence of water shapes the life. Close is definitely not good enough. The high Sierras loom over this valley and as I enter clouds try to curl over the mountains without success on that day. Where the road comes down into this western valley, it looks like a good standin for Death. Going north life creeps in until near Bishop where there is such abundance crops are grown, cattle are raised. Irrigation conquers desert, but a tamer desert than that just passed through. Even in the eastern valley springs support small enclaves of agriculture.

Friday 27

After staying overnight in Bishop, I continued north on US 395. Fishing season opens tomorrow in E. Cal., impresssed upon me by a boat check station already set up (along with lots of boats and RVs around) at the entrance to Lake Crowley which I pulled into to see if there was any chance of wildlife activity. The only wildness was in the agitation of the fishermen barely able to contain themselves until the next day. (The boat check is for invasive species.)

Mono Lake, on the other hand, had no fishermen waiting. It's a basin lake similar to Great Salt Lake in that water drains in and there's no outlet, so salts and minerals build up. So much so that Mono Lake is famous for the tuffs, deposits that built up into weird shapes in the water, and are now exposed thanks to Los Angeles greed for water - check the map to see how far they gone to secure water.

I had thought of going to Yosemite but all the passes were still closed. It'll have to be another trip. Dang!

So on up to Lake Tahoe, where I stayed in a lakefront resort (off season rates), very nice.

Saturday 28

A luxuriously late start and a few stops for birding got me to Alturas, just south of the Oregon border on US 395. After getting a room I went to three birding sites in the area, the best of which was a reservoir just outside town. No surprises on the bird watch, but some nice sights.

Sunday 29

East to Sheldon NWR, entering at the Oregon border, the preserve is in Nevada, all high desert. One group of five Pronghorn Antelope raced away from the road as my car approached. A short dirt road leads to Big Spring Reservoir, where there were lots of Coots, of course, and a few kinds of ducks. Other than Coots, not many birds, but one real treat: a hooded gull, I thought Bonaparte or Franklin, appeared to be hawking insects far out over the lake. It was too far for a good sighting, but the action was clearly visible as they looked and acted like giant swallows.

Directly north of Sheldon is Lake Malheur. Per my usual impeccable timing, I arrived at the refuge after most of the water bird migrant wave had passed, but before the songbirds arrrived in force. Still I had a very nice afternoon birding the warm spots (no longer so hot) and saw a Curlew, just what I had hoped for here. There were a number of Cabbage Whites and two brown butterflies that I didn't get a good enough look at to be sure they weren't moths.

Monday 30

The plan was to visit my sister in Redmond, OR, but the plans got changed, so I continued north on US 395, treated to several scenic byways while being occasionally pounded by rain. The scenics were also dramatics with that sky. Most of the brown hills were greened by these spring rains (except for a section near Yakima). The orchards and vineyards were popping with new green. And finally home late in the evening.

It was a very nice trip. Lots of new country and a couple of new birds. Few butterflies but it's still early. Yucca Valley just might work as a winter getaway. I found some reasonable vacation rentals online. Joshua Tree NP offers lots of good exploration, and Big Morongo Canyon is close for good birding.