Blue Goose ~ Day 160

November 5 ~ Fallon, NV to Susanville, CA

I was up early and headed to Stillwater NWR, driving carefully into a blinding sun and slowing for school buses. At a small pullout, I almost got stuck in mud - briefly - but powered back to the main road with mud gobs flying about. I feel I lumber about in this Dodge van with its low clearance and lack of 4WD. I miss the Subaru....

Stillwater reminded me of Alamosa NWR. Both are mostly flat, sagebrush refuges with mountains on the horizons, but Stillwater offered up a life bird: the Sagebrush Sparrow! A recent decision by the AOU (American Ornithologists' Union) resulted in splitting the formerly named Sage Sparrow into two distinct species: Bell's and Sagebrush Sparrows. This happens in the birding world.

Stillwater NWR - NV

With patience, I saw more birds than was first evident, including the visually delightful California Quail with its little curved topknot feathers. The water that helps make this a refuge comes out of the Sierra Nevadas to the east and there were also marshes with the usual waterfowl including Black-crowned Night-herons.

On the way to the refuge, I passed another utility pole-sitting Ferruginous Hawk, looking like a Snowy Owl with a hawk's head, and unperturbed by my presence when I stopped for a better look. A Red-tailed would have flown.

It was a nice morning in the sagebrush under blue skies...very quiet with only one other truck which I saw on the way out.

I wanted to go to Big and Little Soda Lakes just west of Fallon but the directions advised a high-clearance vehicle...so that didn't happen.

After a two-hour Starbucks stop in Fernley, NV, I drove through the busy traffic of Reno / Sparks while exiting onto US395 north in California. I was in the northwest corner of basin and range country, about which John McPhee wrote. I passed large, dried-up lake beds to the east, and a shoe tree, which always begs me to take a photo or two.

Along US395 in northern California

The Sierra Nevada mountains begin to give way to the more northern Cascades near here. The shorter days are made even more so as these mountains throw shadows a hour before sunset and, with the loss of light, comes the cold. I constantly check weather apps for temperatures a couple of days in advance. I am pushing it being this far north in November, but then weather is capricious and there have been significant snow storms in the southeastern states. So far, I have dodged bad weather.

I had so-so food at the Mazatlan Grill in Susanville....Most of the Mexican restaurants offer pretty much the same menu with mild variations in taste. Juanitos Mexican Kitchen in Alamosa was the best so far.