Blue Goose ~ Day 177

November 20, 2014 ~ Willows, CA to Woodland, CA

Surprise! an unexpected Starbucks here (probably because Willows is along I5), so I had a place to go with computer while waiting for morning light.

I then retraced my route east to the Packer Unit of the Sacramento River NWR, which is riparian habitat along what is left of the river. I had to drive over the levee and along a primitive road to a boat launching site, along the river would barely support a kayak now.

Packer Unit of the Sacramento River NWR - CA

I sat under the trees for 30 minutes and watched sparrows, Ruby-cronwed Kinglets and a Nuttall's Woodpecker, a life bird which looks something like a Downy Woodpecker. It is a year-long resident of western California and only found here. My next quest is to see Yellow-billed Magpies and Tricolored Blackbirds, both common in this part of California. I always am on the lookout, but don't do much actual "chasing." Kenn Kaufmann (and all the other Big Year folk) I am not.

Red-shouldered Hawk - Sacramento NWR - CA

On the way to Packer, I pulled off the road and noticed a perched and sleeping Red-shouldered Hawk in a tree out my side window. It startled awake and flew when a emergency vehicle siren suddenly sounded. I saw more of these handsome hawks later in the day at Sacramento NWR (different from the Sacramento River NWR).

Golden-crowned Sparrow - Sacramento NWR - CA

Unfortunately, the regional VC for the six refuges in the Sacramento River Valley had lost power and was closed for the day, but the auto route proved productive, even in the rain, with White-faced Ibises, thousands of ducks, Turkey Vultures, cooperative Golden-crowned Sparrows....

Delavan NWR was the last refuge for me up here. It had no defined auto route, just country roads bordering the wetlands, with distant waterfowl but close-up Brewer's Blackbirds in the fields, nice males and females side by side.

I got on I5 as the sky began to clear, driving
only for a short while before stopping north of Sacramento in the town of Woodland, at one of the more upscale Walmarts close to an Applebees, etc. Obviously, I still have not made progress on not eating out, in part (my current excuse) because the sun currently sets before 5 p.m., and it's not exactly pastoral along I5,or conducive to other cheap camping options. Plus, do I want to cook in the dark? Definitely not, as I don't apparently even want to cook in sunshine. But, I continually think about how to NOT eat so often in restaurants. Or, if I do, then how to make good choices and not eat gooey Blond Brownie-type desserts after a meal high in salt and fat. I acknowledge that these issues are pathetic in the context of real problems.

Just south of Sacramento NWR with Interstate I5 its west boundary.

Sacramento reminded me of Montezuma NWR in NY which was also within sight and sound of a busy interstate. (Actually Montezuma was BISECTED by an interstate.)