2016 11-05 Delta – Lodi
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It was the Lodi Crane Festival weekend and we took a late afternoon-sunset “Delta Birding Tour” which left Tower Park Marina & Yogi Bear Camp Ground at 250 pm. About 16 people piled into 2 small open pontoon boats and we headed north from Little Potato Slough, under the Tower Park Bridge, to the South Mokelumne River, Islemouth Slough and the waters south of Westgate Landing campground.
A few minutes after leaving the dock at Yogi Bear, the battery in our boat went dead and the operator could not re-start the outboard engine. Our operator’s wife ran the other pontoon boat and quickly had us tide side by side and kept on with the cruise.
There was a single California sea lion around one bend in the river. A very big great horned owl was perched in a tree. A red-tailed hawk was in another part of the river in a tree. Numerous red-winged black birds flew alone and in groups. A total of 35 species of birds were recorded, many were distant or too small to photograph. The low angle of the sun coming through the clouds created backlighting problems here and there. A very vocal northern, or red-shafted, flicker (a member of the woodpecker family) posed atop several trees and we had great looks. Snowy and great egrets were there, also one great blue heron. Three very actively-hunting Caspian terns swooped and dove around the region. One tern carried a fish in its mouth and then dropped it.
The sunset photos of the Tower Park Bridge, Mt. Diablo with sandhill cranes in the sky, and other estuary moments punctuated a nice day on a small open boat in the Delta.
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Read MoreIt was the Lodi Crane Festival weekend and we took a late afternoon-sunset “Delta Birding Tour” which left Tower Park Marina & Yogi Bear Camp Ground at 250 pm. About 16 people piled into 2 small open pontoon boats and we headed north from Little Potato Slough, under the Tower Park Bridge, to the South Mokelumne River, Islemouth Slough and the waters south of Westgate Landing campground.
A few minutes after leaving the dock at Yogi Bear, the battery in our boat went dead and the operator could not re-start the outboard engine. Our operator’s wife ran the other pontoon boat and quickly had us tide side by side and kept on with the cruise.
There was a single California sea lion around one bend in the river. A very big great horned owl was perched in a tree. A red-tailed hawk was in another part of the river in a tree. Numerous red-winged black birds flew alone and in groups. A total of 35 species of birds were recorded, many were distant or too small to photograph. The low angle of the sun coming through the clouds created backlighting problems here and there. A very vocal northern, or red-shafted, flicker (a member of the woodpecker family) posed atop several trees and we had great looks. Snowy and great egrets were there, also one great blue heron. Three very actively-hunting Caspian terns swooped and dove around the region. One tern carried a fish in its mouth and then dropped it.
The sunset photos of the Tower Park Bridge, Mt. Diablo with sandhill cranes in the sky, and other estuary moments punctuated a nice day on a small open boat in the Delta.
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Sandhill cranes in sunset sky.
Grus canadensis 3 silhouettes in sunset sky 2016 11-05 Delta – Lodi--007
