2020 03-29 Grizzly Island Wildlife Area
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2020 03-29 Grizzly Island Wildlife Area, and
a brief tour of the owls in Yolo County
Following a few posts on FB and eBird calling our attention to great horned owls at the Grizzly Island Wildlife Area near Suisun City, CA, we ventured forth to explore a new (for us) area. The day was overcast with one brief period of light rain. Winds were light and variable. Spoiler alert: we successfully located and photographed the owls.
Grizzly Island WA is not at all like Yolo ByPass, or the Sacramento NWR, areas we have been frequenting. It is mostly flat with enormous lateral vistas out to Mount Diablo in the southwest, and Suisun City to the northeast. There are lots of irrigation canals behind high levee mounds, and some ponds were flooded while others were not.
As we drove along, a short paved rode gave way to a graded semi-gravel road. We soon spotted a small herd of 4 or 5 tule elk a few hundred yards from us. Not long after that, as the road turned south, a car was parked under a row of eucalyptus trees and the driver waved at us. She said there was an active great horned owl nest high in one of the trees…then she drove off towards the exit.
The nest was huge, and among 4 or 5 large nests in this immediate area. It housed one large adult owl and two fluffy white juveniles. Attempts were made to photograph this group thought the distance, back lighting and dense tangle of branches and leaves. Of the other nests two had red-tailed hawks and the rest were empty.
As we drove east along a large canal and adjacent open space, a large coyote stood on the levee and looked at us for a short instant, then trotted off out of view. Later we photographed an extremely cooperative red-winged blackbird on a piling.
A row of wind generators along a distant ridge helped make the landscape photography.
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Read More2020 03-29 Grizzly Island Wildlife Area, and
a brief tour of the owls in Yolo County
Following a few posts on FB and eBird calling our attention to great horned owls at the Grizzly Island Wildlife Area near Suisun City, CA, we ventured forth to explore a new (for us) area. The day was overcast with one brief period of light rain. Winds were light and variable. Spoiler alert: we successfully located and photographed the owls.
Grizzly Island WA is not at all like Yolo ByPass, or the Sacramento NWR, areas we have been frequenting. It is mostly flat with enormous lateral vistas out to Mount Diablo in the southwest, and Suisun City to the northeast. There are lots of irrigation canals behind high levee mounds, and some ponds were flooded while others were not.
As we drove along, a short paved rode gave way to a graded semi-gravel road. We soon spotted a small herd of 4 or 5 tule elk a few hundred yards from us. Not long after that, as the road turned south, a car was parked under a row of eucalyptus trees and the driver waved at us. She said there was an active great horned owl nest high in one of the trees…then she drove off towards the exit.
The nest was huge, and among 4 or 5 large nests in this immediate area. It housed one large adult owl and two fluffy white juveniles. Attempts were made to photograph this group thought the distance, back lighting and dense tangle of branches and leaves. Of the other nests two had red-tailed hawks and the rest were empty.
As we drove east along a large canal and adjacent open space, a large coyote stood on the levee and looked at us for a short instant, then trotted off out of view. Later we photographed an extremely cooperative red-winged blackbird on a piling.
A row of wind generators along a distant ridge helped make the landscape photography.
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