2020 04-10 Staten Is & Rancho Seco Reservoir
-
Our afternoon began with a trip to the Rancho Seco Reservoir Park. We were led to this area by recent reports of raptors and a belted kingfisher on eBird. It is a medium-size reservoir, very close to the twin smokestacks from the old SMUD nuclear power plant that long ago was decommissioned. SMUD has made a wonderful park out of the area including a small beach, some floating docks here and there for fishing, a hiking trail and a campground for tents and RVs. We toured the area to get the lay of the land and look for wildlife. We concluded that it would be best to come back prepared for a walk along the hiking trail to find wildlife as there was not much going on elsewhere except for two turkey vultures and some large peacocks.
After about a half an hour drive to the southwest, we ended up at Staten Island where we have not been for quite a while (2018 09-06). The wetlands here were all drained and the soil that used to be on the pond bottoms has all been nicely plowed and leveled with tractors still working. The main road is about 3 miles long and on our way southbound we did not see much in the way of wildlife. The dilapidated water tank at the end of the dirt road was devoid of owls and so was the adjacent corrugated metal storage barn. The trip back to the north was also fairly uneventful until near the end where we saw a raptor fly into a tree and perch alongside a larger raptor. The smaller one flew on to a telephone pole and then onward to another telephone pole until it finally took flight and soared into the stratosphere. After viewing the pictures the smaller hawk was identified as a Swainson’s hawk. The larger and darker hawk was hidden in the foliage and photographs could not be identified.
Back at the mouth of the road right by the rice processing plant Suellen spotted a close approach by a large red tail hawk. It’s circled above us several times and then landed on the upper most structure of the buildings. It was a beautiful and unusually large animal. When I analyzed the images of this hawk I noticed it was perched near nest near the top of the facility.
-
Read MoreOur afternoon began with a trip to the Rancho Seco Reservoir Park. We were led to this area by recent reports of raptors and a belted kingfisher on eBird. It is a medium-size reservoir, very close to the twin smokestacks from the old SMUD nuclear power plant that long ago was decommissioned. SMUD has made a wonderful park out of the area including a small beach, some floating docks here and there for fishing, a hiking trail and a campground for tents and RVs. We toured the area to get the lay of the land and look for wildlife. We concluded that it would be best to come back prepared for a walk along the hiking trail to find wildlife as there was not much going on elsewhere except for two turkey vultures and some large peacocks.
After about a half an hour drive to the southwest, we ended up at Staten Island where we have not been for quite a while (2018 09-06). The wetlands here were all drained and the soil that used to be on the pond bottoms has all been nicely plowed and leveled with tractors still working. The main road is about 3 miles long and on our way southbound we did not see much in the way of wildlife. The dilapidated water tank at the end of the dirt road was devoid of owls and so was the adjacent corrugated metal storage barn. The trip back to the north was also fairly uneventful until near the end where we saw a raptor fly into a tree and perch alongside a larger raptor. The smaller one flew on to a telephone pole and then onward to another telephone pole until it finally took flight and soared into the stratosphere. After viewing the pictures the smaller hawk was identified as a Swainson’s hawk. The larger and darker hawk was hidden in the foliage and photographs could not be identified.
Back at the mouth of the road right by the rice processing plant Suellen spotted a close approach by a large red tail hawk. It’s circled above us several times and then landed on the upper most structure of the buildings. It was a beautiful and unusually large animal. When I analyzed the images of this hawk I noticed it was perched near nest near the top of the facility.
-
Red-tailed hawk.
Buteo jamaicensis in flight backlighting 2020 04-10 Staten Is--073
