Central California

 

Well, we've hit the point of diminishing returns so far as the trip list goes, but I had to sneak into Lake County in order to get to some of the Napa County birding roads faster, so I was able to add a handful up there.

Started at Bothe-Napa Valley State Park, where the first bird I kicked up driving in was a Varied Thrush; not bad! I took a quick walk around the campground and had curious chickadees and kinglets, a nervous Hermit Thrush, and calling Steller's Jays, but that was about it. Hiked a bit of the Ritchie Creek Trail from the main road, and it was a lovely hike along the raging creek but very quiet bird-wise. The History Trail was a little better; picked up a Brown Creeper and something calling that MAY have been a Pileated Woodpecker, but I didn't recognize the vocalization. A very friendly Hutton's Vireo came to say hello at the resting spot.

  

Ritchey Creek

  

Campground at Bothe-Napa Valley SP

         

Chestnut-backed Chickadees

   

Ritchie Creek Trail

 

History Trail

Wrapped that up pretty quickly (the only down side was the traffic noise from the highway) and headed up to Robert Louis Stevenson SP, passing through quaint little Calistoga on the way. Talk about a windy road; I'm sure glad I didn't have any passengers prone to seasickness! It was a beautiful drive through the thick forest, though; found the only parking area to access the trails, and did a little of the Table Rock Trail first, but although it was a pretty good trail (slightly uphill but nice and wide) through lovely woodland, the wind was howling; even the big trees were bending! Needless to say I heard nothing, but another Varied Thrush did pop up at the turnaround point. Had an incident that had someone caught it on tape would have gone in the "naughty file" on AFV: while pausing to take a potty break my stool collapsed under me... (those things build your sense of humor...)

Table Rock Trail

Anyway, tried the RLS Memorial Trail after that, and for some reason it was relatively calm on the other side! Still dead as a doornail, though: I heard NO birds on that hike whatsoever! So I headed back to the car and decided to check out these roads that John Sterling said were good for birding in his write-up. Headed up towards Middleton, and it was amazing how the road suddenly straightened out at the county line!

  

Picnic area at Robert Louis Stephenson SP

   

Memorial Trail

 

Fungus

Made a right on Butts Canyon Road, and what scenery! It was well worth the drive; came across a little reservoir that had several Ring-necked Ducks and Mallards, a couple of cormorants and Canada Geese, and around the corner a Pied-billed Grebe for Lake County! Once again, at the county line "NAPA CO." was plastered across the road, so I pulled over and started my routine, picking up a Wrentit on the Lake side (the road becomes Pope Valley Road at this point). Because it was "that time of day" I didn't pick up much on my stops, but did take the little road into Artesia I believe it was called (I forgot the map that shows that), and that was quite lovely, with lots of oak savannah habitat, a pretty creek under a colorful historic bridge, and a farm pond with enough reeds that I was hoping for something secretive, but nada. At what looked like some kind of retreat (that had seen better days, at least some of the buildings) there was a flock of Golden-crowned Sparrows and a covey of California Quail. After the pavement ended the road went up the hill and gave you a spectacular vista of the area! But it got pretty muddy at one point (generally speaking it was a very good graded road), and driving right into the glare I didn't think it was prudent to go on, so headed on down. Except for a couple of Anna's Hummers chasing each other, it was pretty dead up there, too.

  

Butts Canyon Road in Lake Co.

   

Reservoir along the road

  

Scenes along Artesia Road

   

Historical bridge

   

Swartz Creek

 

Pond

            

View from the dirt road

At Pope Valley I wanted to drive straight to the end of Berryessa Knoxville Road at the county line and start birding back, but it became apparent that I wasn't going to have time to do that: the road past where David and Denise and I had gone last week was narrow and windy (although still paved), and the wind had knocked down enough small branches that you were playing "dodge wood" all along the road! But I've already decided to head back there tomorrow morning and bird it properly: it was absolutely gorgeous back there, with lots of Valley Oak (I'm presuming) along the creek, and savannah and chaparral on the opposite side! On the map it said "Impassable in wet weather", and I was wondering why it said that when the road was paved, then saw what they meant: there were several creek crossing where if the creek was high, it crossed the road! Thankfully the water at all the crossings was shallow enough to drive through, but I can see where it might get a little dicey!

Scenes along the Berryessa-Knoxville Road

Decided to make a loop of it and continued on into Lake County; thankfully the road opens up at that point so you can scoot. Made it back to Calistoga in plenty of time to gas up and get checked in.