Sporadic dispatches from the hinterlands.
We’ve been stuck at home for a while, waiting out the pandemic. We haven’t had much chance to get out and see wildlife, so this morning some wildlife came to see us.
We don’t normally see opossums out in the daytime but this one seemed to be enjoying the sunshine. Perhaps he’s adapting to the new level of quiet as we humans all shelter in place.
We made the 2-hour drive out across Pacheco Pass to the San Joaquin Valley to visit Merced Wildlife Refuge this weekend. It’s a wetland area and an important part of the Pacific Flyway, and we’d heard that there are a lot of birds there now. We wanted to get there before all the winter birds migrate away.
It was a good day. We spent a couple of hours driving the 5-mile auto tour route at Merced, and we saw a lot of birds. Our car battery died, but we got a quick jump from AAA. We continued on to San Luis National Wildlife refuge, where we saw fewer birds, but enjoyed the distant tule elk and the varied wetlands. It was dark by the time we headed home, with a lot of shots in the camera and 49 species of birds recorded for the day.
For the second weekend in a row, we took a walk on the San Mateo Coast. Last week it was the Cowell-Purisima Trail; this week, we started at Gazos Beach and walked down toward Año Nuevo State Park.
We have such a great stretch of coast near home that we wonder why we go anywhere else.
We went out birdwatching on Christmas day along the edges of San Francisco Bay. It was dark and gray and blustery, but we saw a few birds out there.
