California Locations
Places I've enjoyed meeting birds in California, north of San Diego County
2024
Memories of Lone Pine
I always enjoy exploring near Lone Pine. There is so much spectacular scenery nearby. To its east, and rising to over 11,000 feet, are the Inyo Mountains. These mountains were…
Memories of Granite Wells
2016-12-04 Camping at the Granite Wells site was the coldest excursion of all the museum outings. It was good that this was the last outing until spring next year. On…
Memories of Imperial County’s Ramer Lake
The heat of summer at Ramer Lake means hundreds upon hundreds of nesting and/or roosting Cattle Egrets, White-Faced Ibis, Double-Crested Cormorants would be present. A few American White Pelicans, numerous…
Memories of Dirty Socks Springs
2016-04-20 Wednesday The local birding community is well aware of Dirty Socks Springs. Located at the southern edge of the Owens Lake basin, it used to be a county park…
Memories of the Salton Sea at Red Hill
2017-04-20 Salton Sea: Bowles Road to Red Hill I spent the night at Bowles Road and woke up early to find a swarm of tree swallows all around me. It…
Memories of Pinyon Wells – Joshua Tree NP
2016 – Early October Camping I spent the second week of October with the bird and mammal department of the San Diego Natural History Museum in Joshua Tree National Park.…
Memories of Cottonwood Spring – Joshua Tree NP
Cottonwood Spring is located inside Joshua Tree National Park. Twice, in 2016, I visited there, with the science team from the San Diego Natural History Museum; once at the end…
Memories of Mohave Desert Camping – Cima
2016-11-08~14: Camping In The Mojave I left Poway on Tuesday, November 8 to catch up with the Bird and Mammal team from the San Diego Natural History Museum. The science…
Memories of Aspendell California
Twice, I’ve visited this alpine community towering at an elevation of 8400 feet over the 4100 foot Owen’s Valley below, where the town of Bishop is located. Bishop, a small…
Memories of Mammoth Lakes
In 2017, I spent two days exploring Mammoth Lakes in the eastern Sierra-Nevada Mountains. Below are notes from the visit. 2017-07-16 Mammoth Lakes Birds Mammoth Creek connects a string of…
Memories of the Nacimiento-Ferguson Road
I fell in love with the Nacimiento-Ferguson Road in the 1990s, long before I began my love affair with bird photography. My career supporting battery-operated life-safety inverter systems often required…
Memories of the Klamath River Mouth
On 2017-09-12, I drove south from Crescent City and found the Klamath River Mouth where River Otters entertained me. I spent the night right there and drove a short distance…
Memories of San Luis Obispo Bay
On Monday, 2022-02-28, I was eager to get on the road after months of preparation, and not wanting to face Los Angeles traffic on a weekday, I left my Poway…
2020
2020-05-28 Cattle Call Brawley
After leaving Arivaca Wednesday morning I drove a rural route through Ajo and Gila Bend to Yuma where I spent the night. Thursday morning after having breakfast I launched the…
Memories of Idyllwild
Whether your interests are hiking, exploring, shopping for art, camping, mountaineering, relaxing, summer jazz, or just escaping from the hustle of the southern California cities below, the mile-high region around…
Memories of Merced NWR
Midway between Interstate 5 and US-99, 15 miles from Los Banos and 11 miles from Merced California, is the approximate geographic center of California’s Central Valley. It is also the…
Memories of Gray Lodge
Wildlife preserves in modern times can serve as a reminder of the intended natural order of life on this planet. The ravenous demands of an ever-expanding society have ground through…
Memories of Crowley Lake
Crowley Lake is located within the Eastern Sierra District in the high country north of Bishop California. It is a large lake on the upper Owens River and part of…
Memories of Crescent City
Tucked into the northwestern corner of California and surrounded by redwoods, you will find the town of Crescent City. When I visit family in Southern Oregon, I enjoy the first…
Memories of Cattle Call Park
Cattle Call Park is located on the western edge of Brawley California in the Imperial Valley, close to the Salton Sea. The park takes its name from the rodeo event…
Memories of June Lake
The Eastern Sierra District, as some call it, is a wondrous region. It stretches over 150 miles from Bridgeport to a few miles south of Lone Pine. I see it…
Memories of Bridgeport California
At the foot of the Eastern Sierra-Nevada Mountains is a “Big Meadow”, as the town of Bridgeport California was once called. It is a small town with a population of…
Memories of Garner Valley
Garner Valley sits between the sky islands of San Jacinto (10,833′) and Santa Rosa (8,717′) in southern Riverside County. My first visit here was June 2011 with the San Diego…
Memories of Mono Lake
Mono Lake is unique. To the uninterested or uninformed passerby it might seem just another large lake, and it is large (over 45,000 acres). What is less obvious is the…
2019
Memories of Sacramento NWR
My first visit to the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge was December 2002. Winter is an interesting time of the year to visit any of the reserves in the Sacramento or…
Memories of Piedras Blancas
Like Morro Bay’s otters, Piedras Blancas has its own mammalian attractions: the Northern Elephant Seal. From the time of their discovery by European profiteering mariners, these animals were slaughtered by…
Memories of Morro Bay
I first visited Morro Bay in December 2003, when my passion for bird photography was new. The act of chasing birds can produce unanticipated meetings with creatures other than birds,…
Memories of the Salton Sea, Southeastern Shoreline
For the sake of simplicity, the area I often refer to as “Lack and Lindsey” includes the shoreline and adjacent fields from the New River Delta north to Obsidian Butte.…
Memories of the Salton Sea, Vendel Road
Continuing the sharing of my favorite birding destinations near the Salton Sea … After visiting Poe Road, my next stop is usually at Unit #1 of the Salton Sea NWR.…
Memories of the Salton Sea, Poe Road
For a brief background discussion on the Salton Sea, <Read This Post>. When I travel from my San Diego County digs to visit the Salton Sea, there are several locations…
Memories of the Salton Sea, A Unique Geology
The basin we know as the “Salton Sink” is one of the lowest places in North America. It rests over the San Andreas Fault system and is in a very active…