Natural History Wanderings

Yesterday I went birding at Bobcat Ranch in Yolo County. Bobcat Ranch is 6,800 acre property that is owned by Audubon California with the goal of supporting and encouraging conservation of blue oak woodlands and rangelands. It is located about nine miles west of Winters, CA jointly managed by Audubon and the California Department of Fish and Game Wildlife Branch. It is only open to a very limited number of visitors by lottery. I was fortunate to be invited to go with three very experienced and knowledgable birders, who teach Audubon birding classes.

It was foggy and cloudy in the 60’s when we started  and in the  70’s and mostly sunny when finished. Wind was calm. The habitat is Blue Oak Woodland, Native Perennial grassland, annual grassland, season wetland and chaparral. It was very dry today.

We walked out about a mile and half each way on an out and back walk that followed a stream bed that was very dry mostly through Blue Oak Woodland. The trail is not always clear and is slippery in a few spots., but if follows the creek bed so the direction is always obvious. In the spring there may be wet stream crossing, but it was completely dry today.

Major Trees and Shrubs included Blue Oaks, Live Oaks, Gray Pines, Toyons, Buckeye in fruit, Cottonwood, Coyote Bush and Poison Oak. Flowers in bloom were Zauschneria or California Fuschia (Epilobium canu) and Flax (Linum perenne). Unfortunately, there is also a lot of the invasive alien Yellow Star-Thistle (Centaurea solstitialis)

Butterflies seen included Buckeye, Melitta Crescent, California Sister, Monarch, Gray Hairstreak, Acmon Blue and Pipevine Swallowtail.

A highlight was a Coyote Bush in the sun that had many butterflies on it especially Buckeyes and Acmon Blues.

The group had 34 bird species. Below is the list compiled by Eddie Bartley. I missed the Mockingbird and Rock Wren.

Click read more to see bird list

Bird List:

California Quail  1

Turkey Vulture  2

Osprey  1

Golden Eagle  1

Mourning Dove  5

Anna’s Hummingbird  3

Belted Kingfisher  1

Acorn Woodpecker  7

Red-breasted Sapsucker  3

Nuttall’s Woodpecker  2

Northern Flicker  3

American Kestrel  1

Black Phoebe  1

Say’s Phoebe  1

Hutton’s Vireo  1

Western Scrub-Jay  11

Yellow-billed Magpie  1

Common Raven  2

Oak Titmouse  13

Bushtit  9

White-breasted Nuthatch  3

Rock Wren  1

Bewick’s Wren  5

Ruby-crowned Kinglet  7

Hermit Thrush  3

Northern Mockingbird  1

Cedar Waxwing  24

Fox Sparrow  3

Dark-eyed Junco  5

Golden-crowned Sparrow  68

California Towhee  4

Rufous-crowned Sparrow  4

Spotted Towhee  17

Lesser Goldfinch  5