Archive for the ‘godwit’ Category

Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge

Sunday, June 13th, 2010

Visited the Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge near Malta. The prairie areas on their 15-mile auto tour route are beautiful this time of year, a mix of grasses, wildflowers, and cactus on the verge of blooming. Above, female pronghorn elk with two young ones born in May. On driving through northeast Montana, have occasionally seen pronghorns. No large groups, just one or two on prairie or farmland.

A young marbled godwit. They initially don’t know what to do when they are on a road and a car approaches. They either don’t move and cry for help, or just walk slowly ahead of the car. They learn fast though.

Breeding American avocet

A young killdeer

Yellow warbler

Ring-necked pheasant

On the road near the refuge, saw these beautiful horses standing still as stone. Realized they were sleeping. Have never seen a group sleeping before. Must have had a hard day.

The Lost Coast & Humboldt Bay

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

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Moved a little south of Eureka, to the Victorian village of Ferndale, so I could be closer to the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge and also the road to “The Lost Coast” of Northern California. Highway 211 is a rough, narrow, twisting, and often very steep highway that goes along a segment of the coastline that was too rough for Highway 1 or 101 to go. I wanted to drive it to see if I could take my trailer over it. The only good thing you can say about the 211 is at least it is paved, except for a few very small segments. I would not want to take my trailer over it. If it was a one-lane, one-way road, maybe.

The first picture above is the stretch of coastline you get to after going over the mountains from Ferndale. The second picture is of “The Wall”, a one-mile 18% grade just north of of the coastline stretch.

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Picture of the South Spit Management Area of Humboldt Bay. A five mile road lets you drive over it.

paraglider

A paraglider was able to take off and land in the same spot on a bluff over the South Spit.

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sandpipers

Birds seen along the sand spit: brown pelicans, cormorants and sandpipers.

Below, a goodwit seen on mudflats on the wildlife refuge.

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Below: a black phoebe and a dark-eyed junco.

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