Last Sunday my husband and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary. We had planned to visit the National Wildlife Refuges in Northern California, namely, Modoc NWR, Tule Lake NWR, and Lower Klamath NWR. Tule Lake and Lower Klamath are a stone's throw from each other. And Modoc is about 50 miles east of Tule Lake NWR. But before we got started Monday morning we had to make a detour. Our son had gone to the Sierras with his two dogs for the weekend and had truck trouble and had to get it towed in. Luckily, he was only about 6 miles away from a town that had a tow truck. To make a long story short, we headed up to Shaver Lake in case he was going to be "stranded" there overnight and he would need to get back into San Jose before the truck would be fixed. On our way to Shaver Lake, we drove through an area near Millerton Lake where I saw in a distance a very large nest in a big old dead tree out in a field. We think it was possibly an eagle's nest, but we never saw any eagles flying around or perched anywhere in the vicinity. We did see vultures and hawks flying around. The hawks were most likely red-tailed hawks - but I couldn't positively identify any of them. I did see a hawk "diving" down to a field - possibly going after his lunch or dinner -- and this one had red markings, so it was probably a red-tailed hawk. Then while we were "parked" at the towing place waiting with Tim to make sure the truck would be fixed by day's end, Dave noticed some of the birds flying around nearby. He pointed out some birds he thought were possibly swallows. I got my trusty, new binocs and checked it out. Yes, cliff swallows were flying around and heading back to the eaves of one of the buildings of the towing place. Meanwhile, Dave and I knew we weren't going to get to our destination before nightfall, so we opted to stay overnight in Lodi, CA and get a fresh start the next morning. And the only birds we found there around the motel in Lodi were starlings and house sparrows. I didn't get any photos taken on Monday, but here are a few pix I took Saturday morning around our yard.
More posts with more photos of our NWR trip will follow.
9 comments:
Happy anniversary on the 40th anniversary.
Ours is coming up at the end of this year.
Congrats on the Anniversary! That is GREAT! I love the hummingbird pic. Thanks for sharing.
Wow, Mary, those are beautiful morning glories and what a cute little hummingbird. Looking forward to seeing more pics from your anniversary trip.
Mary,
Happy Anniversary! 40 years - wow.
Nice to have a weekend away? There's always something new to see other than what you see in your backyard. But I must say, your backyard is colorful and I love that hummingbird photo! You are really close!!! Is that a male ruby-throated? If so, I'm really jealous!
Well, Happy Anniversary! You are a couple of years ahead of us.
I planted that color of morning glories for the first time this year, but they aren't blooming yet.
Looking forward to your trip shots.
Sounds like a nice trip-I'll be looking froward to more reports-HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!
Dear Mary,
Happy Anniversary.
Your Hummingbird photo is great!
I too have the morning glories like yours. The hummers like them!
Looking forward to more photos.
Sherry
WOW, such a perfect way to celebrate your 40th anniversary! Love your hummingbird shot!
Thanks, everyone, for the congrats. I don't know where those 40 years went - it sure doesn't feel that long. And for those of you who were asking about the hummingbird - it's a male Anna's - the west coast's species of a ruby-throated. And the funny thing about the morning glories - we didn't plant any this year - they are left over from seeds from two years ago that decided to sprout this year since we broke up the soil to plant the cannas.
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