Rush Ranch November 2008

A recommendation from a friend at work, Rush Ranch is a marshland that's home to a lot of birds and other wildlife. I have to say, it's a very nice and easy walk, but it's not easy to see any of the wildlife as they're all hiding somewhere in the marsh reeds. That said, this did prove to be a very productive day as we got to see a few white-tailed kites. These birds were near extinction at one point, but have recovered quite well in California. I'm not sure how common they are, but we saw three or four of them - the only problem being that I saw them whilst we were driving down the road, not actually in the Rush Ranch grounds. There's a couple of photos of two of them out in the field, but this is a tight crop on a 500mm lens, so the quality is not very good. The better photos are on of the one on the power lines (just a little less scenic).

On the walk itself, the most interesting things we saw were ground squirrels. Along the walk there are posts that mark certain points of interest (details of which are in the guide book that you pick up at the visitor center). Now, little three year olds quite like the idea of running up to the posts to see what number is on them. Unfortunately my little scooter had spotted a post and was making his way to it when I saw the squirrels. This made most of them run into their burrows. Those that didn't make it into the burrows at first soon dived in when they heard the very loud “donk” noise. Unfortunately, little three year olds find it difficult to concentrate on one thing at once and, on approaching said post, mine turned round shouting “Daddy - it's a post, Daddy - it's a post” and subsequently tripped going head first into the post which in turn created the loud “donk” noise sending the remaining squirrels scurrying. Anyway, one of them pocked his head out of his burrow after a few minutes to see what was going on and I managed to get a quick picture.

Best I can tell, the animals are:

White-Crowned Sparrow
Fox Sparrow
California Ground Squirrel
Ladybird (yes, there wasn't much to photograph so I resorted to taking a couple of pictures of ladybirds)
Yellow-Rumped Warbler
Killdeer
White-Tailed Kite
Black Phoebe
Double-Crested Cormorant

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