Towheeblog

Birds along the Interstate between Ashland and San Francisco Bay Area.  A Bald Eagle soaring over the freeway near Lake Shasta.  Western Tanager fighting over a tree at the Collier Rest Stop along the Klamath River. And there were three warbler species there: Yellow, Yellow-rumped and Orange-crowned.  And at least pair of Lewis’s Woodpeckers.  And this Osprey in the parking lot of the Bridge Road resort at the south end of Lake Shasta:

I saw both Magpies, one B-B near Yreka, the Yellow-billed further south.  And had the blackbird grand slam at my favorite farm just north of Easy Street exit south of Yreka:  Yellow-headed, Tricolored, Red-winged and Brewer’s.  Their Icterid cousin, Western Meadowlark, was singing from a nearby utility wire!  Five Icterids in as many seconds.

This Yellow-head was all the weay across the pond.

The Trics were in a flock rightin front of me but mostly disappeared into the grass.  Here are two shots of them in flight. Look for tiny white mark on wings.

Acorn Woodpecker at Miles Rest Stop north of Red Bluff in Tehama County.  Also there: two young Killdeer fledged earlier this month.

Other highlights of the car-birding: hundreds of swallows along the route.  A distant swirl of White-faced Ibis.  A Swainson’s Hawk over Glenn County.  Marbled Godwits at Tubbs Island in the San Pablo Bay NWR, and a Harrier a few miles east of that.