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<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Nov 6, 2025 at 18:10:29, Jim Betz via Tweeters <<a href="mailto:tweeters@u.washington.edu">tweeters@u.washington.edu</a>> wrote:<br></div>
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<div> if you had a week to 10 days - in 2026 - and birding here in the <br>U.S. ... ???<br><br> I'm thinking Bosque del Apache, somewhere in Texas, Florida, Maine, <br>Arizona, or ....</div>
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How about…. California? </div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">I’m thinking winter birding, say Thanksgiving through February, with a trip starting near Sacramento with the Central Valley Wildlife Refuges. If you’re interested in Bosque (Sandhills and cranes!) you’ll love the Central Valley area, which is full of Geese (Snow, Ross’s, Greater White Front, Cackling) and Sandhill cranes on the different refuges, plus all the awesome winter ducks. Plus, it’s drivable from here, unlike Bosque. </div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">Before moving here to Washington a few years ago to enjoy my dotage, I was based in Silicon Valley, and very involved in Santa Clara County Bird Alliance, including running an annual group outing to Merced NWR every year (at one point I was #12 in most species on eBird for Merced, but no idea where that is today). </div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">If I were making this trip schedule for myself (and I actually have but haven’t done it yet), I’d drive down into the Central Valley, spend a couple of days on the refuges, then drive down to Morro Bay (another favorite haunt of mine) for a day or two in that area, because it’s an amazing birding area, especially in winter, and it is full of nice birds in the harbor and nearby (and SEA OTTERS!), then drive up the coast to the Big Sur area (or Pinnacles) for condors (and along the way, stop at Piedras Blancas because the elephant seals will be gathering) and then up into the San Jose area for a day or two there. </div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">And if I had the time, I’d then head up the coast and stop at, say, Bandon, Newport and Astoria on the coast on the way home. If you’re in a hurry, San Jose to Silverdale is about 13 hours (ask me how I know), or a nice, fairly easy two day jaunt. </div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">Back in the day I wrote guides to how I visited the Central Valley refuges; there are six I visited every year, two near Sacramento, two near Lodi, and two near Merced. Those guides are here: <font color="#419cff"><a href="https://www.chuq.me/visiting-the-central-valley-refuges-merced-area-refuges">https://www.chuq.me/visiting-the-central-valley-refuges-merced-area-refuges</a></font>, <font color="#419cff"><a href="https://www.chuq.me/visiting-the-central-valley-refuges-lodi-area-refuges">https://www.chuq.me/visiting-the-central-valley-refuges-lodi-area-refuges</a></font>, <font color="#419cff"><a href="https://www.chuq.me/visiting-the-central-valley-refuges-lodi-area-refuges">https://www.chuq.me/visiting-the-central-valley-refuges-lodi-area-refuges</a></font>). Each of these is an easy day trip to the pair, but can work well as half day trips, so you can do two pairs in one day, hit the third pair a second and have time to drive to Morro bay after. </div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">The Lodi loop isn’t actually wildlife refuges but associated properties (Consumnes River Preserve, Staten Island (a Nature Conservancy Property) and Woodbridge Ecological Reserve, also known as the Isenberg Crane Center. The four NWRs I wrote about are Colusa NWR and Sacramento NWR, and Merced and San Luis NWR near Merced. </div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align:left">And if your curious about these, I’ve written som e-books over the years (including a Birding 101 I’m fond of), but I’ll specifically suggest my love letter to Merced NWR and "<span style="font-family:var(--heading-font-font-family);font-size:calc(var(--title-font-size-value)*1rem);letter-spacing:var(--heading-font-letter-spacing);text-align:center;text-transform:var(--heading-font-text-transform)">And the Geese Exploded: A Life With Birds</span><span style="text-align:center">”<font face="var(--heading-font-font-family)"><span style="letter-spacing:var(--heading-font-letter-spacing);text-transform:var(--heading-font-text-transform)"> both of which talk a lot about what I</span></font>’<font face="var(--heading-font-font-family)"><span style="letter-spacing:var(--heading-font-letter-spacing);text-transform:var(--heading-font-text-transform)">ve </span></font>learned<font face="var(--heading-font-font-family)"><span style="letter-spacing:var(--heading-font-letter-spacing);text-transform:var(--heading-font-text-transform)"> </span></font>about the<font face="var(--heading-font-font-family)"><span style="letter-spacing:var(--heading-font-letter-spacing);text-transform:var(--heading-font-text-transform)"> refuges over the years and why I love them. </span></font></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align:left"><span style="text-align:center"><font face="var(--heading-font-font-family)"><span style="letter-spacing:var(--heading-font-letter-spacing);text-transform:var(--heading-font-text-transform)"><br></span></font></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align:left"><span style="text-align:center"><font face="var(--heading-font-font-family)"><span style="letter-spacing:var(--heading-font-letter-spacing);text-transform:var(--heading-font-text-transform)">As a fellow bird photographer, I can attest these places are generally amazingly good photography locations (Sacto and Merced are both auto tours like Ridgefield is, FWIW). Staten Island usually has a large cackler population, Merced has large numbers of Sandhills, plus a large population of Ross</span></font>’<font face="var(--heading-font-font-family)"><span style="letter-spacing:var(--heading-font-letter-spacing);text-transform:var(--heading-font-text-transform)">s Geese (plus Snow), often > 40,0000. Sacramento has huge flocks of Snow Geese, and Colusa is best for Greater White Fronted. All them generally have Sandhills. You can find the e-books here: </span></font></span><font color="#419cff"><a href="https://www.chuq.me/ebooks">https://www.chuq.me/ebooks</a></font></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align:left"><br></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align:left">I’ll say this is what I miss most about having moved north, to be honest, along with the folks I worked with at Santa Clara Valley Bird Alliance, but then, Washington has its own joys and advantages (and I’m only 2.5 hours from Ridgefouield here), so I’m not complaining. </div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align:left"><br></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align:left">If any of you want to chat about possible visits in more detail, just drop me an email and I’ll be happy to share what I know. </div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align:left"><br></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align:left">These places aren’t as well known as Bosque, but if you’re a Sandhill or Geese nerd with a camera, I’m willing to say they’re just as good with smaller crowds, and a lot closer and easier to visit from here…</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align:left"><br></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align:left">Chuq</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align:left"><br></div><div dir="ltr"><div><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div style="color:rgb(39,39,40);font-family:-apple-system,sans-serif;font-size:14px"><div><br></div><div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px">---------------------------------------<br><br>Chuq Von Rospach (<a href="http://www.chuq.me" target="_blank">http://www.chuq.me</a>)</div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px">Silverdale, Washington</div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px">Birder, Nature and Wildlife Photographer<br><br>Email me at: <a href="mailto:chuqvr@gmail.com" target="_blank">chuqvr@gmail.com</a><br>Mastodon: @<a href="mailto:chuqvr@fosstodon.org" target="_blank">chuqvr@fosstodon.org</a><br><br>Stay Updated with what I'm doing: <a href="https://www.chuq.me/6fps/" target="_blank">https://www.chuq.me/6fps/</a><br>My latest e-book: <a href="https://www.chuq.me/ebooks" target="_blank">https://www.chuq.me/ebooks</a><br><br></div></div></div></div></div></div><br>
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