STUCK IN LODI AGAIN.
Day 108 – Remember that song? Hey, the Lodi area isn’t so bad. And I bet the people who’ve lived here all their lives must hate hearing that song. Anyway….it was 34 degrees this morning and kinda hazy but it cleared up and became mostly sunny. We got our laundry almost done; just have one more load to do tomorrow. I guess lots of people use this “rest stop” as a one-night stopover place because starting about 9 a.m., the RVs were packing up and departing.
We had a print-out of the best birding places, so we took off in the Honda for some exploring. It was early afternoon, 62 degrees, & sunny, a beautiful day. We drove to the Woodbridge Ecological Reserve North & South Regions. Both were basically areas to view birds with parking lots, and we did see some Sandhill Cranes in the distance, plus a few ducks & egrets. Then we drove to another area, Staten Island Preserve, The Nature Conservancy. This was a long road with excellent birding on both sides amongst the marshes, fields, and waterways. We spent the entire afternoon, past sunset, driving very slowly from one end of the road to the other end, stopping often to take pictures. Large amounts of migrating birds flew over & we wished we had a tape recorder. The sounds were incredible. Tundra Swans, Great Egrets, Snow Geese, Sandhill Cranes, Aleutian Cackling Geese, Great Blue Herons, Snowy Egrets, Canada Geese, Coots, other ducks, hawks, and small birds. Many thousands of birds. Amazing. There were other people driving along the road, like we were; one guy we talked to said that on weekends people are out birdwatching en masse. So glad to have this opportunity. And several more days to do it some more!
We got back to the RV after dark, but the girls didn’t mind because they had the heated pads. What an excellent cat sitter! Cooling off rapidly, 40 degrees. The campground is full of very large RV’s again. We shut our blinds & drapes and had dinner, read our books, and Gracie helped Rob go through the pictures on the computer. Good night, Uncle Jack, may you rest in peace. You are missed.
Gracie “helping” to edit more than 800 pictures!