Bobcat Ranch; © Stan Hunter
Join us for a morning of hiking at Audubon California’s Bobcat Ranch, located in the foothills of the Coast Range just west of Winters. Our moderately easy hike will be roughly two miles round-trip, following ranch roads through the Blue Oak grasslands. The final route for the hike has not been set, but no matter where we go, it will be a treat to wander around this working ranch that is not normally open to the public.
Space is limited to 12 people. May be muddy – come prepared to possibly get dirty if it has been raining. Significant rain on the day, or heavy rain prior to the day of the hike will cancel. Participants are expected to be vaccinated.
Please contact Stan Hunter for more details and to sign up for this hike at stanton.hunter@gmail.com
Text by Stanton Hunter
Photos by JoAnne Fillatti
On Saturday, December 4, a group of hikers and birders was able to take a tour of Audubon California’s Bobcat Ranch, in the foothills of the Coast range, just west of Winters, CA. The hike was sponsored by Yolo Audubon Society, and was led by Joe Zinkl, Sonjia Shelly and Stan Hunter.
The day started out with fairly heavy valley fog in Winters. The group began the hike in the parking lot at the ranch, watching a group of White-crowned, Golden-crowned Sparrows and Spotted Towhees flitting about in piles of brush, and Acorn Woodpeckers flying from tree to tree around the ranch house. We then headed west along a fire road, with our destination an area known as Black Rock Basin (for the large clusters of dark rock that are found in the area), a distance of about a mile and a half away. Along the way, we saw a Say’s Phoebe, several Western Meadowlarks, and ranch regulars Oak Titmice, White-breasted Nuthatches, Yellow-rumped Warblers (Audubon’s variety), Dark-eyed Juncos (Oregon variety), Ruby-crowned Kinglets and Lesser Goldfinches. The fog was starting to burn off, and small patches of blue were showing through the clouds.
But the real starts of the show on that hike were the numerous Lewis’s Woodpeckers that were flying around, landing in trees, and calling to one another. As has been experienced recently at Bobcat Ranch, we saw more Lewis’s Woodpeckers than Acorn Woodpeckers in the Blue Oak trees along the fire road, which is normally an unusual occurrence. In the past, it would be normal to occasionally see a Lewis’s fly over, but to see so many of them feeding and congregating in the trees was an unusual and pleasant surprise.
At the top of the road, we were able to find several Savannah Sparrows, an American Kestrel and several Common Ravens. By this time, the fog had burned off and it was clear and sunny, but it was not to last long; after we had been in Black Rock Basin for around 20 minutes, the fog started blowing in and it once again got cold and damp. We thought we may have seen a Loggerhead Shrike on a barbed wire fence, but as the fog blew in, and visibility diminished, our view of the bird went away before we could confirm its identification.
We decided it was time to start back, slowly walking back the fire road to the parking lot. By the time we returned to our cars, we had covered over two and a half miles in about three hours of walking, and had seen 21 species of birds. It may not have been the most spectacular day at Bobcat Ranch, but it was certainly very pleasant to take a relaxed hike through the grass-covered hills studded with Blue Oaks, and take in the quiet beauty that is Bobcat Ranch.
Bobcat Ranch is a 6800-acre working ranch in the Coast Range west of Winters. The ranch is normally closed to the public, for preservation purposes, but the ranch occasionally allows public hikes, along with a variety of scientific studies, wildlife surveys, and other nature-based research. Thanks to Audubon California, and Dash Weidhofer, the ranch manager, for their help in putting this hike together.
