Rancheria Road - Kern County

While visiting my mother-in-law in Bakersfield, Pat and I took run to the east up a road I have wanted to travel for sometime. Rancheria Road connects with Highway 178 just before it enters into the Kern River Canyon and winds and twists its way up several different ridges before joining Highway 155 in Alta Sierra at Greenhorn Summit.

It is only paved for the bottom 3-4 miles and is dirt the rest of the way. In some places it is so narrow that you would have some difficulty if you encountered a vehicle coming the other direction. As you make your way up this road you pass through the typical west slope ecozones, starting in the open grassland and ending up in the mature Fir forests at the top. Highlights were a likely Prarie Falcon in the lower region, a Nashville Warbler about half way up and a really nice Red-brested Sapsucker at the Alta Sierra Ski Park.

From here we headed down to Lake Isabella and over to the Audubon Kern River Preserve. This was our 4th visit to AKRP this year and the first time we were able to enter by the main road. In our previous 3 attempts we were kept out by the flooding South Fork waters. After arriving we were lucky enough to meet a banding team from the Southern Sierra Research Station who were doing their last net runs of the season. They brought in a House Wren, Common Yellowthroat, Orange-crowned Warbler and a Nashville Warbler and we watched as they measured, weighed, banded and collected tail feathers before releasing them. They also mentioned that they had heard one of the nesting pairs of Yellow-billed Cuckoos calling about 45 minutes before our arrival. After getting some directions as to where the best place to stand and listen (me, Pat went to eat lunch) I staked out the spot and after 15 minutes I heard it call! Just once, but there was no mistaking it. I waited another 15 minutes but that was it. It would be worth spending the day there on the chance that we might get to see one.

After leaving the Kern River area we headed out to Kelso Valley and on over to Butterbredt Springs just to see what might be there. Turns out that it was just a few of the regulars plus about 300 California Quail. They were not too happy to see us and made quite a racket. On our way into the spring we did find two Greater Roadrunners. One of them was kind enough to pose up on a fence post for us. 

All in all an excellent day out. I think we will give Rancheria Road another look next spring when conditions are more favorable for migrants.