On the way to Kern River this morning, Sue spotted this nesting Raven with young

When we initially planned our GABRAT route we had hoped that we’d be able to travel from Death Valley, north west, to enter The Yosemite National Park via the Tioga Pass. This 9,000 feet pass is usually blocked with snow until well into May, sometimes not opening until June. This has been a pretty bad winter for much of the northern States and it was no surprise to discover that the pass remains closed. Fortunately we’d built in sufficient slack into the itinerary to allow us to take the much longer route around the southern end of the Sierra Nevada mountains, up Highway 99 from Bakersfield, to enter the park from the south west. A minor tweak to our plans – we drove further than originally planned yesterday, allowed us to bird the lovely Audubon riparian valley reserve of Kern River this morning. Lots of additions to our California List, with several GABRAT ticks and a couple of America List ticks as well.

Oak Titmouse – a new bird for me in America

Not a new bird for the trip, just new for California – the stunning Anna’s Hummingbird