Mileage

Location/Details

00

Orinda Bart Station, from here head east on Highway 24, eventually taking 224.

Folo signs to Antioch, then north across Antioch Bridge (toll northbound) toward Rio Vista.

North of bridge raptors and herons/egrets become common. Expect RT Hawks, Kestrel, Great Egret.  Possible Harrier and WT Kite.

40

Brannon Island Recreation Area, admission charge, toilets locked  in winter.  Picnic tables, but poor birding.

50

Intersection of 160 and Highway 12, turn east on 12, east of Rio Vista Bridge.    As you head east on Highway 12 watch for Western Meadowlarks, ducks and geese in flooded fields. Narrow shoulders and few safe places to pull off the highway.

54

Glasscock Road.  North of Highway 12 this road goes to county park.  Sparrows, Killdeer, Spotted Towhee, Loggerhead Shrike, Mockingbird, Western Meadowlark, Sandhill Cranes, Juncos, goldfinch possible.  Admission charge but toilets open in winter.   Picnic tables.

Further east on Highway 12, watch for Tundra Swans, esp. south of the highway.  Possible: Canvasback, Shoveler, Coots, other ducks, herons, egrets, raptors.  The first Sandhill Cranes should be seen in plowed or grassy fields, far back from highway.  Watch for swans, geese and cranes in flight overhead.

60

I-5 Intersection, do not enter freeway, but take Thornton Road north, east of I-5.  Junk food and gas stations here, toilets.

Dairy farms in this area have many icterids, Starlings. Have not found Tricolored Blackbirds nor YB Magpie.

62

Turn left under freeway onto Woodbridge Road from Thornton Road.

Almost immediately you should see cranes in the fields. Other birds to expect: Mockingbird, icterids, American Pipit, Western Meadowlark, Black-necked Stilt in flooded fields, sparrows including Savannah, Kestrel, RT Hawk, Harrier.  YR Warbler in the vineyards. Kingfisher along  the water-filled ditches.  Ponds and flooded fields may have ducks: Pintail, Shoveler, etc.

64

Isenberg Sandhill Crane Refuge.  Parking lot and elevated viewing area.  Cranes, swans, ducks, shorebirds, herons and egrets including Snowy, Harrier, other raptors.  Ground squirrels. Watch for swans, cranes, ducks should include GW Teal and Gadwall, and expect geese overhead.

Continue on Woodbridge Road to the end: expect even more shorebirds including possible Snipe, Dunlin, BB Plover, Killdeer, Western Sandpiper.  Other birds will be Black Phoebe, White-crowned Sparrow, House Finch, American Robins in barnyard with trees, Red-tailed and possible Ferruginous Hawks, Kites and more Kestrels, Coots and various small gulls.