Birds Of The Raymond CA area 04-12-22
Dale Matson
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Besides an annual bicycle ride called, “Everybody Loves Raymond Ride”, it is a good area for birding. It is near both Eastman Lake, fed by the Chowchilla River and Hensley Lake fed by the Fresno River. Raymond was previously called Wildcat Station and has a population of about 1,000 people. The main attraction is the General Store/Bar/Restaurant and Sharon and I usually head there for lunch and then home to Fresno.
We do a big loop drive which takes us past a Golden Eagle nest, then we head to Hensley Lake and then Eastman Lake. In all we passed Golden Eagles, Bald Eagles, numerous Hawks and an Owl. The eggs have hatched in most places. It is a biweekly adventure for us.
Today we saw our first Golden Eagle chick peeking out of the nest at us. There quite a bit of wind today and there was a “Kettle” made up of Buzzards, two mature Bald Eagles and a juvenile eagle circling overhead at Hensley Lake near the vista point.
There was a pair of adult Bald Eagles out over Eastman Lake circling high overhead. We took highway 607 (a dirt road) from Eastman Lake to Raymond for lunch on the porch. On our way to highway 400 on Raymond Road, we checked out an owl nest with and adult and at least one chick.
