Horseshoe Ranch Wildlife Area, California
by Lisa Millbank and Don Boucher

20 miles SSE Ashland, just north of Iron Gate Reservoir

We started out our walk up the Scotch Creek canyon in the early afternoon.

Western Fence Lizards

There were abundant flowers, butterflies, Western Fence Lizards, and singing Black-headed Grosbeaks [video] and Lazuli Buntings [video] right along the old road, and higher up Rock Wrens and Oak Titmice sang from the cliffs. In the brush, pairs of California Towhees called to one another.

The canyon opened out into broad meadows with an old ranch house and cattle corrals.

At the top of one of the meadows was a band of four feral horses: one stallion, one mare, a yearling filly, and a brand-new little foal.

We found an enormous Gopher Snake slowly moving over the rocks. Lisa caught her with little trouble and the snake was very docile.

She didn't bite or hiss at all, unlike many Gopher Snakes! After admiring the beautiful snake we let her go back to her business. Western Meadowlarks sang in the meadows.

After wading through Scotch Creek a few times, we began climbing through an Oregon White Oak and Western Juniper woodland along a ridgeline. Among the trees grew a lily, the Scarlet Fritillary. It was a new species for both of us. After finding many more Scarlet Fritillaries, we found a place to camp for the night, overlooking the Scotch Creek canyon and with the top of Mt. Shasta just visible over another oak-covered ridge.

Scarlet Fritillary

As it began to get dark, Common Poorwills started to call pur-wil-up as they began their evening bug hunting. It was a new species for Lisa and one Don hadn't heard for many years.

In the frosty morning we saw two feral horses grazing on the canyon slope, with Mountain Quail calling loudly. A flock of Wild Turkeys strolled through the oak woods and chaparral, with the toms gobbling now and then. We had exceedingly cute Blue-gray Gnatcatchers and White-breasted Nuthatches visiting nearby, and a chorus of all kinds of birds in the depths of the canyon was audible in the still air.

The fine soil of a gopher mound recorded the biggest Cougar tracks either of us have ever seen, about the size of Don's palm.

We walked through rolling terrain, encountering Slide Creek as it passed through a Ponderosa Pine grove filled with birds. A pair of Lesser Goldfinches who were working on their nest and mating a few times as we sat nearby. Soon the female would be laying eggs and incubating. Brilliant Western Tanagers, Bullock's Orioles, Black-headed Grosbeaks, Lazuli Buntings, Wilson's Warblers and many other birds were flashing their bright colors and singing.

As we continued upstream along Slide Creek, the terrain became more steep and we decided to camp near the mouth of a rocky canyon, on a nearby hillside. We almost sat on a very interesting plant, Naked Broomrape.

Naked Broomrape

The name is a bizarre one, but it is a parasitic plant that appeared to be parasitizing a Lomatium. As the sun set, we heard Common Poorwills from the canyon as we had the night before.

At dawn there were plenty of singers to wake us, including Ash-throated Flycatcher, Lark Sparrow, and Townsend's Warbler.

We climbed a nearby ridge and had some Black-tailed Jackrabbits hopping around close to us. We had to smile at the hares' giant ears.

As we climbed, we heard a strange song...and discovered two California Thrashers!

That was an unexpected surprise. Under a board we found a tiny Gopher Snake, some interesting native cockroaches, and a small scorpion (probably Vaejovis sp.). Once we got back to our camp, we decided to have dinner by Slide Creek. As we sat there enjoying the sun and the water splashing over the rocks, a Common Kingsnake explored the streambank.

Common Kingsnake

Lisa decided to catch the beautiful snake, who was feeling very defensive. The snake expelled smelly musk gland fluids, flattened and coiled, and tried to strike. But it was understandable that the snake felt unhappy. We took pictures and let the snake go back to hunting.

An interesting optical phenomenon occurred in the evening. Ice crystals in the atmosphere created a 22° halo around the sun and twin parhelia ("sun dogs"), one on each side of the sun.

Parhelion

That night, the wind picked up and blasted through the canyon. We could hear the gusts building at the far end of the canyon, then rushing toward our perch on the hillside, roaring through the junipers and the newly-emerging oak leaves, shaking the tent. It was not a relaxing night for sleeping.

In the morning the wind had died down and we could hear a Northern Pygmy-Owl calling in the distance. We started back to the old ranch area early. When we arrived we saw a Lewis's Woodpecker briefly.

Lewis's Woodpecker

On the hillside grazed the same little band of four horses. We decided to approach the horses to get some closer pictures of them, and after patiently hiding and waiting, we managed to get surprisingly close, although the horses were quite wild. We noticed a Golden Eagle and a pair of Black-billed Magpies.

Another band of horses arrived at the far end of the expansive meadow and they ran down the hillside to get water from Scotch Creek. By the time they made their way back up the hill, we were sitting quietly in a little grove of oaks, and the horses didn't see or smell us. One horse was within 30 feet of us, when the stallion we'd been watching earlier came cantering across the meadow and started fighting with another stallion.

The two of them whinnied, bit, reared up and chased one another. A wild horse fight close to our tent was the last thing we expected to see on our vacation!

At night, with the bright moonlight shining through the tent, we heard horses whinnying and galloping over the meadow.

In the morning the horses were still frolicking around. But it was time to go, and we headed back down the canyon. Red paintbrushes, Oregon Sunshine, beautiful Royal Penstemon and Ball-headed Gilia colored all the rocky areas.

Oregon Sunshine

Royal Penstemon

We made a quick stop at Iron Gate Reservoir before leaving, to visit the friendly American White Pelicans on the lake.

American White Pelican with breeding form (tufts on back of head) and bill ornament.