Texas Bar Road (FR 55)
Seasons
Checklists
Location
From the center of Ukiah, take Camas Street south out of town. It will become Soap Hill Road and eventually FR 52 as you travel south on this paved road. About 12 miles south of Ukiah, turn right (south) on FR 55 (gravel). This road is also called Texas Bar Road. Shortly, you will enter a burned area (Tower Burn). Go 7 miles through the burn and beyond and bird as you go. Turn right when you get to the North Fork John Dave River and continue birding another 5 miles to Hwy 395. FR 52 is closed in winter due to snow, and the upper reaches of Texas Bar Road are closed in winter due to snow.
DirectionsHabitat and Birds
This road passes through the Tower Burn, mixed conifer forests, and riparian habitats. The Tower Burn occurred in Sep. 1996, and forest succession is well underway in 2022. The burn now has many very dense stands of coniferous regrowth. Birds you can find here include Dusky Grouse (rare), Mt. Quail (rare), Cooper’s Hawk, Golden Eagle, Prairie Falcon, Common Nighthawk, Vaux’s Swift, Calliope Hummingbird, Rufous Hummingbird, Red-naped Sapsucker, Williamson’s Sapsucker, Lewis’s Woodpecker, Clark’s Nutcracker, Dusky Flycatcher, Warbling Vireo, House Wren, Rock Wren, Orange-crowned Warbler, Nashville Warbler, MacGillivray’s Warbler, Fox Sparrow, Lazuli Bunting, Green-tailed Towhee (less common than 10 years ago) and other Blue Mountain species. Bushtit, a very rare species in Umatilla County, has been seen several times in the Tower Burn and probably breeds there in very low numbers.
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