Los Banos Wildlife Area

DFG Lands & Facilities Branch - Los Banos Wildlife Area I had a really great time yesterday visiting the Los Banos Wildlife Area, which is about an hour or two northwest of Fresno. I went there with my grandmother and a couple of friends of mine. I would like to go there again. It was a learning experience for me in many ways, not the least of which was that I didn't know that the California Department of Fish and Game had any land of their own. Well, now I know that they do and Los Banos is one of their sites. Los Banos is located South of the Bay Area on Interstate 5. It's a swampy, marshy place, a perfect hangout for ducks and waterbirds of all kinds, and therefore a perfect hangout for duck hunters of all kinds. Since my car was not big enough to hold all six people, we decided to go in my friends' truck. It was a rainy day and so we decided to stay in the truck and drive around the wildlife refuge. This had it's pluses and its minuses. On the plus side, we were out of the rain, and their truck is very high, enabling us to see quite a bit. The minus side was that the truck was big and noisy and probably not the ideal thing to be seeing wildlife in. But what were we going to to? Out friends have two young boys and we spent some time trying to "Fish" in the lake with some reeds. I must say I was put in a tough position because I wanted to explain to the boys about the wildlife and what we were seeing but I actually didn't know much. I felt the urge to teach, but didn't have anything to teach. I am not a wildlife biologist, I can't even tell one bird from another. So I kept my mouth shut (don't get used to it) and just enjoyed the scenery. But I got my chance when the younger of the two boys needed a diaper change. The older kid, who is about seven, and I were outside and I started picking up trash all around the parking lot. I turned it into a game and the older boy and I spent a good twenty minutes collecting shotgun shells, candy wrappers, and even a couple of hunting themed cushions that some asshole had tossed into the reeds by the side of the lake. All in all, we had a really fun time and capped it off with some great Mexican Food. I was very hungry because I had done a workout that morning and had not eaten much in the way of a lunch. I plowed through a burrito with reckless abandon and when let my eyes roam over the table, hoping someone was as not hungry as I was hungry and would be willing to sacrifice a tortilla or some such to me. Finally, my grandmother obliged.