Merced National Wildlife Refuge

January 31, 2015

Soundtrack:

• Steve Martin & Edie Brickell -- Love Has Come for You
• White Stripes -- Get Behind Me Satan

While I wouldn't say Pongo and I got skunked last weekend at San Luis, it was not one of our more interesting visits to a wildlife refuge.  We didn't sit around and lick our wounds, though, we jumped right back in on Saturday with a trip to Merced National Wildlife Refuge, which is just a few miles away from San Luis and is part of the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge Complex.  We had a lot better luck on Saturday.

Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA

Snow Goose

You'll notice in these first couple of pictures that the sky is gray.  That's smog.  It was actually a bright, sunny day.  From what I understand, that smog doesn't all come from the residents of the Central Valley.  A lot of that is Bay Area smog that gets blown inland.  Smog isn't a problem where I live and this is why, our strong coastal winds haul it all off to Modesto and Merced.  Sorry, Central Valley folks.  It's so not cool.

Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA

Great Horned Owl

The best part of the day came about half way through the auto tour.  There's a little trail that loops through what I imagine is marsh in non-drought years.  In the middle of that marsh is a small group of trees, and sitting in one of those trees were two great horned owls.  Holy cow.  The sun was behind the birds, but luckily the trail took us right by the tree so I was able to get a lot of photos with the sun at my back.

Great Horned Owl -- Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA

Great Horned Owl

Even with the sun in the right spot it was tough to get good photos.  The branches had no leaves but they were still quite dense.  I don't think I got even one clear shot of either of the owls, but I still got plenty I was happy with.  I also had to deal with the fact that auto focus is broken on my 250mm lens.  Actually, that probably didn't hinder me too much since the camera would have struggled with all the different branches and things to draw its attention.  If I'd had my tripod I could have used the touch screen to choose the focus point, but I left it in the car.  I simply wasn't expecting anything this exciting.

Can you blame me for humming the Totoro song all the way back to the car?  If these guys had fur instead of feathers and a nose instead of a beak I'd have had my eyes peeled for a catbus.  Well, except Totoro is nice, and these just looked like they were sizing me and Pongo up for a potential meal.

Great Horned Owl -- Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA

It wasn't just the owl sighting that made the trip a success, though.  This refuge has more snow geese and sandhill cranes than I've ever seen in any one place.  The Sacramento refuge has a lot of geese, but not like this.

Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA

Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA

Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA

I found a nice place to stop the car for a while to watch the geese and cranes.  Unfortunately, the cranes were too far away for my cameras, so you'll have to take my word for it that they were entertaining to watch.  I have a few pictures of the show the geese put on, though.  At one point thousands of them took to the air and flew around in circles like you'd expect from a flock of starlings.  It's cool when starlings do it, but because of their size and propensity to honk in flight it's a whole other thing when the geese do it.  Pongo enjoyed this part, although he lost interest in the birds when a rabbit hopped up to a spot about ten feet from the corner.  He didn't lose focus on that rabbit until we pulled out to finish the tour.

Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA

We saw one more owl on our way out of the refuge.  The bird was too far away to get a decent photo with my 250mm lens, so I switched to the SX50.  I loaned my old SX40 to my mom and she lost it so she bought me this camera as a replacement even though I told her not to.  Parents, they never listen, do they?  It's been gathering dust in my garage since Thanksgiving, but it has about four times the reach of my  250mm lens so I thought I'd see how it works as a supplemental camera.  The photo quality isn't nearly as good, but I was able to get a few shots I'd have had to just pass on without it, so I'll probably start bringing it along on a regular basis.

Great Horned Owl -- Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA

Finally, on the way home we stopped on the side of the highway to see some cows.  Pongo loves cows.  He gets nervous when we get close to them, though.  These cows seemed as interested in Pongo as he was in them.  Every time he'd get too nervous and look away one of the cows would moo and draw him back to the window.  So silly.