Colusa & Sacramento National Wildlife Refuges

January 30, 2016

It's winter in California.  In the mountains that means snow.  Most people don't think of snow and winter sport when they think of California, but the Sierras are the tallest mountain range in the lower forty-eight with world class ski resorts in some area.  The Winter Olympics were hosted here in 1968.  We don't get much snow in the Central Valley.  There, winter is all about the birds.  Well, at least it is for me.

Colusa National Wildlife Refuge, CA

Mallard -- Colusa National Wildlife Refuge, CA

A lot of birds winter in California.  Growing up in Oregon, I was used to seeing the ducks and geese flying overhead in spring and fall.  I never really wondered where they were headed, but now I know.  Most were heading to California's Central Valley.  Some birds actually winter in Oregon, but I wasn't aware of that either.  It's only been within the last few years that I've developed an decent understanding of bids' migratory habits.

Green-winged Teal -- Colusa National Wildlife Refuge, CA

Gadwall

My first stop on Saturday was at Colusa National Wildlife Refuge.  It was my first time there.  It's a nice refuge to visit, next time I'll bring Pongo along.  He went with my wife and our other dog Charlie to the dog park instead of joining me on this trip.  I think he'll like it.  It has a three mile auto tour and a nice walking trail alongside one of the big ponds.

Snow Goose -- Colusa National Wildlife Refuge, CA

Greater White-fronted Goose -- Colusa National Wildlife Refuge, CA

Northern Shoveler -- Colusa National Wildife Refuge, CA

I guess I should have mentioned earlier, if you're not interested in pictures of birds that are commonly seen in these Central Valley refuges you won't find much of interest in this post.

Northern Pintail -- Colusa National Wildlife Refuge, CA

Northern Pintail

This entry should give you a pretty good idea of why I don't consider myself to be a birder.  There are no rarities here.  Most of these birds can be found by the hundreds--if not thousands--at any of the valley's refuges.  I suspect most birders wouldn't even bother with pictures of northern shovelers or pintails.  It only takes the effort of driving to a refuge to guarantee seeing one of these birds.  I don't really get off on seeing rarities.  I'm not even after bird shots, necessarily.  A coyote or otter sighting is much more exciting to me than any bird I've ever seen.  I'm not judging one way or another, I just see a difference between what I'm up to and what I see on a lot of bird blogs.  I follow a lot of bird blogs, it's a great way to learn about birds.

Pacific Pond Turtle -- Colusa National Wildlife Refuge, CA

Great Horned Owl -- Colusa National Wildife Refuge, CA

At the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, I saw a couple of things I've never seen before.  First, I saw a redhead.  That's a lifer bird, for me.

Redhead -- Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, CA

Second, I saw a patrol car at the entrance of the refuge.  It was there when I arrived and still there when I left.  I'm sure it was present in response to the knuckleheads who have occupied the Malheur refuge.  I don't care for politics, but the wildlife refuges and National Park System are undoubtedly the one thing this country has gotten right.  I have no respect for what these gun-wielding idiots have done up there in Oregon and it angers me to see law enforcement officers posted guard in front of a wildlife sanctuary (and hunting ground).  These few salvaged spots belong to all of us: person, beast and fowl.  Ninety-five percent of the Central Valley has been taken up by farming, ranching and urban development, it's imperative that we save that remaining five percent for posterity.

OK, I'm done.  Hopefully it'll be another three years or more before I get up on a soapbox again.

Cinnamon Teal -- Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, CA

Thanksgiving 2015: Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge

November 22, 2015

For me, Thanksgiving means making the annual trek up to Oregon for a get together with with my extended family.  It's a large gathering.  This year there were sixty-five people or so.  That's maybe slightly above average, but only by a few people.  I think the largest we ever had was ninety folks.  It's not held in a house, it's in a church gymnasium.

Northern Pintail -- Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, CA

Northern Pintail

This year was a little different than usual.  Since Sam moved out a few years ago I've been taking the entire week off and making the drive up a cold-weather road trip.  I spend four or five days by myself camping and seeing the sites.  This year Pongo joined me.  It was the dog's longest trip to date.  Six days.  We had quite a nice adventure together.

Northern Pintail -- Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, CA

Our first stop on the drive up was at Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge.  It's one of our day trip destinations so we are both familiar with it.  There are a couple of trails we can walk on and the auto tour can be spectacular in the winter.  The weather was perfect, cool but not cold with enough clouds in the sky to make wide shots interesting.

Ring-billed Duck -- Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, CA

Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, CA

Snow Goose

This particular refuge can be a decent place for spotting mammals.  We've seen deer and raccoons and a lone coyote.  I'm always hoping to see an otter but have never seen one.  Truthfully, I'm not sure there even are otters at his location.  I've heard mountain lions are occasionally spotted at these Central Valley complexes.  Rarely, actually.  That would be awesome.  I don't know how Pongo would react.  He tried to jump out the window and chase the last raccoons we saw there.  Silly dog.  We didn't see any mammals on this trip.  Lotsa ducks and geese, though.

Snow Goose -- Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, CA

Snow Goose -- Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, CA

Red-tailed Hawk

Pongo's ears perk up whenever he hears a flock of geese.  He enjoys watching the big birds.  The auto tours in general are a lot of fun for him, I guess.  He likes to hang out the passenger window as we drive slowly around the gravel roads.  That door has a lot of light scratches on it now from Pongo's sightseeing.  That's OK, we never sell our cars anyway, we just drive them until they die.

Hawks and harriers are common sights at the refuge.  The hawks like to sit in the trees that ring the auto tour which is cool because it creates nice photo opportunities.  Harriers are tougher to photograph.  They land on the ground far from the road when they aren't flying around.  I've seen dozens of harriers here but I've never been able to get a decent photo of one at this location.

Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, CA

Pongo

After the refuge we headed up to Lava Beds National Monument where we'd camp for the night.  It was cold!  The campgrounds were almost empty, so that was nice.  Normally Pongo and I sleep in the car.  It was a little extra crowded in there with Pongo's crate and pillow, so we slept in the tent instead.  It was Pongo's first night in a tent.  He did pretty well.  It took him a little while to get used to the sounds of the tent in the breeze but he settled in OK.

Mount Shasta, CA

Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge, CA

Soundtrack:

• Bruce Springsteen -- Darkness on the Edge of Town / Born to Run
• The Jimi Hendrix Experience -- Electric Ladyland

San Luis National Wildlife Refuge

Shutter Speed

January 12, 2014

I took Pongo out to the San Luis Wildlife Refuge this weekend.  I figured it would be a nice place to experiment a bit with the new camera as well as hopefully see some sandhill cranes.  I turned out to be right on both counts.

Colombian Black-tailed Deer -- San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, CA

I've already figured out that the new camera is more sensitive to lighting conditions than my old camera.  The back lit picture of the deer is a good example.  Although they're dark and a little distant, the deer are still pretty sharply in focus, at least compared to what I'd have expected with my old camera.  Things would have been more washed out and blurry with that camera.  It would have tried to compensate for the back lighting.

Northern Harrier -- San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, CA

I was mostly messing around with shutter speed on Sunday, mostly at a fairly fast speed.  I ended up with a lot of pictures of birds in flight coming out sharp enough for me to be quite happy, even if they were at a bit of a distance.  The 250mm zoom just isn't enough for a place like San Luis.  I've still got a lot to learn before I start worrying about upgrading lenses, though.

Northern Pintail -- San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, CA

Sandhill Cranes -- San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, CA

The Fugitive

Most of the birds and animals weren't too interested in letting people get close.  I don't know if that had anything to do with the fact that it's hunting season.  There was enough distance in most cases for the birds to go on about their business.  Sometimes the ducks would move away from the road when we appeared.  Pongo jumped out of the window after a duck quacked close to us, maybe the word spread around the refuge about him after that?  He couldn't go anywhere, don't worry.  I suspected he might try something and had his leash tied to the passenger chair.  He looked a little sheepish when I came around to put him back in the car.  The only animal I actually missed getting a picture of was the coyote we saw.  He took off pretty quickly.

Long-billed Curlew -- San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, CA

I was surprised to see that the male tule elk still have their antlers.  I thought they'd have dropped off by now.  Guess not.

Tule Elk -- San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, CA

Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge

All Your Ducks Are Belong to Us

November 3, 2013

Soundtrack:

• The National -- Trouble Will Find Me

My original intent for this trip was to see the sandhill cranes in the Central Valley.  I altered that a bit when I decided to take Pongo along.  We'd need a place where we could hike, and the reserve I was looking at for the sandhill cranes only has an auto tour.  Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge has a nice trail to walk and they're dog-friendly, and Yolo Wildlife Bypass Area is right on the way if we take Interstate 80 all the way to Sacramento.  It would be a day for seeing birds.

What do you mean it's not a "real" duck?

Yolo Wildlife Bypass Area is between Davis and Sacramento.  Interstate 80 drives right through it.  If you're driving through there at the right time of year you will see thousands of birds from the interstate.  Obviously, getting down into the wildlife area will get you a lot closer to the action.  Dogs are allowed to walk around on the North side of the freeway.  Unfortunately, most of that area was closed off.  There was a road that was open to foot traffic and it allowed us to get to the train tracks where we found another road that we followed for a while.

American Kestrel -- Yolo Wildlife Bypass Area, CA

We didn't see too many birds on that walk.  We saw a kestrel eating something on top of some abandoned farm machinery and a couple of hooded mergansers in a creek.  That was pretty much it, though.

Great Egrets -- Yolo Wildlife Bypass Area, CA

The driving tour through the wildlife area proved to be a little more fruitful.  I've generally encountered lone greater egrets, but here they were grouped together in a small flock.  They're just simple white birds, but they sure are elegant.  We also saw a few northern harriers hunting in the fields.  This would turn out to be a big day for seeing harriers.  I saw well over a dozen of these birds between the two wildlife areas.

Yolo Wildlife Bypass Area, CA

I was a little disappointed with the number of birds we saw at Yolo.  I was expecting flocks of ducks and geese.  We saw a few ducks and a bunch of coots.  I'm not sure if we were too early in the year or if birds weren't around because it was mid-day.  I'll definitely have to try it deeper into winter.

Tundra Swans -- Golden State Highway, CA

I took a little detour on Route 99 North of Sacramento.  Well, frankly I was just going the wrong way.  I'd looked at a map to the Sacramento refuge online and it showed it right off of 99.  Turns out there's two 99s.  The one I wanted parallels I-5, it's called 99W.  D'oh!  It worked out pretty well, though.  As I was driving up 99 I saw a flock of large white birds in a flooded field.  I thought maybe they were the sandhill cranes I'd hoped to see, but when I got close I saw they were swans.  Cool, right?  These were some big birds.

Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, CA

Northern Harrier

There's a two and a half mile loop trail at Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge.  It's a nice little hike with a lot of little burrows trail side that Pongo could explore.  We watched the harriers hunt over the field and saw a couple of small flocks of birds off in the distance, but honestly the trail had less to offer in terms of wildlife than what we'd seen at Yolo Bypass.  I was a little disappointed and even considered skipping the driving tour.  That would have been a big mistake.

A few birds scattered about -- Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, CA

I have never seen as many birds in one place as I saw on that driving tour.  I've heard stories about how the sky would turn black in the Central Valley from all of the birds overhead and I can only imagine what it must have been like before all of the water was diverted to farms.  It's a lot easier to imagine now after seeing these big flocks of wintering waterfowl on the refuge.

Snow Geese -- Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, CA

Pongo loved this drive.  He'd sit in the passenger seat and watch the birds through the window.  His ears would perk up whenever we got to a particularly loud section and he'd hop to the back of the car whenever we passed something he thought was interesting.  The highlight for him, though, was clearly the raccoon we saw on the side of the road.  Pongo wanted at that raccoon.  He barked and jumped up onto the dashboard to try to get around me and out my open window.  There's an ancient hatred between dogs and raccoons, the carnage would not have been pretty if he'd made it out the window.

Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, CA

Northern Pintails

California must have been an amazing place a hundred and fifty years ago.  Of course, back then I'd have had to have been concerned about grizzly bears.  These wetlands were their habitat.  We think of grizzlies as being mountain animals because that's the only place you'll find them in the lower forty-eight today.  That wasn't the case in California, and that's why we'll probably never see the state's official animal returned to the state.  Grizzlies lived where people live today.

Snow Geese, Ross's Geese & Various Ducks -- Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, CA

It started out slowly and there was a wrong turn or two in there, but the trip Pongo and I took into the Central Valley turned out to be a pretty good one.

Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, CA