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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, CA |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, CA |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, CA |
Birds aren't the only animals to call the Sacramento refuge home. Turtles can often be seen. We've seen deer and coyote as well, but nothing gets Pongo more worked up than a raccoon sighting. Raccoons are common in our neighborhood, and they used to be common sight in our yard and even our attic. We haven't seen a raccoon anywhere near our house since Pongo came along. At least this time Pongo didn't try to jump out the window when we saw the family of raccoons. He was plenty agitated, but apparently four raccoons are enough of a threat to keep him inside the car.
Personally, I'm torn about the critters. They can be awfully cute and they are tremendously intelligent, but I don't like them living in our attic. There are also claw marks on some of the doors inside our house. They figured out a way in one time when we were on vacation. So, while I miss seeing them in our yard, I'm grateful that Pongo has cleared them out of the house. I wish the raccoons living in the refuge well, I have no mixed feelings there.
