Merced National Wildlife Refuge

February 15, 2016

I had three days off last weekend.  A lot of people did, apparently.  I went out to Point Reyes on Sunday and it was a nightmare.  There were people everywhere.  The roads were closed in some places.  I had gone out to see the elephant seals but couldn't get to the lookout point.  I just drove home without doing anything.

Black-necked Stilt -- Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA

I was determined to have a better experience on Monday.  Pongo and I went to Merced National Wildlife Refuge.  A place like that would never get very crowded, I figured.

Northern Shoveler & Cinnamon Teal -- Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA

There were more people there than on a normal weekend day, but I was basically right.  We saw maybe twenty cars over the course of the auto tour.  That's probably a little more than average, but it never felt crowded.  Plus, these people were all fellow nature nerds, meaning waves and smiles and the occasional brief conversation about birds and wildlife during brief encounters.  It's a very different crowd from my other nerd clan, the record store nerds.  There, we're all convinced of our superiority to all the other nerds in terms of taste in music and collected catalog.  No smiles.  No conversation.  Just smug looks of mutual condescension.

Northern Shoveler -- Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA

Ruddy Duck -- Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA

Ross's Goose -- Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA

There's not much of a narrative to this day.  It was a fairly typical trip to the refuge.  We saw a lot of squirrels and rabbits, which Pongo loves to see.  He thought about jumping out the window to give chase a couple of times but was able to stifle those urges on this trip.  We saw a couple of great horned owls.  More often than not we see owls at this refuge.  We saw sandhill cranes, but none were close to the road.

Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA

Ross's Goose -- Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA

Great Horned Owl -- Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA

San Luis & Merced National Wildlife Refuges

Like a Coyote

February 16, 2015

Pongo and I hit two wildlife reserves on Presidents' Day.  It was nice to have enough time to hit both the San Luis and Merced refuges, and a bit lucky too because after getting basically skunked on Saturday at Big Basin it would have been an extra disappointment given the low bird populations at San Luis.

San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, CA

It looks like most of the ducks are already gone at San Luis.  It's been a very mild winter and I think many have already headed North.  I could be wrong, It's possible they were all off looking for food or whatever.  I did see more ring-necked ducks and cinnamon teals than usual, but I suspect they were just easier to spot with the pintails and mallard populations as small as they were.

San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, CA

These birds weren't too interested in being photographed, either.  I only have a 250mm lens, so I need a little help from the birds to get nice close-ups.  No of these little guys were very interested in cooperating.  I don't mind too much at San Luis because I like the way the tule reeds and winter trees look in the photos, so I find the long distance shots to be appealing.

Jersey Cow -- Gustine, CA

We stopped at a ranch near Gustine on our way to the Merced complex.  They have the cutest cows at this ranch.  Pongo played shy with them on Monday.  I'm not quite sure if it's part of his act or he was actually being shy or a little scared.  I suspect it was a bit of all three.

Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA

There were a lot more birds at Merced National Wildlife Refuge, which is maybe twenty miles away from the San Luis complex as the crow flies. No swans, though.  San Luis had swans.  Merced was rich with geese and sandhill cranes, both of which were almost non-existent at San Luis.

Snowy Egret -- Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA

Cinnamon Teal -- Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA

White-faced Ibis -- Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA

As you can see, I had a lot better luck with the close-ups at the Merced refuge.  More birds means a bit more patience with cars and cameras, I guess.

Ross' Geese -- Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA

So, now, for one of my pet peeves: birders and photographers that think they own the place.

I don't go to extremely remote places.  I spend my weekends at parks and reserves where I'm rarely more than a couple of miles from a main road.  I'm not talking about people who have hiked into the wilderness to earn some kind of amazing shot that they worked for.  I'm talking now about people who have pulled off to the side of the road to take pictures of birds (it's ALWAYS birds).

Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA

When we got to the field where the sandhill cranes hang out there was already a woman out of her car taking photos.  I pulled over and Pongo and I got out of the car on the opposite side of the birds.  "mumble mumble mumble," said the bird lady.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"mumble your dog is going to scare the cranes mumble mumble like a coyote mumble."

Sandhill Crane -- Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA

Look, I totally understand that we all want to get those killer shots.  I get it.  Sorry, though, I don't really care.  For the record, I'm careful with how I handle Pongo in nature and he's got a lot of experience.  He knows when to lay low and when he can get a little nutso,  We follow all of the guidelines and rules.  Yes, he was on a leash and  we were far enough away that the cranes weren't going to be concerned with my presence or Pongo's presence, let alone the presence of the woman standing on the road.  If a person is going to be annoyed by people cars or dogs, they should find some place more secluded than the auto tour road of a wildlife refuge.

Sandhill Crane -- Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA

For the record, I didn't respond to the lady.  Pongo explored as far as his leash would allow and I took more pictures than I had originally intended and no cranes were bothered by either me or my dog.  Sorry for all the passive-aggressive drama.  Well, I'm not really sorry.  I wanted to vent.

Great Horned Owl -- Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA

Our final bird of the day was a great horned owl in her nest.  What a great way to end a nice three day weekend.

Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge & Mount Shasta

Day One

February 21, 2014

Soundtrack:

• R.E.M. -- Chronic Town / Murmur
• The National -- Trouble Will Find Me
• Steve Martin & Edie Brickell -- Love Has Come or You

I made another trip up to Oregon last weekend.  It's the third trip in four months.  Unfortunately, like the first journey in November I was going up to attend a funeral.  I'll get into that in a later post, but for now I'll just that it was a bittersweet event.

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

American Goldfinch

I drove up Interstate Five and stopped for a visit at Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge.  Pongo loves that place.  I thought about bringing him along for the trip, but I was afraid he'd have to spend too much at parents' house in a crate and we weren't sure how well he'd do away from the other dogs for that long.

Songbirds were apparently laying siege to to the Visitor's Center.  They made a spectacular racket, but they were difficult for me to spot.  I found some goldfinches around the feeders that are set up outside.  Some sort of defense perimeter, I guess.  I saw a few other birds, but not nearly enough to account for all of the noise.  It was a covert operation these birds seemed to be operating.  I mean, aside from all the chirping.

Coyote, Snow & Ross' Geese -- Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, CA

There was a strange scene where a coyote was hanging out with a flock of about a thousand snow and ross' geese.  The geese didn't seem to mind the presence of the predator.  Judging by the poor shape of the coyote's coat, I suspect the coyote wasn't in the best of shape.  It looked like he'd either been burned or had a nasty case of mange.  Poor guy.  Being a wild animal is tough.

Gadwall -- Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, CA

There was still a couple of big flocks of geese, but a lot of the ducks had already left for their summer homes. There were thousands of pintails at the reserve in November, but I only saw a few on this trip.  There were still a lot of northern shovelers and a bunch of gadwalls, though, as well as some other stragglers.  I even saw a few cinnamon teals.  Pretty birds.

Cinnamon Teal -- Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, CA

I made a couple other stops on the way up to Salem, but nothing too exciting.  I won sixty bucks playing roulette at Seven Feathers Casino.  I also stopped to take a few pictures of Mount Shasta.  I arrived at my parents' house around 9:00.  A new brew pub opened up down the street.  That's nice.

Mount Shasta, 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