Birds of the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge

Last January a friend and I went to Gray Lodge Wildlife Area to see the much talked about hundreds of thousands of snow geese. On that trip I saw exactly one snow goose on that trip. Still in search of the snow geese a friend and I took made the trip up to the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge last weekend with much better results.

Nearly all national wildlife refuges I've been to look pretty much alike. Large marshy areas, some grasslands, some open water and a narrow dirt road passing through it all. As I started driving through the Sacramento National Wildlife Area I had a sense that I'd seen all this before. But then we started seeing the birds. Hundreds of pintails, a hundred shovelers, a few widgeon, dozens of gadwall, a hawk passing over head here and there. Then the snow geese came in to view. Hundreds of thousands of snow geese. They seem to like to hang out together in very large flocks. At one point an enormous flock filled the sky, a storm of thunderous white wings and lots of honking.

Once we had seen the hordes of snow geese I felt the trip and my current birding goals were fulfilled. But of course we stayed on and I was pleasantly surprised in seeing a bald eagle and peregrine falcon. We stopped briefly at the Colusa Wildlife Area on the way home to make the trip complete. Throughout the day we saw lots of other great birds,probably at least a million, including tens of thousands of white fronted geese. A complete list follows:

Waterfowl: Bufflehead, Ring-necked Duck, Ruddy Duck, Gadwall, Greater White Fronted Goose, Snow Goose, Mallard, Northern Pintail, Northern Shoveler, American Wigeon, Ross's Goose, Cinnamon Teal, Green Winged Teal, Eared Grebe,
Other Water Birds and Shorebirds: Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, White Faced Ibis, American White Pelican , Double Crested Cormorant, Black-necked Stilt, Killdeer
Raptors: Northern Harrier Hawk, Red Tailed Hawk, Turkey Vulture, Bald Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, American Kestrel
Gallinaceous Birds: Ring-Necked Pheasant,
Rails: American Coot, Common Moorhen
Other Birds: Black Phoebe, American Crow, Western Scrub Jay, Red-Winged Blackbird, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Golden Crowned Sparrow