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

Birds of Gray Lodge

My dad gave me a deck of Bay Area Backroads cards while I was home for Christmas. Looking through them the other week I made piles of cards for places I've been, places that are too far for one day, places better in the summer, and most importantly places I could visit in the next few weeks. One of those cards in the last pile is Gray Lodge Wildlife Area. After reading about Gray Lodge's millions of waterfowl including hundreds of thousands of snow geese I was entranced by the idea of visiting the place. It's over a two hour drive to get there, so I was very thankful that a friend agreed to go on a rainy day and what's more he offered to drive!

So last Sunday my friend and I packed the telescope, binoculars, bird books and lunch into his car and started off shortly before eight o'clock for Gray Lodge which is located not too far from Yuba City. After a stop in Yuba City to get a tire fixed we arrived at Gray Lodge a bit after eleven o'clock. On the way to the wildlife area we saw many raptors along the road and tundra swans in the flooded fields. The recent week's deluge made for an interesting drive crossing flooded rivers.

At the check in kiosk we paid our $2.50 per person entry fee and were given a map and bird list to check off. It was raining slightly and steadily but an auto tour route winds through the marshy wildlife area so we could see a lot right from the car. There are also a couple of beautiful bird blinds at Gray Lodge. These are large concrete structures with benches inside and viewing windows that open out onto the marsh. We set up the telescope in one a blind while heating up some soup for lunch.

There were a lot of waterfowl in the marsh, maybe not a million birds but a lot. And all day we only saw one snow goose but it was an interesting day nevertheless. The American Widgeons and Eurasion Widgeons were side by side as were the Coot an Moorhen. It's valuable to see these similar looking birds side by side to observe the differences between them. Among the thirty three identified species of birds we saw were an American Bittern, and White Faced Ibis both uncommon sightings and neither of which I had seen in California. Many many raptors perched on branches or flew overhead as we drove through the marsh but they are often hard to identify especially in the rain and poor light. In the afternoon we walked the nearly two mile flyway loop, which was a nice break from being in the car even in the wet. The rain didn't really let up all day so unfortunately I was unable to bring out my camera but overall not a bad place to be in the rain. The following is a list of birds I checked off as definitely identified:

Waterfowl: Bufflehead, Ring-necked Duck, Ruddy Duck, Gadwall, Greater White Fronted Goose, Snow Goose, Mallard, Northern Pintail, Northern Shoveler, Tundra Swan, American Wigeon, Eurasion Wigeon
Other Water Birds: American Bittern, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, White Faced Ibis, Double Crested Cormorant
Raptors: Northern Harrier Hawk, Red Tailed Hawk, Turkey Vulture
Gallinaceous Birds: Ring-Necked Pheasant, California Quail
Rails: American Coot, Common Moorhen
Other Birds: Belted Kingfisher, Northern Flicker, Black Phoebe, American Crow, Western Scrub Jay, Yellow Billed Magpie, House Finch, Red-Winged Blackbird, Golden Crowned Sparrow

Oh and we also saw a black tailed jackrabbit, brush rabbit and black tailed deer!

A Day For Ducks

More rain poured down over the bay area this weekend. Fourteen inches so far this season, which is almost up to normal, though not enough to erase the drought conditions. I ventured out in my new rain boots on Sunday for little walk around the neighborhood. The grassy area near the estuary was somewhat flooded and the geese, gulls and ducks congregated there. The wigeons hang out with the mallards, I wonder if they're becoming more common I don't remember seeing so many around the shore other years. There's also a few hybrid ducks of some sort that look really freaky. I think they're some sort of farm duck crossed with mallard. They are a large, upright bird with some white parts combined with dark splotches and one has a green head. It's sort of an ugly combination, and really looks like no duck should. I've seen one of them before but yesterday there were several in a group with the mallards. The mallards seem to accept them so I guess I must too.

On another note there have been less surf scoters around this year, one article I read speculated this may be due to the Cosco Busan incident spilling oil into the bay over a year ago.

The Acorn Woodpecker

The picidae or woodpecker family are some of my favorite birds. In New York in winter we often get Downy and Red Bellied Woodpeckers coming to the feeder. I like their red heads and the way they stand on the tree trunks. At Pt. Reyes last weekend I saw my first ever Acorn Woodpecker. The Acorn Woodpecker drills holes in a tree to store acorns, the tree is called an acorn granary. The granary can have thousands of holes in it, the woodpecker spends a large amount of time filling the holes with acorns which eventually dry out and are eaten. In addition to collecting all the acorns the woodpecker has to defend his horde from other birds and squirrels. The pair of acorn woodpeckers I saw at Point Reyes were busy around their granary and I saw them putting acorns into the tree. The granary was a large pine trees in a picnic area with oak trees nearby. Just as described in the books the granary tree had literally thousands of acorn holes in it, many were empty but some held acorns. It seems like a lot of work all the collecting and protecting of acorns, the acorn woodpecker is fairly common so I guess it's not a bad way of life for a bird. I was very glad to see my first acorn woodpeckers and thought it particularly nice to see them in an easily accessible area where many people can enjoy watching this fascinating bird.

Bay Area Winter Birds 2009

Northern Pintail
Surf Scoter
Killdeer
Acorn Woodpecker
Western Bluebird
Northern Flicker
Canvasback
Goldeneye
Bufflehead
Coot
Western/Clarks Grebe
Pied billed grebe
Eared grebe
Scaup
Tufted Duck
American Wigeon
Great Blue Heron
American Egret
Snowy Egret
Northern Shoveler
Western Meadowlark
White Tailed Kite
Ruddy Duck
Curlew
Avocet
Leopard Shark (not a bird but interesting)

2008 Holiday Bird List

No owls, or eagles this holiday season though Dad and I did take two trips to Croton Point for a look. We did see the usual suspects at the backyard feeder this year:
Tufted Titmouse
White Breasted Nuthatch
Cardinal
Junco
White Throated Sparrow
Goldfinch
Downy Woodbecker
Red Bellied Woodpecker
Carolina Wren (only once)
House Finch
Mourning Dove
Blue Jay
Crow
Squirrel (not a bird but at the feeder)

And at Croton Point:
Common Merganser
Swan
Canada Goose
Mallard

Not a very impressive list but the action at the birdfeeder was pretty steady which made the long snowy days a bit more fun!

A Really Good Bird

For studying winter ducks there's few places better than Lake Merritt. If you can get past the creepy stares of the herons and egrets you can get within a few feet of the many scaup, goldeneye, canvasback, grebe and other ducks wintering at the lake. While comparing the waterfowl to the pictures in my bird book this afternoon I noticed a trio of older people talking excitedly about the birds in front of us. One gentleman turned to me and said Miss, if you want to see a really good bird look at that second bird in the row right there that's a Tufted Duck. While working for the Audubon Society we were taught not to put such labels our feathered friends, this man was so kind and excited I didn't point out that he may be insulting the more ordinary ducks around us. The Tufted Duck was something to see, his tuft was sticking out in all it's glory. Even though I was looking at the birds fairly closely it's something I would have missed had it not been pointed out to me. In return I let the group peruse my birdbook for a few minutes to confirm some of their other observations. Maybe being a really good bird doesn't have to do with the species, maybe it has to do with making someone's day more interesting, with sharing a little knowledge. Maybe it's a really good bird because it brought a shared moment to four people on a perfectly ordinary Tuesday.