Category: Special Places

Although the White-Faced Ibis isn’t my favorite bird to see at The Sacramento NWR, it is one of the most challenging birds to photograph; that’s largely because their plumage looks quite different in different lighting. If you ask Google what color they are, it will answer, “While they appear dark at a distance, closer observation reveals a glossy, maroon color with metallic green and bronze tones on their wings.”

My first shot of the day was of a distant White-Faced Ibis, and, sure enough, with the light coming from the right, it appeared black, or, at least, a dark brown.

An hour or so later, I got this shot of another White-Faced Ibis preening itself. In this case the light was coming from directly behind me, bringing out those metallic green and bronze colors.

Here’s another shot of the same bird taken a few minutes later. From this angle those metallic green wings suddenly appear to be nearly black.

Leslie got this shot of another Ibis several hours later, when the sun was almost directly overhead. Judging purely from the color of the plumage, you might think this was an entirely different species.

Despite their name, these Ibises didn’t have a white face; that’s because they’re not yet in full breeding plumage. When they are in full breeding plumage the colors will be even more dramatic, if you can catch them in the right light, as I’ve managed to do a couple of times in earlier years.

Leslie not only saw more Meadowlarks than I did at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, she also saw far more Black-Necked Stilts than I did, particularly early on when the sun was low and alpenglow caused their white bellies to glow.

Though their territorial squabbles often suggest otherwise, these petite little waders always strike me as being quite delicate.

Unless you get up earlier than we are willing to do when on vacation, the alpenglow doesn’t last very long, and a Black-Necked Stilt looks more like this, at least he does in a shady area.

I finally got my first shot of a Black-Necked Stilt at the rest stop where the bathroom is located — at least halfway through the auto tour, and it seemed like the ones there had already had breakfast because they were mostly sleeping, though one, at least, seemed to be preening.

I’m always a little amazed to see a group of Stilts all sleeping on one long, skinny leg. Heck, I can’t even imagine being able to sleep standing up on two legs, much less one.

Although we often see Black-Necked Stilt at Bear River in Utah and occasionally in Colorado, I’ve never seen one in Northwest Washington, so it was still special to see them in the Sacramento NWR.

We finally managed to fit in a visit to Santa Rosa between doctor appointments. We stopped overnight in Willows so we could visit the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge the next morning. I was worried that it might be closed because of recent cuts, and the offic was closed but the auto tour was still open. More importantly, the sun was shining the whole time we were there, despite a gloomy forecast. Our experience would have been quite different if we had waited a day because it poured buckets on Wednesday.

It must be the beginning of the Meadowlark mating season because their beautiful song filled the air at the beginning of the auto tour. Leslie was lucky enough to capture this shot of a Meadowlark pointing out the need to stay inside your car during the tour.

Meanwhile, I was struggling to see anything on my side of the car. I had to settle for a distant shot of what turned out to be a Meadowlark hunting for food in the scrub grass.

Although I enjoyed being serenaded, I was a little peeved that Leslie got shot after shot of Meadowlarks on her side of the car.

Sometimes, at least, they turned their back on her attempts to capture their beauty,

but this guy was about as cooperative as a bird could be, posing unconcernedly while Leslie snapped away.

It was a great start to a full day of birding, and eventually I started seeing more birds on my side of the car than Leslie saw on her side.