Category: Sacramento NWR

Finally, an American Avocet

Although it was fun to see the deep pond that you can’t visit most of the year, my favorite part of the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge is still the winter auto tour, even after thousands of geese have left the refuge. The first few times I visited the refuge, I thought that the main ponds were lakes, but over the years seeing the ponds when they’re drained reveal that they’re more like a wetlands than a lake.  That makes them good habitat for long-legged wading birds, and those are some of my favorite birds.

Through the camera lens, White-faced Ibis appear to be large birds with really long legs and the water they’re wading in seems deeper than it really is,


but when you see an Ibis next to a duck, though, you realize that they’re legs really aren’t that long and that’s why the frequent wetlands.


  Wetlands are also an ideal place to see Egrets, like this Great Egret

even if it is not actually wading.

Most of all, though, American Avocets also favor these wetlands, and Avocets are my favorite long-legged wading birds.


So, even though we only saw four Avocets the whole day, seeing our first Avocets of the season still made my day.

A Quick Return to the Sacramento NWR

We barely got back from an earlier trip to Santa Rosa before we headed out to Fresno and Phoenix.  It was too far to drive to Fresno in a single day, particularly since we had to wait until the mailman delivered some medications from the VA.  Fortunately, our late start was advantageous because we missed all the rush-hour traffic. Unfortunately, we did not reach Willows until nearly 10 P.M.

Since Fresno wasn’t far from Willows, we had time to take a quick drive around the Sacramento NWR auto tour in the morning before heading out.  Instead of unpacking all our photo gear, Leslie and I shared a single camera, passing it back and forth whenever we saw something worth taking a picture of, so I’m not sure which of us took a particular photo.

We heard plenty of Meadowlarks singing but didn’t get a single shot of one singing.  Instead, we got a shot of an angry-looking Meadowlark who was obviously tired of being photographed.

We didn’t see the large flocks of Snow Geese that we had seen a few weeks before, but there were small flocks throughout the refuge.

Killdeer are common on the refuge, but it is a little unusual to see them wading.

We saw about the same number of Black-necked Stilt we saw on our previous visit. and they were used to people taking shots of them, at least when you kept your distance and stayed in your vehicle.

I particularly liked the reflections in this shot. 

The highlight of the day had to be seeing this White-Faced Ibis near the end of the auto tour.  I never quite managed to get a shot of it in the kind of light that makes all those colors iridescent, but I was still pleased to see one and get a few good shots.

Seeing the first bird of the season isn’t quite as exciting as seeing one for the first time ” a lifer,” as it were but it’s still a special moment.  

We still didn’t see the first American Avocet of the year on this visit. But we knew we would have one more chance on our return trip.

Final Shots from Sacramento NWR

In my last post I shared my favorite shots of our visit to Sacramento NWR. In this post I’ll feature Leslie’s photos.

This shot of a Northern Harrier leaves a lot to be desired, but since Leslie took more pictures of it than any other bird and still couldn’t get the bird or the light to cooperate, it feels like it deserved to be posted.

Other shots seem more post-worthy, though. I joined the Sacramento NWR Facebook page and noted that the most often shared shots were those of Bald Eagles.

I thought this shot of the mature Bald Eagle was also as good as any I saw shared on their site, as was this shot of the immature Bald Eagle looking particularly regal.

It was quite windy the day we were there, as the feathers testify to, but my favorite shot of this sequence was this one taken a few minutes later.

Hopefully, the immature Eagle learned why the adult Eagle chose a much bigger branch to rest on.

Leslie didn’t seem as impressed by this shot of a Black Phoebe

as I was, perhaps she doesn’t realize how many shots of a Black Phoebe sitting on a branch or railing I’ve had to settle for. Whenever possible, birds should be seen flying.

Stop and Look

Like most people, I’m prone to dismiss common birds with, “That’s just a” without ever really looking at it. If I were just a “birder, I don’t think I would have taken pictures of the birds that appear in this blog entry. They are all so common that they hardly get noticed; I suspect that if I hadn’t been looking through my camera I wouldn’t have even noted them.

Luckily, I was carrying my camera because these are probably my favorite shots of the day. There were a lot of American Coots in the Sacramento NWR when we were there, but this one was extremely close and was too busy feeding to scoot away.

American Widgeons might be the commonest duck in the Pacific Northwest during winter, but I love this shot of a male rising up and displaying his wings.

Northern Pintails aren’t as common as Widgeons, but they’ve always struck me as one of the more elegant ducks.

Red-winged Hawks are everywhere, but this one seemed particularly beautiful in the early morning sunshine.

There’s beauty all around us. Sometimes, we just have to pause long enough to see it.