A River of Ross's Geese at the Merced National Wildlife Refuge

Many years ago (1997) there was a record flood on the Walker River in the eastern Sierra Nevada. I knew folks who lived in the path of the raging waters, so I was there in the aftermath helping to clean up. The river had picked for itself a new channel on the valley floor, and the Army Corps of Engineers considered this to be an affront to their management, so they decided to put the river back. I was there when the big bulldozer made the cut that restored the river and I was mesmerized as the water first trickled and then fully flowed back into its old channel.

I realize that this is a strange opening for a blog post about birds, but I was reminded of that river rebirth the other day when we were at the Merced National Wildlife Refuge. It was the end of the day, the sun already set, and we were at the last part of the auto-tour. We hadn't seen a great many geese except at a great distance. Usually we love to see the dramatic sight of thousands of geese taking flight all at once, but it's not really good for the geese, since the flights use a lot of energy and food sources can be limited in winter.

So the sight that met us in the dusk was much calmer. Thousands of what I think were Ross's Geese (Snow Geese are very similar in appearance and they sometimes comingle) were gathered into a single flock on the pasture. The Ross's Geese (Chen rossii) looked like a lake of geese, and then like a new river, a string of geese broke away and started "flowing". The line of geese even meandered across the plain like an undulating river. I caught a bit of the flow in a short video below.

Ross's Geese are a true North American species.. They breed in a few isolated parts of the Canadian Arctic tundra, including the shores of Hudson Bay, and they winter in the Great Valley and in a strip across Mexico, New Mexico and the Texas coast. Their migration routes allow occasional sightings across the United States.

The Merced National Wildlife Refuge and its five mile auto tour route is one of the best places to see a huge variety of migratory and resident species of birds and other animals. It's on Sandy Mush Road south of the town of Merced, and admission is free. There are three hiking trails and restrooms are available.