After last week's discovery of Yellow-headed Blackbirds at the Bear Creek Unit of the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, we couldn't resist going back to see if we could get a better view of the elusive birds. They generally like to remain hidden in the tule reeds of their favored wetlands and are more often heard than seen. That was still the case when we were there this afternoon, but we stopped the car for awhile to see what would happen. Much to my surprise, a Yellow-headed Blackbird jumped out of the foliage and onto the road not ten feet in front of the car. It started gleaning seeds from the edge of the roadway as if we weren't there. I managed to catch one of my better shots of the bird as a result.
But that wasn't the only unique black bird of the day...
Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus)
Red-winged Blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) are common wherever marshes or grassy wetlands are found in North America, from Nicaragua to Alaska. They aren't usually hard to find, but I've always had the hardest time photographing them. The lighting has to be practically perfect in order catch the various features of these pure black birds (aside from the red wings of course). Most days I don't even try. But while we were photographing the Yellow-head, a Red-wing landed on a branch only eight feet out the window. It was taunting me, literally, to take its picture, so I did. So in that moment I got what may be the best shots I've ever managed of two different birds.
Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus)
The (mostly) black birds weren't done with their surprises though. I'm not the most observant person in the world, but I still miss things, and I've never once noticed Black-necked Stilts on a nest before. But we saw two of them today. They aren't exactly well-hidden nesting sites, but they are presumably safe from predators that don't like swimming. The Stilts form flocks which aid in the defense of nests, and they can become aggressive, even to humans. We didn't test the hypothesis and stayed in the car.
The Bear Creek Unit of the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge includes a 2.25 mile auto tour and two trail loops, the Raccoon Marsh (1.3 miles) and Woody Pond (1.7 miles). The refuge is accessed from Highway 165 south of Hilmar and Turlock, and north of Los Banos. When the ponds are full, the area is a delight for birdwatching and nature observations. It's a small island of the Great Valley wetlands as they once were.
It doesn't happen every year. Since Mrs. Geotripper and I have been birdwatching, we've found this incredibly beautiful bird only 10 times since 2018. So it's always a thrill when we catch sight of one. It's the Yellow-headed Blackbird (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus).
The birds are found in wetland environments all across the western states, but they generally aren't abundant in California according to the e-bird sightings maps. In our region they are generally migrating to breeding grounds elsewhere, mainly in the high plains of the Midwest and Canada.
I've only seen the species twice in Stanislaus County. Our best luck has been a particular stretch of road on the Bear Creek Unit of the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge in Merced County a few miles south of Turlock. There's a 2.5-mile auto tour through some of the wetlands and we've seen the birds there six times over the last six years. Given that record we decided to give it a shot last week, and we were thrilled to catch at least nine of them preening and singing among the reeds.
One of the more unique traits of the Yellow-headed Blackbird is its song. It seems kind of like a trade-off with the beauty of the bird. It's described in several ways, but the screeching of torn metal works best for me. See what you think in the video that we captured...
Spring is a great time to see many of my favorite birds, which seem to be predominately yellow: Yellow Warblers, Bullock's Orioles, Hooded Orioles, Black-headed Grosbeaks (actually more orange I guess), and the Western Kingbirds. These Yellow-headed Blackbirds were special.
Yesterday was pretty exciting as such things go. I started the morning with a discovery of Bullocks Orioles on the Tuolumne River, but Mrs. Geotripper wasn't with me, and she wanted to see some birds as well, so in the late afternoon we headed south into Merced County to have a look at the Bear Creek Unit of the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge. We hoped to repeat our February sighting of a White-tailed Kite, but other than that, I wasn't sure what to expect. The Arctic migrants have bugged out already, so we mainly expected the resident species of ducks, blackbirds and shorebirds. In the back of my mind, though, there was the hope of seeing a Yellow-headed Blackbird (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus).
We don't see these beautiful birds very often. They haven't even been reported in Stanislaus County as of yet this year, and there have been only a few in Merced County, mainly at the Merced NWR, and the main unit of the San Luis NWR. We've seen them twice previously, and in the same place: along the auto-tour of the Bear Creek Unit. I had reason to hope, and I wasn't disappointed! We passed dozens and dozens of Red-winged Blackbirds but I finally saw one that seemed bigger. It was silhouetted in the sun, but I was pretty sure I saw a flash of yellow around the head. I zoomed in and confirmed it; it was a Yellow-headed Blackbird!
We ultimately saw six or seven of them, all males. It's possible they were guarding their territories, with the females hidden on their nests, but they could also just be passing through. The birds spend the winter in Mexico and Texas and move north as far as Canada to breed.
The have a call that must be heard to be believed. If you were hoping for a lilting melody like their relatives the Red-winged Blackbirds, or say, a meadowlark, you are going to be bitterly disappointed. We tried to capture the sound but did succeed. Try to imagine the grating sound of metal on metal, like a damaged car door that doesn't shut right and scrapes the frame. You can hear it here: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Yellow-headed_Blackbird/sounds.
First off, it really sucks to be the snake in this little narrative. It was on the losing end of the battles that occur in the "circle of life". One eventually has to accept that everything in nature is ultimately trying to eat everything else in nature. Even the top predators are going to be consumed by scavengers eventually. We'll just hope that the reincarnation of the little snake has a better ending the next time around.
We were driving the Bear Creek Unit auto tour at the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge last weekend when we spotted a Great Blue Heron with something hanging from its beak. After a few moments we realized it was a small snake. As a last defensive measure it seems to have tied itself into a knot, but it didn't work. As we watched, the Heron gulped down the entire snake, knot and all.
Great Blue Herons are large birds and are thus one of the top predators in the freshwater marsh environment. They eat fish, amphibians, reptiles, and small mammals. They have their own problems with predators, however. We witnessed a dramatic confrontation between Bald Eagles and Great Blue Herons in Victoria, B.C. a few years ago. They can presumably be attacked by wolves or coyotes as well.
And thus, the "tail end" of the drama, but actually the head went last. It was a somewhat stunning act to witness.
No, not those kite things on a string. These were White-tailed Kites (Elanus leucurus) at the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge. We were thrilled to see not one, but two of them, and even better, I got the best pictures I've ever managed to take. I don't see the White-tailed Kites very often, maybe only four or five times, and so they've only made two appearances on this blog. I even got the eyes, and that hasn't happened before.
The San Luis National Wildlife Refuge is one of the premier places in California for bird watching. The main visitor-related portions of the refuge include a new visitor center and two marvelous auto-tour routes along with a number of hiking trails. There's even a large compound where visitors can see one of the few herds of California's unique Tule Elk. On eBird, more than a thousand bird counts have been conducted here.
But there's sort of a step-child at the refuge. It's called the Bear Creek Unit. It's northwest of the main part of the refuge, but is easily accessed from Highway 165. There is a two-mile long auto-tour, but only just over a hundred birding reports have ever been conducted there. I'm not sure why, but the area just didn't get the visitation. Sometimes there is a simple lack of water in the wetlands so few birds are around. Yesterday we had the place to ourselves aside from one other car. And there were quite a few birds out and about, including several thousand Red-winged Blackbirds. And...two White-tailed Kites!
The refuge system in the Great Valley preserves in some cases and works in others to reconstruct the native ecosystem that existed here in the millennia before colonizers established the vast network of farms and ranches. The valley is critical winter habitat for millions of migratory birds, and they survive only because of the string of refuges up and down the landscape. It was marvelous to experience the sky and prairie yesterday during a break in the huge storm that slammed into California this weekend.
It's true that we were just there last week, and that I posted pictures of the Yellow-headed Blackbirds (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus) only a week ago, but we went back to the Bear Creek Unit of the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge the next weekend, and this time the sun was out, and the birds were a little closer to the car. We got better pictures this time.
They were in the same area as before, but we saw five of them this time, but no females (yet). The females are more brown in color and have only a bit of yellow coloration around the head. They have a yellow breast.
The Bear Creek Unit is part of the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, and the short auto tour is readily available from Highway 165 (Lander Ave) south of Turlock. The route is only 2.5 miles long, but several walking trails are available.
The sunset was just spectacular as we rounded the final bend of the auto-tour. I'm a sucker the pretty ones like this.
The Bear Creek Unit of the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge gets a great deal less attention than some of the other birding "hotspots" in Stanislaus and Merced Counties. According to the eBird Hotspots map, it's been visited 88 times by birders who took the time to report their sightings. They've seen 150 species at the unit. Compare that to the nearby Merced National Wildlife Refuge which has had around 2,000 reports over the years (and around 225 species). The main unit of the San Luis Refuge where the visitor center and Tule Elk compound is located has more than 800 reports, and 200+ species.
I'm pretty sure that the size of the unit has something to do with the disparity. The auto-tour at Bear Creek is only 2.5 miles long and encompasses a much smaller area. The Merced auto-tour is more than five miles long. The pools in the interior at Merced allow for more isolation for the migratory geese and cranes that might want to avoid auto traffic and human beings with cameras (or guns). I have seen few of the Snow Geese or Sandhill Cranes during my visits to Bear Creek. Indeed, it is often an afterthought to stop there at sunset after we have spent hours exploring the Merced NWR or the San Luis Unit and visitor center. But still, it has its charms, and I've seen some interesting species when we've paid a visit.
A year ago, on March 18, 2017, birders reported that Yellow-headed Blackbirds had returned to the Bear Creek Unit. I was curious, having never seen the species before, so I headed out and much to my delight, I found a few, and posted photos last year last April. I was a little disappointed with the pictures because the birds were hiding among the reeds and I couldn't get a clear open shot.
So shoot forward a year to March 18, 2018. No one this year has yet reported seeing Yellow-headed Blackbirds at the Bear Creek Unit (7 visits so far), but I couldn't help but think about them. We had spent most of the afternoon at the main Waterfowl auto-tour at San Luis (and having an adventure with a coyote), but the sun was still up, and we decided to give the Bear Creek auto-tour a whirl. There were thousands upon thousands of Red-winged Blackbirds in residence, making quite the cacophony to catch the attention of the females. As we drove near, they would take flight in a panic, but from a distance I noticed that there were a couple of blackbirds that could care less that we were coming. I realized with a start that they had yellow heads! We ultimately saw at least four of them, although there could have been plenty more down in the reeds.
Between Fresno and Stockton this year the Yellow-headed Blackbirds have only been noted at the Los Banos Unit of the San Luis NWR, the Merced NWR, and the Bear Creek Unit. I'm hoping to see more of them in the surrounding areas soon as more arrive.
We were fighting the crowds at a couple of shopping centers in Turlock, saw that the sun was sinking in the west, and just simply decided we wanted some peace and quiet. The San Luis National Wildlife Refuge was just 15 or so miles to the south (specifically the Bear Creek Unit). We headed out of town and drove to the auto-tour and slowly crept along the road. The pools were all dried up so no migratory birds were present in that part of the refuge, but we did see a Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) perched in the trees along the east edge of the trail. The Cooper's is similar in appearance to the Sharp-shinned Hawk, but the tail was distinctive enough that I went with the former as an ID.
Yeah, spring is just a few weeks away. We were out at the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge a few weeks ago, and the Red-wing Blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) were out in force, wing epaulets blazing bright red and yellow, singing their hearts out.
These birds can be hard to photograph, not because they are particularly shy (they're not), but because their black feathers absorb the light, and one has trouble getting anything but a black shape. Luckily, the sun was behind us and reflected well off their feathers.
The San Luis National Wildlife Refuge preserves the small percentage that remains of the vast wetlands and prairie that once existed across the Great Valley of California. It is a fascinating place to visit and to speculate on the changes we've made to the valley. It was so very nice to see water again in the places that have been so dry for the last five years (the refuges tend to be on the low end of priority when water is divvied out in California).
During our visit to the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, we saw several new birds, but there were some familiar ones as well. One of them was the Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus). The birds are primarily a tropical species. They migrate north in the summer, mainly in the western states. The Great Valley represents just about the northern margin of their year-round habitation.
I was thrilled to see three of them all lined up in a row, posing for me, so I snapped the picture above. But as usual, Mrs. Geotripper saw a symmetry that I didn't notice, a 90 degree angle made by my Stilts, and a group of Long-billed Dowitchers. She got the nice shot below.
I enjoy watching the stilts more than most birds. Their ungainly appearance belies a graceful gait and hunting dance. Only one bird, the Flamingo, has longer legs in proportion to their
bodies. With their long beaks and legs, they are clearly birds of
shallow waters, where they search the mud for invertebrates, and
sometimes small fish.
The stilts form colonies when they nest, and they can be quite aggressive towards predators, surrounding them flapping wings and mobbing them. According the Cornell site, their populations have been holding steady, which is pretty good since most birds these days are declining.
The San Luis National Wildlife Refuge protects 42 square miles of floodplains, wetlands, swamps and grasslands along the San Joaquin River in the Great Valley. There are a number of auto tours and hiking routes available, and we've seen interesting birds in every season of the year.
Mrs. Geotripper got the prize shot the other day of the American Avocet (Recurvirostra americana) that we saw at the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge. I was on the wrong side of the car when the Avocet decided to walk out of the water and display her wings. The Avocets migrate trough our area on their way north for breeding and there was still plenty of water at the Bear Creek Unit. .
The long curved beak is obviously evolved to sweep through mud and silt, allowing the bird to capture small invertebrates. The bright colors are related to breeding. In the off-season the birds are a bit plainer in appearance (see this post from last year).
This was an absolute first for me. We've been going to the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge multiple times over the last two years or so, and not once have we seen a Yellow-headed Blackbird (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus) along the way. Yesterday we saw perhaps a dozen of them. I'm pretty sure they weren't there on our previous visits, because they are really hard to miss, even from a distance.
See? Hard to miss.
It appears that these birds aren't seen all that often around here, as they are usually migrating through the area on their way to breeding grounds farther to the north in Nevada as far as southern Canada. They winter in Mexico, New Mexico, and Texas. There are a handful of breeding colonies in our Great Valley, although they were once more plentiful before 90% of the valley wetlands were plowed over.
I hope I'll have another chance to catch these beautiful birds a little more in the open. They were doing a good job of staying just behind the reeds, so that every picture had one piece or another of the bird missing. If they weren't hiding, they were flying overhead. I saw four at once on two different occasions in addition to the perching individuals, so we saw as many as a dozen of them in total.
It would be interesting if they were breeding right there at San Luis.
The Bear Creek Unit of the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge includes a 2.25 mile auto tour and two trail loops, the Raccoon Marsh (1.3 miles) and Woody Pond (1.7 miles). The refuge is accessed from Highway 165 south of Hilmar and Turlock, and north of Los Banos. When the ponds are full, the area is a delight for birdwatching and nature observations. It's a small island of the Great Valley wetlands as they once were.
