Tundra Swans at the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge

This was a rare event for Mrs. Geotripper and I. The Tundra Swan (Cygnus columbianus) is not a rare bird, but we've only seen them once before, and only for a few moments. Yesterday we saw dozens of them at the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge.

We were following the Waterfowl Auto-Tour at the main part of the refuge north of Los Banos, and while we got a couple of nice photos of birds here and there, overall there wasn't much going on until we approached the end of the loop.

There's a short detour at that point that leads to a trailhead for the Souza Marsh Trail. There were a couple of serious birders stopped on the road with tripods and telescopes deployed. I looked north and saw a large number of white birds in the distance and immediately suspected swans, since Snow Geese and the like wouldn't have captured their interest to that extent. We stopped too and a quick look with the zoom lens revealed dozens of Tundra Swans as well as hundreds of other birds representing at least nine or ten species, including Snow Geese, Greater White-fronted Geese, Northern Shovelers, Northern Pintails, American Coots, Pied-Billed Grebes, Great Egrets, and Mallards.

Tundra Swans, as their name suggests, breed in the far north Arctic lands and migrate south during the winter months. California's Great Valley provides an ideal winter refuge with moderate temperatures and plentiful food supplies.

Although the Tundra Swans are smaller than our other native swan, the Trumpeter (which is never seen in our area), they are huge in comparison to the geese and ducks. I took several videos of the swans, but I like this one because of the Greater White-fronted Geese who came floating by in formation on either side of the swan. It shows the size differential well.


The San Luis National Wildlife Refuge is one of a string of refuges along the river floodplains of the Great Valley that provides a winter home for migrants like the swans and geese, but also a natural habitat for our year-round species. I'm amazed at how little known they are even in our local area. We only saw two other vehicles on the loop when we were there on Saturday. It is a serene place to visit.

The refuge includes a beautiful new visitor center (along with the resident cat named Lucky) that is a good starting point for a visit. There are three auto-tours in the immediate vicinity and several hiking trails.

Greater White-fronted Geese at the Consumnes River Preserve

The Cosumnes River in California's Sierra Nevada and Great Valley is unique in one very important respect: it is the only free flowing river left in the region. Although dams have been proposed at various times during the last century, none were ever built, so the upper river retains some of its primeval character (aside from the logging and gold mining, anyway). The lower reaches on the valley floor and near the delta were heavily modified for agricultural development, but a variety of agencies and organizations have cobbled together a unified protected area of 50,000 acres (nearly 80 square miles) called the Consumnes River Preserve. It is critical habitat for thousands upon thousands of migratory birds, as well as a great many year-round residents.

The Preserve's Visitor Center is easily accessed from Interstate 5 between Stockton and Sacramento, so it made for a pleasant first stop on our way north today for our holiday travels. A number of birds were about, including a small gaggle of Greater White-fronted Geese (Anser albifrons) feeding on an embankment near the end of one of the boardwalks.

The White-fronted Geese breed in the far north, and migrate in winter to a series of refuges along the length of the Great Valley, Texas, and on into Mexico. I often see them in massive flocks at the San Joaquin National Wildlife Refuge, but it is less often that I get to see them up close like I did today.

A Bit of an Unusual Sight: Greater White-fronted Geese East of the Sierra Nevada

We were in the eastern Sierra Nevada and Owens Valley last weekend for a geology field study course, but of course I was on the lookout for interesting birds. We stopped at the Mono Lake County Park and I saw a flock of geese that got my curiosity up. They were clearly Greater White-fronted Geese (Anser albifrons), which is a species I normally expect to see back home in the Great Valley. I checked out the eBird Range map for the species, and saw that they are indeed a little unusual. There are sightings almost every year, but usually of just one or two at a time. Local birders have noted the unusual size of the group, more than two dozen.

I don't know if this flock is off course, or if they are just passing through on their way farther south. The great majority of this species winter in the refuges of the Great Valley, including the San Joaquin River NWR a few miles west of my fair city of Modesto. In any case, their presence is a sure sign that fall has arrived. They've spent the summer in the Arctic, but it's getting colder out there now.

The Last Stragglers at the San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge: Greater White-fronted Geese

I made one last quick visit to the Beckwith Road viewing platform on the San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge this week. It's closed now, with the quite fair reasoning that no one is left to view! The many thousands of Sandhill Cranes, Cackling Geese, Snow Geese, and Ross's Geese have "flown the coop", heading back north to the Arctic for the summer season. The platform was closed, but the road follows the boundary of the refuge, and as I was leaving I saw the last stragglers, a half dozen Greater White-fronted Geese (Anser albifrons). I can practically see their thinking process..."Two thousand miles? Really? Surely this place isn't THAT bad during the summer. Maybe we'll hang around..."

Preparing for the Incredible Journey North: Greater White-fronted Geese at the San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge

In early October the birds numbered in the dozens or hundreds. By late November they were in the thousands and tens of thousands. And then, after a long winter, they are beginning to leave again, headed north to their breeding grounds in the Arctic. They include the Snow and Ross's Geese, the Cackling Geese, and the ones I saw yesterday, the Greater White-fronted Geese (Anser albifrons).

The Beckwith Road viewing platform will be closing soon as more and more birds abandon the refuge and fly north, so I made a last trip out yesterday to see who was still hanging around. There were perhaps a hundred or so of the Greater White-fronted Geese near the road.

Several thousand Snow Geese were visible as well, but they were down by the lake and not easy to photograph. All in all, in the warm sunny weather of the past week they felt like the last few hangers-on, reluctant to start the several thousand mile long journey to their summer home. Given the big storm scheduled for next week, maybe delaying a bit was a good idea...

Greater White-fronted Geese the Next to Arrive at the San Joaquin National Wildlife Refuge

The next members of the goose parade have arrived at the San Joaquin National Wildlife Refuge. I have no idea if they were here last week or not, but I'm only out there for an hour once a week, and can only report on what I see. There were thousands of Cackling Geese in the cornfields, and hundreds of Sandhill Cranes last week, but I didn't notice any Greater White-fronted Geese (Anser albifrons). This week I could tell the flock of Cackling Geese had grown considerably (look for a video soon), and the cranes were investigating a plowed field across Beckwith Road towards the Stanislaus River at Caswell. I finished my observations and took off for school. There is a pond close to the highway about half a mile west of the viewing platform, and the previous week it had been occupied by Cackling Geese. I slowed for a look and realized that many of the birds didn't have the white necks, so I stopped for pictures.

We are still awaiting the arrival of the Snow Geese and the Ross's Geese, and maybe some swans. I'll keep you posted!

Greater White-fronted Geese and Friends at the San Joaquin National Wildlife Refuge

Greater White-fronted Geese at the San Joaquin NWR

Between storms this week, I made the drive out to the viewing platform on Beckwith Road west of Modesto, on the San Joaquin National Wildlife Refuge. It wasn't easy! The roads were flooded in places, and mud covered parts of the access road. But the birds were certainly there.

Greater White-fronted Geese and Aleutian Cackling Geese

There were thousands of them, but unlike earlier visits, they were spread out and were intermingling with each other. There weren't the flocks of tens of thousands of a single species. It might have been the time of day, but I think there was an element of resources. Most of the maize fields have been cut down now, and they seem to have eaten most of the food. That may have caused them to spread out and graze much closer to the road, where the corn hadn't yet been completely consumed.

Greater White-fronted Geese. The name comes from the white patch behind the beak.

The birds I noticed the most were the Great White-fronted Geese (Anser albifrons). They are winter migrants, breeding far to the north in the Arctic. They were mingling with Snow Geese (Chen caerulescens), Cackling Geese (Branta hutchinsii), and Sandhill Cranes (Grus canadensis).

Greater White-fronted Goose and a Snow Goose

Conditions weren't the best for photography, given the overcast and late afternoon, so the pictures are a bit more fuzzy than I would like. But who cares, really? I was away from the hustle and bustle on campus for a few precious minutes, seeing beautiful creatures.

Sandhill Cranes at the San Joaquin NWR

It's still January, but I'm already feeling like they'll be gone soon, headed back north for the summer. I'll be hanging on to the precious moments while I can.

Some Early Arriving Snow Geese at Merced National Wildlife Refuge

Winter can be a tough time for birds. Some can tolerate severe snows and survive at high altitudes or far northern latitudes. Many Arctic species have to migrate to more temperate latitudes, but over the course of history they have found their wintering grounds have been taken over by agricultural development.

The humans who took over the wetlands and lakes of the Great Valley have made some effort to encourage the survival of the birds, establishing a series of wildlife refuges that provide some haven for the birds (although in a trade-off, the chance to hunt them as well). There are half a dozen refuges in my immediate vicinity including the Merced National Wildlife Refuge, which is one of my favorite sites for bird watching.

At the height of the season, there will be tens of thousands of Sandhill Cranes, Snow Geese, Ross's Geese, White-fronted Geese in residence, along with Pelicans, Swans, and many others. It can get quite crowded by the time January comes around, and food sources can run short, especially in drought years when the fields cannot be adequately watered or flooded. But the effort is made, and many of the birds survive (some succumb to avian cholera and other diseases of overcrowding).

We visit the refuge as often as we can as the year progresses. There are a number of interesting birds present all year, but yesterday we were watching for the arrival of the winter migrants. Thousands of Lesser Sandhill Cranes have already arrived, but it doesn't feel crowded yet. The geese are not yet present in large numbers, but a few early migrants were hanging about. There were White-fronted Geese (above), whom we saw in large numbers farther to the north a few weeks ago at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge.

There were also a few dozen Snow Geese (Chen caerulescens). They generally arrive in large numbers in December when they'll fill the skies by the thousands.

Many of the Snow Greese seemed to be in family groups, with three or four juveniles hanging out with a mature goose. I don't know if they maintain such groupings, but it sure looked like it.

It was dry at the refuge, and many of the lakebeds are still totally empty of water. We've finally had a vigorous storm this week, and I am greatly hoping the storm is a harbinger of things to come. The wildlife needs a break, and a better chance for survival. Life is hard enough as it is.

Greater White-fronted Geese are Arriving in California!

These are birds who have traveled a very long ways. They breed and feed all summer in the far northern reaches of Canada and Alaska, but in fall they fly 2,900 miles south, pretty much without stopping until they reach northern and central California. Our valley is their winter home. A bunch of tired geese have arrived in these last few weeks. I've got pictures from two refuges, the Tulelake and Sacramento, both from my trip last week.

The Greater White-fronted Geese (Anser albifrons) of Alaska and Canada migrate into California, making stops at Tulelake National Wildlife Refuge before moving on to the Great Valley.

Some of the birds that I saw feeding in the fields of the Tulelake refuge will be spending the winter in a refuge just a few miles from my house in the San Joaquin Valley.

Tulelake National Wildlife Refuge may be one of the most beautiful bird habitats in the country. Mt. Shasta and California's largest volcano, Medicine Lake Highland, form the backdrop to the refuge. Tulelake is a small remnant of a once larger lake that covered a wide fault valley near the California-Oregon border. Water diversions at the beginning of the last century caused most of the lake to dry up, the barren lake floor now planted with potatoes and alfalfa. The present lake is 1/6 the size of the original.

On the fortunate side of the coin, there were some who recognized that Tulelake was a critical knickpoint on the Pacific migratory flyway. More than a million birds need the break to rest and feed before moving farther south. The refuge was established, and whatever water could be spared, borrowed or pumped was put into Tulelake. Unfortunately, the birds are too crowded, and there are outbreaks of avian cholera at times that kill thousands, but most of the birds are able to feed and move on. The ongoing drought has been particularly disastrous, as Tulelake is near the lowest priority in water claims in the basin. Nearby Lower Klamath Lake, another critical habitat, is dry this year.

We drove home a few days later, but made a brief stop at Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge near the town of Williams to see what was going on. A six mile auto-tour trail provides access to parts of the refuge. We found that thousands of Greater White-fronted Geese had already arrived and started feeding in the flooded reservoirs and adjacent fields.

The White-fronted Geese show a great deal of variation and at least five subspecies are recognized. One of the smallest populations is the Tule Goose, which numbers only 10,000 or so and winters exclusively in the Great Valley, in the Sacramento and Suisan marshes.

I'm looking forward to seeing some of these beautiful birds in my own backyard soon!

White-faced Ibis Flock at San Luis National Wildlife Refuge (and some geese too)

I took a short break at work this afternoon to see if anything was up at the Beckwith Road viewpoint for the San Joaquin National Wildlife Refuge. They have been plowing the refuge field where the corn feed was planted last fall, so I wasn't expecting to see many birds, especially since we are getting on into March. The Sandhill Cranes seem to be gone already, and the geese won't be waiting around much longer. Still, there are plenty of year-round resident birds, and I've learned that surprises can happen any time.

For instance, I stopped a few blocks short of the viewpoint because I saw a lot of birds at a different corner of the refuge and some of them were unfamiliar. I found a spot to park and walked to the fence and realized it was a large flock of White-faced Ibises (Plegadis chihi). I've seen ibises before, but mostly as individuals or in small groups. There were perhaps a hundred or more, heads mostly down feeding.

There were also several hundred geese visible in the distance. There were at least three species, the Greater White-fronted, Ross's, and maybe some Cackling Geese. It seems some of them still want to hang around.

I got frustrated trying to catch snapshots of the ibises (they kept their heads down while feeding), so I tried a short video instead. Enjoy!

Bird of the Day: Greater White-fronted Geese at the San Joaquin National Wildlife Refuge

Winter is marching on, and the winter migrants are having to work harder at finding food in the refuges here in the Great Valley. The Beckwith Road viewing platform at the edge of the San Joaquin National Wildlife Refuge has been a bit quieter of late as the birds have consumed much of the corn and other foods in the vicinity, according to a FWS manager I communicated with recently. I was able to get some nice shots of the Sandhill Cranes the other day because they were foraging a bit closer to the road which they avoided in previous weeks because plenty of food was available in more remote locations. Because we had some early heavy rains this fall, and fog ever since, I'm hopeful that the growth of grasses and marsh plants will be sufficient to give the birds enough energy to begin their northern migrations in a few weeks.

There were several other bird species hanging out with the cranes, including a few dozen Greater White-fronted Geese (Anser albifrons). These geese have one of the widest ranges in the world, being known from Europe, Russia and northern Asia, Greenland, and northern Canada. In North America, they have a divergent range, including the summer breeding grounds on the North Slope of Alaska and Canada, and wintering grounds along the Pacific Coast, and on the Texas plains leading into Mexico.