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.
Three Sandhill Cranes soar against a backdrop of hundreds of geese
I lived here for a quarter century absolutely ignorant of the dramatic scenes taking place just west and south of my home. Each winter tens of thousands of Snow Geese, Ross's Geese, Cackling Geese, and White-fronted Geese as well as Sandhill Cranes take the long journey out of the Arctic Circle and head for California's Great Valley. They converge on a series of wildlife refuges that wind up and down the valley like a string of pearls. They bide their time through the winter and then when spring comes they head north again to breed.
They once ranged across the entire valley, but agricultural development has stolen away 95% of their habitat, leaving precious little living space. Refuge managers will often grow fields of corn to provide food for the hungry birds.
They spend their days foraging around the region but as the sun sets low on the horizon they start to settle into a large field where they can bunch together. This evening the flock was pretty close to the viewing platform on Beckwith Road about 10 miles west of Modesto. When I first arrived about 25 minutes before sunset, there were just a few hundred birds in the field, but more were arriving by the minute. Soon there was a thousand, and then ten thousand. The noise was deafening (the amount of gossiping going on was appalling!).
Occasionally something would startle the birds and many of them would take flight all at once, circling like a bird tornado over the field until whatever got them going resolved itself. Who knows what it might have been. I've seen coyotes lurking in the area, as well as Bald Eagles.
Soon an entire sector of the pastureland was covered with thousands of birds settling in for the night, but as I was turning to go, there was one more disturbance. There was a sound like a jet plane throttling upwards to take off and thousands of birds were once again in the air.
I caught a short video of the moment. Sorry for the shaky cinematography. I've been watching too many crime procedurals lately. Or else I was just kind of excited...
It's an incredible sight to see the migratory geese making their winter home in the Great Valley of California. As noted in the previous post, we were watching the geese swirling into the fields for the night at the Beckwith Road viewing platform in the San Joaquin National Wildlife Refuge. The first video showed them arriving. They're a fractious bunch though, and it takes some time to settle. Once in a while, thousands of birds will suddenly take flight, only to land a few moments later. That's what the second video shows. If the flying monkeys in the Wizard of Oz gave you nightmares in your childhood, you might want to cover your eyes! There is some extraneous noise on this one; a couple of teens decided to practice skateboarding on the platform while I shot the video. Oh well...
I fell for the ruse. I was duped into Christmas shopping on a Saturday, because it included a quick trip out to the Beckwith Road viewing platform at the San Joaquin National Wildlife Refuge west of Modesto in the Great Valley. It was a decent trade-off. When we pulled up, it looked like we would be disappointed, as the fields were almost empty of birds. But then the magic started...the sky filled with geese coming from all directions, all spiraling towards the field west of the viewing platform. There were dozens, then hundreds, and then thousands of them.
The Cackling Geese arrived first, and the few Ross's Geese looked a bit confused and lost, but the tornado of white birds expanded, and more and more of them arrived. It was an astounding sight. I took a few videos. The first is below. I'll post the second in a few moments.
I was trying to think which birds are appropriate for Christmas day wishes, and I couldn't get much farther than "The Twelve Days of Christmas", with partridges, turtle doves, french hens, calling birds (colly birds), and of course, the six geese a-laying and seven swans a-swimming. There are some who think that all twelve gifts are birds out of Celtic legends. I'm in no position to analyze the veracity of the claim, though.
Out of the long list I was able to pick out the geese and swans, since they've arrived in our area for their winter sojourn in our local wildlife refuges. The first two pictures are Ross's Geese (Chen rossii), the smaller of the two white geese. All of them were hanging out at the Merced National Wildlife Refuge a week ago.
The larger Snow Goose (Chen caerulescens) has a longer beak with a black lip. The geese often flock together in huge numbers. There is nothing quite like seeing tens of thousands take flight all at once.
We will sometimes see Tundra Swans (Cygnus columbianus) at the local refuges as well.
Merry Christmas and a wonderful holiday season all around. May you find blessings as numerous as the birds who fill the skies! And here's hoping for a wonderful new year as well! Thanks for reading!
