Bald Eagles at the Sacramento National WIldlife Refuge

We've never had a disappointing trip to the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge between Williams and Willows in California's Great Valley. We usually make it there during our trips north at Thanksgiving and Christmas, but we sometimes drop in during the summer if we are traveling that way.

There was a lot going on when we came through at the end of December. I literally was stepping out of the car at the visitor center parking lot when someone pointed out the Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) sitting in the eucalyptus trees a few yards away. We saw four more of them along the six mile auto-tour route, two adults and two juveniles.

I know that folks farther north don't get quite as excited at seeing this interesting bird since they are more common up north, but I've only seen a couple of them in our region, so this is more of an event for me. I read interesting accounts of the hundreds of eagles that pester fisherman and residents of fishing villages in Alaska.

Still, these thieving lazy birds (by some accounts, including Benjamin Franklin) are interesting to watch. They do have that certain bearing...

A Rare Sight: Vermilion Flycatcher at Dawson Lake

We did something today we've never done before. News had spread of an extremely rare sighting of a bird in our county, only the fourth time it's been seen here, and the first time it was seen in a publicly accessible place. So we did it. We went looking for it as if we were actual birders. It was a Vermilion Flycatcher (Pyrocephalus rubinus).

Source: Cornell Lab of Ornithology

The Vermilion Flycatcher is more of a tropical species, and we lie north of their normal range. Obviously, a few individuals get "lost" and end up outside their usual habitat, as happened with this one. I note that a female flycatcher has been reported this month at the Merced National Wildlife Refuge. I imagine they are both feeling a bit lonely (the male has been hanging out with a Black Phoebe, a related species).

Mrs. Geotripper tried her hand at sharpening one of the shots

Our chances of actually seeing the bird weren't great. It was said to be patrolling a barbwire fence at the north end of Dawson Lake, but there are a great many such fences out there, and they weren't close to the highway (La Grange Road, just south of Highway 132). We lucked out though, because a birder was already parked there and he knew which fence to keep an eye on. It was a long ways off, far enough that I could not make out birds with the unaided eye. But after about fifteen minutes of scanning the slope with the camera set to highest zoom, I spied it. I snapped as many pictures as I could, but don't expect a whole lot of detail. But you can't miss a bird this colorful!

If you live in the area and want to have a look, drive east on Highway 132 to La Grange Road about 18 miles east of Waterford. Turn right (south) on La Grange and drive a mile or two until you see the Dawson Lake, a small irrigation reservoir, off to the right (west). Park at the bridge that crosses a corner of the upper lake. The fence is across the dry arm of the lake directly to the west (below). The bird patrols for bugs, going from fencepost to fencepost every 90 minutes or so, according to Rich, the birder we talked to. The lake property is privately owned, so don't jump the fence (bad form in any case to do that sort of thing).

Even if you don't see the flycatcher, don't be too disappointed. Dawson Lake is a local birding hotspot, and there are plenty of other birds to be seen. This afternoon we saw cormorants, mergansers, geese, Acorn Woodpeckers, egrets, and lots of small songbirds.

Cedar Waxwings on the West Campus of MJC

School has not yet begun at MJC (that's coming on Monday), so the West Campus quad has been particularly deserted throughout the holiday break. The campus has an attractive array of different kinds of trees, and when the students aren't milling about, the birds move in.

I was walking from one end of the quad to the other, delivering a print job to the duplicating office, and I saw seven species of bird in the 300 foot stroll. The others will show up as posts one of these times, along with all the birds from my visit at the Sacramento NWR a few days ago (yes, I've gotten behind).

It's probably clear that my favorite sighting was the flock of Cedar Waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum). The birds have such beautiful (and slightly comical) plumage, and their presence seems to be limited to just a few weeks in the spring and fall. Their name comes from the bright orange wax deposits that sometime appear on their wingtips. The function is unknown, but maybe related to attracting mates.

The birds were eating what I think were toyon berries, which are ripe right now, and which were probably the reason I saw so many birds in the quad. I was able to get some of these shots because they were perched in a tree next to the second floor of the building I was running errands in.

Northern Shovelers at the Cosumnes River Preserve

Some people, when they are on a long journey, will stop at rest stops or gas stations, or maybe fast food outlets. Mrs. Geotripper and I are not quite like that. When we were looking for our first rest stop on our holiday travels, we noticed a sign for the Cosumnes River Preserve north of Stockton in the Great Valley. That was therefore our first stop. The Cosumnes River is one of very few free-flowing rivers left in the Sierra Nevada, and a patchwork of government and private entities manage tens of thousands of acres of the river where it flows through the Great Valley. I described the nature of the river in my post on the Greater White-fronted Geese that we saw there.

We also saw a number of Northern Shovelers (Anas clypeata). They have unusually long beaks with serrated edges that allow them to strain food out of the water efficiently. They are abundant birds, with a range that extends from northernmost Alaska to the southernmost end of Central America (as well as much Europe and Asia). As is usual in duck world, the males are the colorful ones.

Brown Creeper in Renton Washington

Here's a little bird which has never appeared on these pages before. It is a Brown Creeper (Certhia Americana) that I saw during my holiday travels in Renton, Washington. Lest you think I was out tramping through the snowbound forest to get my pictures, well, actually I was stepping onto the back porch to get a drink from an ice chest, and saw this little guy making his way up the trunk of a pine in the backyard of my relative's house.

Brown Creepers live across North America from Mexico to southern Alaska. They make their living creeping (isn't that a surprise) up tree trunks searching the crevices for insects, which is exactly what this one was doing.

Just How Close Can You Get to a Wild Bird? Great Egret at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge

Some of you no doubt saw my Facebook and Instagram post of a Great Egret (Ardea alba) at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge from last week. It's a phone picture, which is sort of unusual because as good as those phone cameras are these days, it's not often I can catch pictures of birds because I'm just never close enough, and I don't have enough zoom.

That wasn't the case on Saturday. We were following the auto-tour road at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge near Willows, and as we crept along, I saw this Great Egret alongside the road ahead and fully expected that it would be spooked by our passing and fly away. It didn't. I crept up to within three feet of the driver's side window, and still the bird stood there not caring whether I was there or not. I started fumbling for my camera fully expecting it to fly away, and still it didn't. I started snapping.

The detail is pretty amazing when you are only three or four feet away, and have a 60x zoom at your disposal. It's almost microscopic...for once I could look into the eye of an avian dinosaur and sense the creature within. Well maybe, anyway. I feel more affinity for mammals as a rule. These birds are pretty alien for the most part.

I took a bunch of pictures and the bird finally moved. It walked right around the car so Mrs. Geotripper could have her turn too! This was a defiant creature if I've ever seen one...

Christmas Crows in Issaquah

It's almost alliterative, Christmas Crows in Issaquah, but that's the best I can do! I'm snowed in at a hotel in Issaquah, Washington, and these American Crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos) were the first birds we could see this morning. The Crow (making its first appearance today on this blog!) is ubiquitous across the United States and Canada.

The crows are intelligent and resourceful, and I have little doubt that they will take over after humans annihilate themselves. I wish them well!

From all of us at Geotripper's California Birds, we wish you a happy holiday, a merry Christmas, and a wonderful new year!