I love birds. They bustle about their business, no matter the weather, and sing while doing it. And the feathers...can we talk about the feathers? Fab. U. Less. And there are so, so many varieties of these beautiful creatures. So I've been a tiny bit obsessed about learning about different birds and then seeing them. Or vice versa. Whatever works. :-)
So I had planned to head to Merced to visit the National Wildlife Refuge. February is a great time for this due to all the migratory birds that visit the refuge over the winter.
It was so rewarding. I saw so many birds. And some varieties that I had not seen up close before. There were so many birds there that I'm breaking up my visit into categories. This one is all about the ducks, geese and other floaty birds.
This beautiful boy is a Northern Shoveler. But! It's kind of rare in that it has a purplish-blue head instead of the more normal green.
Some people claim that the purple-blue is a trick of the light, but I assure you...that was not the case. I watched this duck swim around for quite awhile. His head remained uniformly colored no matter which way he turned or dove. There were a couple others with blue heads too.
Now these cute guys - or should I say coot guys - are pretty common in almost every waterway here in Northern Cali.
Cute American Coots!
You know the old saying "let sleeping dogs lie"? Well that goes for sleeping ducks too. Especially if they are sleeping in a Wildlife Refuge. Here we have a sleeping mix of Mallards, Shovelers and American Black Ducks.
Now these two got me really excited! (Yes, I'm a dweeb...I'm aware.)
This is a pair of Cinnamon Teal Ducks. You can see how they got their name! Well, except for the Teal park. I don't understand that at all.
To understand the next several pictures, let me explain about the Merced National Wildlife Refuge. There are three walking trails from .5 to 1.5 miles and a 5 mile auto loop. I was dealing with an hairline fracture in one of my toes and wasn't supposed to be walking much. So the auto loop was perfect.
You drive along slowly, stopping when you see a bird that you want to watch and/or photograph. That seemed to happen about every 15 feet for me. haha There are also a couple of viewing platforms that you can walk up (one at the main entrance and one midway through the auto loop).
Also midway through the auto loop is a photo blind. One car at a time can park and up to two people can walk down a road onto a peninsula in the marsh. There sits a "blind" which is basically a rectangle with fencing around the outside which is covered with fake leaves. In it are stools.
I was lucky enough to happen upon it when it was vacant, so I took advantage.
This is not a goose or a duck BTW.
So, as I was walking down the road heading back to my car, the noise from the marsh increased suddenly. I looked over to see what was going on and saw that some of the (what appeared to be thousands) white and black Ross and Snow geese were starting to fly.
They seemed to be somewhat agitated by some large brown birds flying among them. The sound was increasing and becoming almost deafening! I lifted my camera and started to snap away. The white rose off the ground in waves.
And soon the sky was filled with beautiful black-winged white geese.
They flew around in circles for about 5 minutes - honking loudly all the while - and then they started coming back in for a landing.
Ross' Geese and Snow Geese look remarkably alike. In the picture below, I THINK bird #4 and maybe the last one are Snow Geese. But the picture isn't totally clear, so that makes it harder to tell.
These are some more ducks that I had never seen in person before. I believe these are Ruddy Ducks (both male and female).
Unfortunately, I did not get any good shots. In the photo above, you can see two ducks on the far left just above the first solitary duck. You can see the characteristic blue beak of one (if you look really hard. ;-/ ).
I took so many pictures of that gray duck in the foreground of the next picture. The damn duck had it's head in the water in every one. I believe that is a Northern Pintail duck (judging by the tail and gray body) and I've never seen that one before either!
I'm not sure what these white geese are. They might be a variety of Ross/Snow Geese. I'm confused. They don't have any black on them at all. Who the hell knows? Not me anyway.
Coots crossing the road.
This photo has a little bit of everything in it. We've got some Greater White-fronted Geese, some Black-necked Stilts, a bunch of Snow Geese and Ross' Geese, a Northern Shoveler, and an unidentified duck that is upside down with it's feet in the air. Haha!
I'll leave you with this shot of the marsh trees surrounded by water and white geese.
Stay tuned for more birding adventures!!
xoxo
