If you love birds (as I do) you have to check out my previous posts on the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge HERE and HERE.
And now, we'll finish up the 6-mile autotour starting with...
...Ducks, of course!
An elegant Gadwall pair with a Northern Shoveler friend.
And a little Black Phoebe. I know their name now! I love learning new things and the birding world offers much to learn and experience. A lot of time their heads have what appears to be a crest, but this guy's head looks smoothly round.
Here we have two Mallard pairs sitting on a log. K-I-S-S-I-N- Okay...that doesn't rhyme. And ducks don't kiss. That I'm aware of anyway. Anyhoo, one way to tell a Mallard is by the curly feathers just above their tail. You can see a good example of this on the handsome fellow on the left.
This next photo makes me sad.
Sad because this is a swirl of Snow Geese (mixed with White-fronted Geese) and thousands of these graceful beauties just perished on an acid pond from a former mine in Montana.
It's difficult to read how painful it must have been for these birds after landing on this toxic water. But it's important to understand the ramifications of what humans are doing to the Earth. 
I feel somewhat callous moving on to other pictures as I can't really express the love and amazement I feel after experiencing these incredible creatures in nature. I hope that you really take a moment to read the article and to think about how you can help preserve the Earth and it's residents.
Tip: Cut up the plastic rings that hold six-packs of soda's together before you discard it.
This one simple thing can save many birds and ocean creatures from getting stuck in the rings.
We'll move on.
This Great Egret kept flying and landing on the road just in front of my car.
He thought I was stalking him (which, I was...camera stalking), but he liked it.
Windblown feathers
I love this landscape! The circular water with sunbeams and ducks was so beautiful.
I was lucky enough to see another diving hawk. This one, along with several I saw, has one large white band at the base of his tail. I don't know what type of raptor it is. If anyone knows, please let me know on my twitter @ Jeanette199. Thank you!
Then I saw these two dancing through the air. Different species? I REALLY need to learn more about hawk identification.
Mallards with curly tail feathers! So dashing.
"Then this ebony bird beguiling
my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum
of the countenance it wore."
"On the morrow he will leave me
as my Hopes have flown before.
Then the Bird said 'Nevermore'."
Pintail ducks with White-fronted geese.
Oh. My. Goodness.
This next picture! I cannot tell you how happy I am about this next picture!
I had seen approximately five, beautiful pheasants but they all flew by way too fast for me to get a photo. I saw another pheasant sitting on the right side of the road eating, so I was carefully trying to maneuver my car into position to take a good photo when my daughter called me.
I took a couple through my windshield (which almost never turn out - and they didn't) and answered my phone. We talked for a bit when all of a sudden, out of the very tall grass/reeds where the female was sitting, flew an entire flock of male pheasants!
They flew right towards my car, across the road, and into the fields on my left. I literally dropped my phone mid-word, grabbed up my Nikon and just snapped one photo. I didn't even look at it because I thought there was NO way in HELL that this photo turned out. My phone was all on manual! Booo!
But! It miraculously did!! Not the right exposure,but damn close enough for government work.
At the end of this road was another pond with quite a few more Ibis along with White-Fronted Geese and Snowy Egrets.
And then I turned a corner and saw where all those pheasants had flown to! But they were still determined to evade my lens and quickly walked away into the brush. I did get a semi-decent shot of them with their Great Egret bodygard.
The last few ponds before I returned to the Visitor's Center area were filled with ducks some of which took flight as my car approached. Seems like a good finish!
Time for me to fly away as well! Until next time!
xoxo
