Back to Merced

We returned to Merced National Wildlife Refuge last weekend. Just like last year, it did not disappoint. Thousands of snow geese, lesser sandhill cranes, and Ross’s geese, along with abundant northern shovelers, cinnamon teal, and other assorted waterfowl winter in the heavily managed wetlands and grassy uplands.

It turns out that the 100,000-acre refuge was established in 1951, not so much to aid wildlife as to attract the geese away from nearby farmlands where they were causing damage to crops. Much of the refuge is planted in corn and winter wheat to attract and sustain the wintering birds.

Most of the wildlife viewing at the refuge is done from a car. There’s a four mile unpaved driving loop that traverses both wetland and upland habitat. You’re directed to remain in your car for the majority of the route. A benefit to this is that most birds fear cars less than they fear exposed humans. We were able to approach much closer to many birds from our cars (our friends Mike and Katharina accompanied Marla, me, and Marla’s brother Steve in a separate car) than would have walking. We didn’t see as many cranes as we had last year, but we saw a lot of good stuff:

Snow geese taking off in the evening golden hour. There may be some Ross’s geese—similar so snow geese, but a bit smaller—in there somewhere, but I can’t find any.

The crowded skies can necessitate some fancy maneuvering.

Three sandhill cranes among the hoards of geese.

This redtail hawk has nabbed an unfortunate coot. The refuge is rich in raptors, and positively brims with coots.

A Wilson’s snipe eyes us warily. We saw several of these little sandpipers on this trip, but none last year.

These foraging white-faced ibis lack the feature for which they are named. They only show white faces during the breeding season.

An ibis flying in the morning light.

Cranes against the rising sun.

More from Merced

Even without the headliner birds I described in the pervious post Merced National Wildlife Refuge provides some excellent birding. Much of the refuge isn’t accessible to the public, and much of what is accessible can only be enjoyed from inside an automobile. Visitors can drive dirt roads along a series of levies adjacent to the wetlands, but are prohibited from leaving their cars. The good thing about that is that birds fear cars less than they fear people, allowing closer approach from a car. So anyway, here are a few photos:

We saw many White-faced Ibis foraging in the shallows. These solitary birds only display their white faces during breeding season.

Small groups of gangly Black-necked Stilts were all over the place.

Northern Shovelers were by far the most abundant ducks in the refuge. Most were paired up like these two.

Ducks can be broadly divided into diving ducks and dabbling ducks. Shovelers are dabblers, as this pair demonstrate.

The gorgeous Northern Pintails were probably the second most common duck. Another dabbler. That’s a Ruddy duck (a diver) in the background. Ruddys were uncommon here.

This rather nondescript little bird is an American Pipit. The species used to be called Water Pipit. While frequently found near water they can be abundant in dry habitats as well. They were fairly common at the refuge the day we were there.

Lots and lots of Snowy Egrets. I liked this golden hour shot.

Another golden hour shot of a ubiquitous bird—a Killdeer. Such a beautiful bird close up.

The refuge was also rich in raptors, but I’ll leave that for another post.