Last November, with Covid cases spiking all over the country, Craig and I decided to celebrate our seventh anniversary by driving our camper out to the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge Complex to see the migrating birds. These refuges are part of the Pacific Flyway, one of four north-south bird migration routes in the Americas. Every year, according to the Audubon Society, more than a billion birds migrate along the Pacific Flyway, which runs from Alaska to Patagonia. In California’s Central Valley, a network of protected wetlands provide resting and feeding areas for the migrants.

It was late fall, and a great time to catch the early arrivals. We found a lovely campground in the town of Colusa, which is conveniently situated near two refuges, both of which offer driving routes.

Our first morning took us to the Colusa National Wildlife Refuge, where we spent three happy hours slowly making our way over the designated drive, stopping to peer through our binoculars, checking our birding books and apps for identification, and grinning to each other as we discovered birds we’d not seen before. I added eleven birds to my life list (a bit of a misnomer, since I only started it in August).

We repeated the experience the following morning at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge. Here’s what we saw at the two preserves:

Western meadowlarks Snow geese (thousands of them!) Northern pintails American wigeons  [ASIDE: My main association with wigeons is Georgette Heyer’s use of the word as an epithet for a foolish or silly woman, which always made me wonder what these birds had done to merit this taking of their names in vain.] Northern shovelers American coots Greater white-fronted geese Ring-necked pheasants Killdeer Gadwalls

White-faced ibis (which in fact had a dark face; apparently, they sometimes do — go figure) with red eyes American kestrels Black phoebes Red-tailed hawks Mallard ducks Northern harrier Sora Buffleheads Pied-billed grebes Ring-necked duck

As we watched, we talked about how more experienced birders would doubtless have been able to identify many more birds than we could do. It can be amazing to go birding with someone who knows their stuff and can open your eyes and ears to things we beginners miss. (We struggled to pick out the wigeons from the shovelers from the pintails!) And yet, there’s also something wonderful about fumbling and bumbling through these discoveries ourselves — kestrel! grebe! — and on the whole we were glad to be on our own on this morning.

Savvy birders drive Priuses

We made these drives in our camper, which is mounted on an extremely loud diesel pickup (my watch clocked it at 85 decibels), a far-from-stealthy vehicle that was hardly the ideal choice for a birding drive. When we drove up to a likely site (slowly but noisily), we too often ended up flushing flocks into the air or making them swim away in great haste. The most dramatic instance of this came when hundreds of snow geese rose from a pond at our approach, circled in the air for several minutes, and finally settled back down onto the same patch of water they’d just left.

A little later, we were watching — engine off — the edge of a reedy patch where a gadwall (a mostly-brown duck with beautiful, intricately-patterned feathering) was feeding next to a sora. (A sora is a small rail, known to be shy and inclined to melt into the reeds when anything unexpected occurs.)

ASIDE: I was amused to see The Cornell Lab’s site describe the sora as “secretive.” Perhaps it’s just discreet?

When Craig was ready to start up the truck again, I watched carefully to see how the birds would respond to the engine noise. As soon as he turned the key, two things happened at once: the gadwall provided a diversion by diving under the water and making a tremendous splash for his size, and the sora completely vanished. Carefully as I was watching, I did not see the sora slip away. From one moment to the next, it simply wasn’t there. Secretive indeed.

We’re considering renting an electric car for our next birding adventure.

A blessing for all those who have helped
to create places where wild creatures can still find refuge:
May their numbers expand and their influence grow!

Connections

• Audubon Society: The Flyways — Pacific Flyway
• Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge Complex
• The Cornell Lab: All About Birds: Sora

You might also enjoy…

• The rest of my posts about birding in a pandemic:
  • Our fine-feathered friends
  • Which bird is which?
  • Our local birds
  • Capturing nature on the page
  • An exotic visitor
• Who is that big-footed bird?
• Georgette Heyer puts me to sleep