Monday, May 4, 2015--Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge

We were at the Sacramento NWR, 5 miles from our motel at Willows, CA, at 7:10 am this morning. The temperature was 52 degrees.

After we found a shady place to park the car for Sofie,  we walked the 1 mile wetlands trail around the visitor's center.

The visitor's center was not officially open until 9 am, and in fact the local resident turkey vultures were still in their beds! In fact, snug in their beds!

The path led through willows and other trees. 

This Western Tanager was one of the first birds to greet us.

Next we spied this Great-Horned Owl peeking at us through the willow leaves.

Mourning Doves are in great abundance here

House Finches were another common bird. These were so bright we tried to no avail to make them into something else. A local birder assured us they were House Finches.

A cute little Ash-throated Flycatcher

It was a beautiful morning walk

Front and back views of the same Lesser Goldfinch

We have looked everywhere for a Bushtit, so were glad to find this one

And a California Towhee

Of course there were a number of birds we never did identify such as this one, which flitted and stayed hidden behind branches. Help, anyone?

We began the 6 mile Auto Tour Route at 9 am. The rules are you have to stay in your car and it is a one-way road. There are 3 park-and-stretch stops along the way where you are allowed out of your car. Not surprisingly with the drought conditions, there was not much water in the wetlands walk, nor in most of the Auto Tour.

Red-wing Blackbirds are everywhere along the Auto Tour route

There were ponds that still had water.  We heard a Bittern's distinctive "oong-KA-chunk" repeatedly at this pond.  We had never heard one before, so that was really exciting. However, we never did see the Bittern.

The most common bird in the ponds were Coots. It was interesting to watch them swimming in a line one way and then all turn and go in a line the opposite way, back and forth. Some military drill, no doubt.

We saw a few American Avocet

A Turkey Vulture was drying his wings after a dip in the pond

Our first Yellow-headed Blackbird of the trip

Several Black-necked Stilts with their ungainly walk

And several White-faced Ibis

Quite a few Northern Shovelers

Hundreds of White-fronted Geese with a few Snow or Ross' Geese

At the second stop there was an observation platform overlooking two ponds

American Goldfinch

 Another Ash-throated Flycatcher

The bird was on the opposite side of the road, but I did follow the rules and stayed in the car!

Dusky Flycatcher

Great Egret

A life bird for us today was the fascinating "Common Gallinule" (formerly the Common Moorhen). I could see nothing "common" about this bird.

The Gallinule's feet became coated with the slime as it walked

A Western Kingbird displaying!

Black Phoebe's were numerous

and Paul found this very small frog on the path near the Visitor's Center.

We were at the Sacramento NWR for 8 hours--we left at 3 pm. We drove 6 miles in 7 hours! I took 426 photos--Paul had over 200 photos. The temperature was 82 degrees when we returned to the motel. Life birds today were Bushtit, California Towhee and Common Gallinule!!! Chocolate!!!  

We have come to our southernmost destination, 1213 miles from Walla Walla, and tomorrow we turn northward.