F Duck

   Today we had an early start.  Shocking. Winding our way south through dense fog and darkness was again a little unnerving but we pressed on. Driving through the redwoods is always an impressive sight though. These trees are so tall and so immense that they dwarf everything around them including us. We stopped a few times to listen for owls to no avail. We tried to do the "drive through" tree but it was too early and a holiday unfortunately. From the forests we entered into agricultural areas and groves and then orchards until we started seeing rice fields filled with waterfowl.      

       Thousands of ducks, geese and swans dabbled and dove in these vast 'lakes'. Black-necked stilts, Avocets, long-billed curlews and white-faced ibis were plentiful as were long billed dowitchers, egrets and herons. Many red-tailed and red-shouldered Hawks watched these winter visitors waiting for the right moment. Once we finally made it Colusa NWR it was around noon and we set up shop. Scanning, scanning and more scanning. Four hours of scanning. I had a headache and my right eye hurt from scoping for so long and my left eye was damn near swollen shut. It was bright and sunny for once and I wished it wasn't. Every solitary Pintail resting in partial view made my heart skip a beat.  

 

    We drove the one way auto drive through the refuge looking at every bird out there and I shit you not there had to be 200,000 ducks and geese out there. The neat thing about this auto tour is that it is exactly that: an auto tour. Your car is your blind and if you get out of your car you are fined $275. I like this idea. None of the birds flushed and flew away. They didn't mind the traffic and gave us closer views to most species than I have ever had.  I have to wonder why more refuges don't adopt this policy. 

      The proverbial needle in a haystack remained hidden although if I was searching for Eurasian Wigeon I would have been ecstatic in counting 9 throughout our tour and scoping forays.  Even though there were 20 people scouring the refuge, no one could find the Falcated Duck. "F" duck as it shall be known from now on. 

As the sun dipped below the horizon thousands of greater white-fronted, snow and Ross's geese took flight to head out to pastures and parts unknown. Truly an amazing sight. Even the dark morph Ross's goose was a lackluster consolation prize for the "F" duck.  

A great horned owl teed up for us to watch as darkness claimed the refuge. We decided to stay close by for one last shot in the morning.....at the end of the day one thing is certain: I dread doing this again.