For those that do not know, this Refuge is about 80 miles from Sacramento, CA. It does have walking trails and a large visitor center but the highlight is the auto tour. I cannot say how long it takes to get through this tour as there are a lot of wildlife out and about all along the tour. Sometimes you have to stop your car and just watch them. The sign says your vehicle is like a blind so you can take pics right from the car. Some ducks are skittish and will swim/fly away. The Red Tail Hawks will fly off if the car gets too close to them. I usually do the tour three times as there is so much to see each time. However, this week, I did it five times!
The highlight for me was near the end of the auto tour, I stopped my car to check out a Bald Eagle pair perched approximately 200 yards away. I watched as the male flew off and flew low over the water to scare up some ducks. He then flew over to where I was and landed in a tree right above my car! I took a lot of photos of him and spoke softly to him as well. He stayed on this branch for over five minutes looking out over the Refuge and occasionally looking down at me. I love this look:
I was enthralled with a Great Egret hunting for bugs. I loved the reflection it created. So I decided to turn the picture to show the unique shape:
Finally, I was able to finally get a picture of a Merlin (a small species of Falcon) who had just caught what looked like a Western Meadowlark. At first I thought it was a Kestrel as the head and face was so similar to that bird. The Merlin is more elongated and the body coloring was quite different.
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