EXCITING HORDES OF WINTERING WATERFOWL

      From the middle of October to mid-November, 2025, as I have in previous years, I watched hordes of wintering waterfowl on the shallow channels and extensive, tall-vegetated marshes of the Sacramento Wildlife Refuge in Central California through the refuge's live camera and our computer screen.  I saw large flocks of white-fronted geese and snow geese, and swarms of ducks, including big flocks of northern pintails, large numbers of northern shovelers and green-winged teal, lesser numbers of American wigeons and gadwalls, and a sprinkling of cinnamon teal and mallards.  All those goose and duck species tip-up, with tails pointing skyward, in the shallows to reach their necks and beaks down to pull up and ingest aquatic vegetation off the bottoms of the channels and marshes.   They also feed on the seeds of those same emergent plants in the shallows.   

     Most every dawn, the refuge is filled with large flocks of geese and ducks flying almost "wall to wall" to feeding areas, which is exciting to see through the live camera.  Soon many of those waterfowl flutter, and parachute down on extended wings, into the wind for flight control, with their feet extended, to the channels and marshes to feed. And when many of them land on open channels, the water almost completely disappears from their great numbers swimming about.

     When full of roots, greens and seeds, group after group of geese and ducks take flight in rapid succession to rest and digest elsewhere.  Some of the birds rest on short-grass dikes between impoundments, or the open channels, or in the marshes where they are not seen until they fly up again. 

     Flocks of geese and ducks often leap into the air at once and swiftly fly away with a loud roar of beating wings, and raucous honks and quacks, in response to a real, or imagined, threat.  Sometimes, those masses of waterfowl almost block the views of background habitats for a few seconds.  Those noisy clouds of birds swiftly swirl over impoundments, marshes and channels a few times before settling on them again.  They provide a thrilling spectacle that outdoor people enjoy experiencing.  

     All these species of waterfowl are attractive and elegant; pleasing to the eye, on water and land, but, especially in the sky.  Geese genders are look alikes.  All species of hen ducks are brown and dark mottled, which camouflages them on the ground when they are incubating eggs and raising ducklings, but drake ducks, are a bit flamboyant, each species in its own way.  Use a field guide to birds in America to see the colors and color patterns of these beautiful birds.    

     White-fronted geese are so-named because of the white feathering at the base of each bird's beak.  They are also called "speckle-bellies" because of the large, dark markings on their underparts. 

     The particularly noisy snow geese arrive on this refuge in huge numbers, after nesting on the Arctic tundra.  Most of them are white with black flight feathers on their wings.  But some of them are dark-gray, with white necks and heads.  Snow geese often fly up from the marshes in large, deafening flocks that block out backgrounds for a few seconds.  

     Pintails pair off during winter, which I have noticed in real life and on our computer screen.  Four or five drakes court a female, and when she takes flight, those drakes follow her, swiftly swooping and zig-zagging across the sky.  The male pintail who is able to keep up with her gets to be her mate for the coming breeding season.  That ritual ensues she will have swift ducklings to raise.

     Shovelers have especially large bills; and the handsome drakes have appealing, iridescent-green heads, lovely rufous flanks and white chests.  Little gangs of these intriguing ducks spin together on inches-deep water and use their feet to stir up mud from impoundment bottoms, and the invertebrates and tiny bits of plants in that mud.  Shovelers' beaks sieve those edibles from the muddy water.  The ducks squeeze the muddy water out of their beaks and swallow the edibles.    

     Other kinds of birds winter in this refuge.  Majestic bald eagles are there mainly to kill and eat ducks and American coots; and scavenge dead animals in the refuge.  The gracefully-soaring turkey vultures are there to scavenge dead animals.  Northern harrier hawks flap slowly into the wind as they watch for rodents in the marshes.               

     The Sacramento Wildlife Refuge in winter is a wonderful place to visit, even on a computer screen.  And so are other wildlife refuges throughout the world.  If you can't be in them in person, visit them by computer.

       

      

                    

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