The dog and I headed to the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge one day this week to decompress. Sometimes you just need to listen to your body and do what it wants…

We stopped at the Colusa refuge first (which is right on the way), and drove the auto tour there. Not a lot to see, really, but their ponds are starting to fill in nicely. Finally. I did see some female pheasants, several egrets, and lots of White-Faced Ibis among the usual suspects. The best find there was seeing a Red-Tailed Hawk and a Turkey Vulture sitting in the same tree.  The hawk had a dead Coot it was having for breakfast, and the vulture was sitting nearby hoping the hawk would drop something.

Oh, and I also saw a Great Egret with a vole it had just caught. The vole was still kicking when the egret swallowed it down.

Then we went on to the Sacramento refuge. There were lots of Black-Tailed Jackrabbits around, scurrying from one place to another, but the California Ground Squirrels aren’t out yet. (This is the time of the year when they have their babies, so most of the squirrels are still underground.) We saw most of the usual ducks and geese, both Great Egrets and Snowy Egrets, lots of Coots and Killdeer, some little Warblers, Pacific Pond Turtles, the last remnants of the Snow Geese flocks, and Ruddy Ducks. We came upon a Red-Tailed Hawk that was preening itself and didn’t mind if we watched, so I got some video and lots of photos of him (including one where he’s looking down between his legs at us. (Hilarious.)

CLICK HERE to see the album of photos.

The Marsh Wrens were out singing, and the Pied-Billed Grebes were hooting.  I came across one Marsh Wren that looked kind of odd to me; it’s coloring was different than I’m used to seeing. There were speckles all over its back.

When I got home, I posted a photo of it to a bird-identification group on Facebook, and they confirmed it was a Marsh Wren. Unbeknownst to me, the wrens actually have a few color variations, and this was one of the variations I hadn’t really seen or noticed before. So that was a first and a learning moment. I saw a few more female pheasants here, along with way too many Black Phoebes and a Great Blue Heron.  But here, the best find of the day was a Bald Eagle. I didn’t get many photos of it because it was high overhead in a tree, and I couldn’t get a good angle on it, but those guys are always great to see.