Chen caerulescens & Chen rossii

Drove back home today with M, by way of Sacramento. We stopped at a place I've wanted to go for a very long time, the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge. This refuge of the Central Valley is known for untold numbers of waterfowl in fall and winter, notably the massive aggregations Snow and Ross's Geese.

These two species of geese are very similar in appearance, but are easily told apart by a couple features. Standing (or floating, as it were) side by side, the Ross's Goose (C. rossii) is the more wee of the two. Also the bill of the Snow Goose (C. caerulescens) is curved where it attaches to the face, and sports a noticeable black "smile," while the Ross's is more straight-faced.

It was evident within minutes how amazing this place is. One of the first birds we spotted was a Peregrine Falcon, perched high in a eucalyptus just below a Turkey Vulture with outspread wings. There were all kinds of raptors (Red-Tailed and Red-Shouldered Hawks, Northern Harriers, American Kestrels, and two mature Bald Eagles), drawn in by the multitudes of waterfowl (the geese of Chen, Greater White-Fronted and Cackling Geese, Northern Pintails, Northern Shovelers, Green-Winged Teal, and Gadwall). Other highlights included a single White-Faced Ibis, Black Stilts, an American Pipit, and an American Bittern feasting on a mighty crawdad.

Early on in our visit we looked up to see a distant flock of birds swirling over the refuge lands. I thought surely by the mass and coordination of them that they were flocking European Starlings, a dazzling spectacle if not frustrating for the reminder of their unmanageable numbers. Yet when I looked through binoculars, I experienced the quintessential realization of visitors to this place: the mass of swirling birds was in fact upwards of one hundred thousand geese. It was this ceaseless spectacle of the whirling, honking birds that filled me with true joy and awe.