Four More from Merced

The few shots I’ve posted on this post and the previous ones don’t do justice to the number of birds we saw at the Merced National Wildlife Refuge, but magical places like this remind us what life must have been in these areas before we drained the wetlands and covered the lands in concrete.

I was a little surprised to see Snow Geese this far south, but I would have been disappointed by how far away they were

if I hadn’t known that I would see a lot more at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge that afternoon.

I was much happier with this close-up shot of a Black-Necked Stilt.

I had a hard time catching a shot of the numerous Ground Squirrels 

perhaps because they knew that if they stayed in the same spot too long that they would become dinner for the raptors we kept seeing circling overhead.