By the time we left the Merced National Wildlife Refuge the clouds had begun to move in, and they just kept getting heavier the further north we went. By the time we finally reached the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, the skies had already turned gray. With the next day’s forecast even worse, we made one trip around the preserve.
Luckily, there were lots of birds there, especially the Snow Geese and the Greater White-Fronted Geese we had become accustomed to seeing here in the Fall.
The best pictures of the day were definitely ones where the birds were sitting relatively still, and luckily there were quite a few birds that were willing to do exactly that, like the Red-Tailed Hawk,
this American Bittern who might have set a record for pretending not to be there,
this American Pipit,
and these notoriously hard-to-spot Great Horned Owls
Huge flocks of Snow Geese and Greater White-Fronted Geese may be the main attraction at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge this time of year, but seeing the unexpected certainly adds to the overall experience.