Living in the Pacific Flyway

Quite often I manage to allow myself to fall into the nature photography mode. In fact, I would really like to do it more often. But it does require one action that I have always had a challenge with...getting off my butt and out where there is actually “nature”.

One such nature area located a mere 4 miles from my doorstep is the San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge. Although I have been there on one previous occassion, my visit yesterday provided me with quite an epiphany. Earlier this year we drove out to the site one time. It was not the time of year to see the “show”. There was nothing there, ie, no birds or other animals...the waterfowl had come and gone farther south...or back north for the Summer.

The public access is a rather small section of land just off Beckwith Rd outside Modesto. There is a gravel parking area right next to an elevated viewing platform...just adjacent to a huge tract of land set aside for this part of the refuge. This particular redwood structure enables folks like you and me to observe the migratory bird influx at a safe distance (for the birds). This visit provided me with a totally awesome and mind-blowing look at what goes on for a few weeks in the Fall in the Pacific Flyway.



By far, the predominant bird at this location this time of year is the (once-threatened) Aleutian Canada Goose. There were literally thousands and thousands of them hanging out in the fields surrounding this viewing platform. This smaller sub-species of the Canada Goose spends Spring and Summer nesting on a few windswept islands near the Alaskan coast and Washington, while wintering in Oregon and here in Central California. After more than three decades of conservation efforts, numbers of Aleutian Canada Goose has come back from a few hundred in the mid-70’s to over 32,000 today. It has been officially removed from the threat of extinction list.

While I was there for about an hour before sunset, these huge flocks of geese “grazed” on young alfalfa plants in the fields set aside for this purpose. Every once in a while, you could watch them take flights in large squardrons...honking, sqawking, and winging their way to another field nearby. Shortly thereafter, another flock would fly in from a different field to take their place. This went on the entire time I was there, until the sun set. Each time they moved, hundreds of them provided me with some great photo opportunities...especially as they flew between my camera and the setting sun.

Originally I had ventured out there to see the Sandhill Cranes who also inhabit this protected area in the Fall and early Winter. I only caught a few glimpses of the cranes flying by at a distance. But maybe I will see more next time. I have planned another visit sometime this week, at sunrise this time.

I took hundred of photos, so choosing this small handful here was quite a chore deciding which ones to use.

I also got to drive the Yellow Bomb out there. It actually made it there and back without any automotive trauma! It felt good watching and photographing the birds...and driving the 912.