This Is The Valley

Spring.  This is the Valley at its best.  The color pallette is glorious: green and blue, white and gray, subtle and brilliant all at once.  And the birds!  The birds are at their best as well, as colorful neotropic migrants arrive: orioles, grosbeaks, tanagers, warblers and others that have spent the last five or six months in the New World tropics.  Resident breeders are busy as well, defending territory, courting, nesting and beginning to incubate eggs and raise young.  

The wetlands and riparian forests that make up the Central Valley's San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge are full of song and color and movement this time of year, a true delight for the senses!  

A couple of days ago, I spent the morning slowly wandering and delighting in the birds and the clouds.  I invite you to check out a few of the photographs I came home with, captured moments showcasing what I believe to be the very best of this humble but very special piece of the Valley.

The wetlands at San Joaquin River NWR hide an array of birds more likely to be heard than seen as they fill the marsh with their wild calls: Sora, Virginia Rail, Common Gallinule, Pied-billed Grebes and maybe even a bittern or two... 

Not to be outdone by anyone, minute Marsh Wrens vociferously defend their territory with their incessant chatter.  Though small, they cannot be missed!

Open upland habitat offers refuge for a number of songbirds and small mammals.  Not surprisingly, it is constantly patrolled by aerial predators...

...like this Swainson's Hawk, a long-distance migrant recently returned from its overwintering grounds in Argentina.  Listed as a Threatened Species in California, these hawks are showing signs of breeding at the refuge!

Formerly used for dairy farming and agricultural production, the land now protected by the San Joaquin River NWR includes 7,300 acres of habitat for more than 200 species of breeding, overwintering and migratory birds, not to mention endangered riparian brush rabbits. 

Glowing in his lemon yellow breeding plumage, this male American Goldfinch was busy collecting nesting material alongside a female I presume to be his mate.

Like the goldfinches, Bushtits are also Valley residents.  This female (differentiated from the male by her pale eyes) is gathering soft nesting material to line her pendulous, delicately constructed hanging nest.

Another resident species, this male Spotted Towhee kept a watchful eye out while his presumed mate went about her business in the underbrush.  

In the wetlands, the real prizes are often hidden out of sight deep in the cattails and tule reeds.  Though their calls echo throughout the marsh, a glimpse at a secretive Virginia Rail is by no means certain!

Truly a gorgeous day in the wetlands!