An Autumn Afternoon Birding at San Luis National Wildlife Refuge

Autumn is a beautiful time in California's Great Central Valley: the weather is mild, the winter birds have returned, and the low sun casts a beautiful golden glow over an already golden landscape.  And, ideally, autumn brings the first rain of the season, the first rain we've seen in over six months!  (Still waiting on that rain - hopefully tomorrow it will arrive!)

Black-necked Stilts

We recently spent a dry, dusty, windy day birding at the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, logging over 50 different species and thousands of individual birds.  Thankfully, regardless of rainfall or lack of it, the National Wildlife Refuge system is able to allocate enough water to fill, or at least partially fill, their managed wetlands up and down the Valley.  (This is largely due to the support of waterfowl hunting organizations over the last century or so.)  For when the wetlands fill with water, the birds arrive in droves!

Ducks over the wetlands: pintails, shovelers, teals, gadwalls and wigeons, oh my!

In addition to around a dozen species of ducks, Tundra Swans have arrived at the San Luis NWR.  We saw a few flocks of Sandhill Cranes, but nothing like the numbers that overwinter at nearby Merced NWR (which is also the place to go to see massive flocks of Snow Geese and Ross's Geese)!

Sandhill Crane

Driving along the 8-mile gravel auto tour route through the grasslands, we spotted several Loggerhead Shrikes and more Western Meadowlarks than we could count!  Keep a sharp eye out for American Pipits bobbing their tails as they walk along the road - walk, mind you, not hop, like sparrows.  Northern Harriers course low over the grasslands and wetlands, showing a bright white rump patch that is a great field mark.  And if you're very lucky, you might even see a Short-eared Owl, which shares the same habitat!

A Loggerhead Shrike, looking a tad windblown

The wetlands along the auto tour route are a great place to stop the car and take a good, long look with binoculars or a spotting scope.  Ducks, geese, swans, pelicans, gulls, grebes, coots, egrets, herons, other wading birds and much more can be found on or along the water.  But remember, your car is essentially your own moving blind: birds are far less alarmed by a slowly moving vehicle than by frightening bipeds, so stay inside your car for the best chance at approaching birds for a close-up look.  (The ducks are especially flighty; the moment you step out of the car to "get a better look," the entire flock of several hundred ducks takes to the air and is gone in a matter of seconds.  Ask me how I know!)


Be sure to pay attention to sounds as well: a descending, whinny-like call is often the first clue that a sora is nearby.  We saw several, but heard many more calling across the wetlands!  Patiently scan the water's edge for birds: soras and rails generally stick to the thick tule reeds, popping out into the open for just a moment before darting back into cover.

Sandpipers, dunlin and dowitchers probe mudflats, and Greater Yellowlegs and Black-necked Stilts wade conspicuously through the shallows.  Listen for the shrill cries of these shorebirds as they fly over the wetlands.  Cryptically-colored Wilson's Snipes generally keep to muddy shores with a little more vegetation for cover: they favor the reedy water's edge and damp areas grown over with grass or stubble in which to hide.  And boy, do they ever hide well!  "Spot the snipe" is always a fun game to play, and more challenging than you might think!  Often I will see one snipe... then another... and another... and before long realize there is an entire flock of several dozen snipes together in one area, all nearly perfectly well-camouflaged in the vegetation!

Greater Yellowlegs

While remaining inside a car while birding can be useful at times, nothing can ever quite compare to getting out and walking into the woods and wild lands on your own two legs.  Wherever you are, I always recommend taking a hike or walk beyond the pavement.  At the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, the 1 mile Sousa Marsh Trail, accessed from a trailhead along the waterfowl tour route, is a pleasant stroll through a woodland of willow and poplars, to a raised observation platform overlooking a vast expanse of restored wetland.  The trees along the trail are excellent places for spotting woodpeckers, warblers, and other small passerines, like kinglets and bushtits, flitting about in the branches; raptors perch above, while sparrows and towhees scratch in the leaf litter below.

California's golden flora

Happily, we are just entering into the prime season for visiting wildlife refuges in the Central Valley.  From fall through spring, the birds are abundant and the weather is generally pleasant.  For more suggestions on where to go, I have put together descriptions of our refuge system's best walking paths and nature trails, accessible here.

And, of course, if you find yourself in a different part of the country, take a look at this handy tool to find a wildlife refuge near you.

I, for one, know where I will be on the day after Thanksgiving!  While so many others are battling traffic and crowds... I will be out here, counting my many blessings in peace.

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