2022 01-05 Sacramento NWR
Although NOAA-NWS forecasted sunny skies, The Refuge foggy and overcast the whole trip. We arrived at 11am and departed at 1pm. There was no wind and the ponds were glassy. There was light traffic on the driving loop and nobody on the short hike I took at the end to look at some more bald eagles.
There were a few hundred snow geese at the start of the west-to-east leg of the loop, and behind them, on a regular roosting post, were several turkey vultures. The vultures took off and flow south across the road and landed in a field about 100 yards away. We soon approached them and noticed all were perched on the ground surrounding a single striped skunk. We watched the skunk interact with 5 or 6 vultures for 20 minutes. Most of this time the skunk spent foraging in the low-growing weeds with its tail held high and aimed at the vultures. Perhaps enlarging the images might shed light of what, exactly it was after. For the most part, the vultures kept 10 or 20 feet away from the skunk. When they got too close, the tail was raised higher. On a few occasions, all the vultures jumped into the air and moved a short distance further away…we though perhaps this may have been a response to skunk spray (?). It was a great show.
Another hundred feet east of the skunk-vulture area there is an irrigation ditch we’ve watched over the years as it became overgrown with duckweed. On and around this floating weed a single raccoon was watched. It, too, was foraging. The animal was a small juvenile. It did not pay any attention to our truck on the nearby roadway or the sound of the camera clicking away. Another wonderful sighting! There was a juvenile golden eagle on the ground in the beyond-camera distance.
Up at the viewing platform there were snow geese masses in the ponds to the south and not many close to the platform ponds. Once or twice they all took flight together and filled the sky. A nice look at a single pond turtle on a nearby log with its reflection on the glassy surface was another highlight, as was the resident black phoebe we see on every visit.
The road turns north and we’ve nicknamed this section “Raptor Road.” This name was very appropriate today as the rest of the loop, all the way back to the parking lot, had several red-shouldered hawks, a couple of red-tailed hawks, two great horned owls, 4 adult bald eagles and two juvenile bald eagles. The bald eagles were on tree limbs and in the open, not buried behind twigs.
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Haliaeetus leucocephalus Bald eagle in tree 2022 01-05 Sac NWR-C-168
Haliaeetus leucocephalus Bald eagle in tree 2022 01-05 Sac NWR--292
Haliaeetus leucocephalus Bald eagle in tree 2022 01-05 Sac NWR--399
Haliaeetus leucocephalus Bald eagle on stump 2022 01-05 Sac NWR-d-017
Haliaeetus leucocephalus Bald eagle in tree 2022 01-05 Sac NWR-C-125
Haliaeetus leucocephalus JUV Bale eagle in tree 2022 01-05 Sac NWR--001
Haliaeetus leucocephalus Bald eagle in tree 2022 01-05 Sac NWR--006
Haliaeetus leucocephalus Bald eagle in tree 2022 01-05 Sac NWR--017
Haliaeetus leucocephalus Bald eagle in tree 2022 01-05 Sac NWR--022
Haliaeetus leucocephalus JUV Bale eagle on stump 2022 01-05 Sac NWR--108
Agelaius phoeniceus Red-winged blackbirds FLOCK & Buteo jamaicensis Red-tailed hawk in tree 2022 01-05 Sac NWR--010
AgelaiusphoeniceusRedwingedblackbirdsFLOCKButeojamaicensistailedhawktree2022SacNWR010
