Today UC Davis ecologist Susan Harrison returns with some bird photos and, at the end, a couple of reptiles and mammals. Susan’s captions and notes are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them:
Ibises, Meadowlarks, and Others
It’s early April and the skies are still often cloudy, snow is lingering on the distant mountaintops, and the wildflowers are getting underway. Birds are singing, chasing, nest-seeking, and flashing their breeding colors. These photos are from two of northern California’s wildlife refuges at this invigorating, promising time of year.
White-Faced Ibis (Plegadis chihi) at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, with a westward view to Snow Mountain, the Coast Ranges’ tallest peak at 7,057’:
White-faced Ibises have gone from uncommon to quite abundant around here in the past 25 years, possibly because flooded rice fields are being managed to support wetland wildlife. To appreciate these Ibises’ iridescent beauty, it helps to get close to them on a sunny day, as I attempted to do at the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area.
White-faced Ibises:
Western Meadowlarks (Sturnella neglecta) are abundant in open fields, dominating the soundscape with their complex resonant songs. One artfully arranged himself in a bed of Goldfields (Lasthenia californica), while another showed off his tonsils.
Western Meadowlarks:
Marsh Wrens (Cistothorus palustris) are also loudly melodious in their namesake habitat:
Belted Kingfishers (Megaceryle alcyon) are quite hard to approach with a camera, but this one was perched next to a bird-viewing platform that obscured his view of me:
Nuttall’s Woodpeckers (Dryobates nuttalli) and other woodpeckers are in the same order as Kingfishers, and there is a bit of a family resemblance:
Black-necked Stilts (Himantopus mexicanus) are common in the refuges’ shallowly flooded fields:
Clark’s Grebes (Aechmophorus clarkii) are on the verge of doing their spectacular springtime mating dances:
Western Pond Turtles (Actinemys marmorata) like to sunbathe together, and on first glance, these ones looked like turtles all the way down:
P.S. Last night when I’d just gotten this post ready to send, we found two Gray Foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) curled up on the patio furniture, in a picture of canid domestic bliss!
Beautiful – my favorite is the scenic opening, then the Grebe… let me check on that again… the turtles-all-the-way-down is really good too… those foxes, and always love Kingfishers – this one’s rugged appearance is great…
“… this one’s rugged appearance is great…“
Oh yes. My immediate thought on seeing the photo was the rather anthropomorphic, “That’s one tough little bird.”
Very enjoyable photos
An indelible memory from long ago was a (brown, IIRC) Ibis flying close past me with long legs trailing in a swamp near Cape Hatteras.
Neat! Foxes on the furniture!
Very nice, and you got foxes!!
Yes, beautiful photos. Thanks
Beautiful birds, and appreciate the lagniappe of the turtles and foxes!
Here on the shores of Lake Washington near Seattle, there are small parks with rustic walkways that allow visitors to explore the wetlands. In Kirkland, on the east side of the lake, is a small park that leads out onto a swamp. Turtles abound there. When a log is too small to contain them all, they simply pile on top of each other. I believe that our turtles are red-eared sliders. Western pond turtles, once abundant, are now endangered in Washington State: https://wdfw.wa.gov/publications/00398.
I’m especially impressed by your photos of Western Meadowlarks and the Marsh Wren. I’ve found both of these species to be very difficult to approach and to photograph well. Thanks for the inspiration to continue trying!
Thanks Susan. Love the view from the meadow to the snow covered mountain top and the fox family looks so at home on your plush, comfortable patio chairs. You really seem to enjoy the outdoors around Davis.
Thank you for your always-kind remarks, Jim. The Gray Foxes were actually at our home-away-from-home in Ashland, OR, which I forgot to mention. It was probably our absence that made them feel so at home. Remarkably, though, Davis does have both Gray Foxes and native Red Foxes (an endangered Sacramento Valley subspecies) — they are seldom seen, of course.
All of these are wonderful and interesting, thank you. The White-Faced Ibis photo takes the prize, though, in my opinion – it is truly spectacularly beautiful, and is deserving of a space on one of your walls!
Susan, your photos are always great, and much appreciated.
One thing. Unless I’m really badly misinformed, kingfishers are in the order Coraciiformes, while woodpeckers are in the order Piciformes.
I read that they were both in Coraciiformes; but maybe that is outdated?
Thanks!
Great photos. Very scenic area! Love the foxes 🦊
Thank you for a post that brings me so much joy!
I love the foxes making use of the furniture. Wonderful singing meadowlarks.
What a joy! Iridescent beauty — Western Pond Turtles — Gray Fox domestic bliss — and more —
Lovely photos! I love the colors on the ibis (ibises?). Thanks for posting.
Yes, they almost look metallic, and hand painted at that!