On a flooded rice field in
remote Yuba County, a small flock of tundra swan ended their long journey this
week and settled in the water in front of us. Off to our right, about 100 snow
geese bobbed about.
Storms in the Arctic, Canada
and the Pacific Northwest are sending roughly 5 million birds on the Pacific
Flyway to wetlands on the bay, delta and refuges in the Sacramento and San
Joaquin valleys.
At 2 p.m. Tuesday, it felt like
summer: 78 degrees, with crystal blue skies and a light breeze out of the
northwest. But birds never lie. Winter is fast approaching. By Thanksgiving at this rice
field off Woodruff Lane, a back-road connector link for highways 70 and 20,
I've seen the fields look like carpets of white from so many snow geese, Ross'
geese and swans.
At midweek, rafts of snow geese
arrived at the Sacramento
National Wildlife Refuge. Biologist Mike
Carpenter and his crew then quickly ventured afield, across the
complex's five refuges, to count the latest numbers.
"The birds are here,"
said Brandee
Bethard at Sacramento refuge headquarters south of Willows (Glenn
County). "And more are arriving every day."
Last year, 76,000 people took a
break from their trips on I-5 and enjoyed the driving tour through the
Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge. Another 25,000 took the auto tour off
Highway 20 through Colusa National Wildlife Refuge. Thousands more made their
own personal trips to their favorite marsh along the bay or delta.
The people who pay for the
refuges, the duck hunters with their licenses and duck stamps, have been
struggling this month. The ducks seem to know the areas that are hunted and
simply fly to the areas that are not and hang out there. Last weekend, across
the hunt zones in refuges in the Sacramento Valley, the average was 0.7 to 1.7
ducks per hunter, with an overall average of 0 to 0.2 geese. A trip to the
nearby driving tour is proof enough, though, that the ducks are here.
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