The Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge is located just south of the community of Willows, California.  It is a truly amazing experience in winter as vast numbers of waterfowl congregate on the flooded ponds.  Over 118,000 snow and Ross's geese are present during December of most years.  The photos exhibited in this blog were taken during the first week in December 2020.  Snow geese were abundant, but duck numbers were far below what I normally observe. The geese forage on harvested rice fields in the region during the night and return to the refuge during the day.  Snow geese are very social birds and vast numbers can be observed in tight groups.  The birds frequently occur near the eight mile-long auto tour route which allows close up photography opportunities.

Occasionally a dark morph, or blue goose, can be spotted among the thousands of white morph geese.

Ross's geese (below) also occur in large numbers.  These geese are smaller than snow geese and have a different bill configuration than snow geese.

My experience has been that the best photo opportunities occur on days with either no wind or a south wind.  This allows the birds to land into the light.  Excellent flight photography can occur under these conditions.  These conditions occurred on December 4th, 2020.  Some snow goose flight images captured on December 4th are displayed below.

Landing within the tightly packed flock can be tricky.

Capture of the landing splash makes for more dynamic images, but the timing can be tricky.

Early morning light can give the snow geese a rosy appearance.

Snow geese spend a good deal of time preening.  This preening is frequently followed by a dunking bath and a major wing flap.

Throughout the day bald eagles will make a pass over the large flocks of geese looking for weak or injured birds.  This results in thousands of geese taking wing as one.  These mass take offs are visually impressive and quite noisy.

Greater white-fronted geese also occur in large numbers.

Turkey vulture in flight.

Northern pintail is the most common duck on the refuge during winter.  Over 30,000 pintails can be present during December.

 Large numbers of American coot can be present and are easily observed from the auto tour route.

Relatively few ducks were observed or photographed during this most recent visit to the refuge.  However, the refuge can be an excellent location to observe and photograph gadwall, mallard, northern shoveler, green-winged teal, ring-necked duck and cinnamon teal.  October through March is a great time to visit the refuge (which is just minutes off of I-5) and view the incredible abundance of waterfowl.  Thanks for visiting my blog.  Consider a winter visit to the refuge.