The Sacramento Valley is home to millions of migratory birds during the winter months, ranging from ducks, geese and swans to sand hill cranes as well as dozens of other species of birds.
Waterfowl migrate here from as far away as Alaska, Canada, Siberia and even parts of Europe. There are also birds of prey such as the golden eagle and various species of hawks. It is truly an unmatched wildlife spectacle found nowhere else in California, and the best part it”s all free to the public.
The heart of this wildlife migration are wildlife refuges and one of the best is the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, just a two-hour drive from lake County.
With Christmas vacation in full swing and the kids getting bored, the next few weeks is a perfect time to take the entire family to the refuge to view the thousands of ducks and geese. There is a self-guided auto tour that takes you within a few yards of all types of geese and other waterfowl. The tour is free and offers excellent photo opportunities.
To reach the refuge, take Highway 20 from Lake County and turn north on I-5 toward Willows. Take the Norman-Princeton Road exit and then turn left on the frontage road to the entrance to the refuge. There are signs that guide you on the tour and I guarantee it is a sight you will never forget. Be sure and take your camera and a good pair of binoculars.
In addition to the self-guided tour there are also weekend tours that are guided. There are guided tours on Saturdays and Sundays during the months of November through January. The Saturday tour runs from 8:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m. and is a 6-mile tour in an eight-passenger refuge van. A trained guide identifies the birds and their habits.
There is also a one-hour Wetland Walk Tour on Saturday afternoon. Your guide will explain “the secrets” of the refuge and the birds and other wildlife that live here. That tour starts at 12:30 p.m. and is open to all ages.
The guided auto tour on Sundays start at 1:30 p.m. and lasts for two hours. Visitors also ride in the refuge van.
Call 530-934-2891 for more information on the guided and unguided tours. For a map of the refuges, go to the Google search engine on the Internet and type in Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge.
In addition to the Sacramento Refuge, there are four other wildlife refuges and three state wildlife areas in the Sacramento Valley, all of which make up more than 35,000 aces of wetlands. All hold thousands of birds. There is also wildlife viewing on most of the backroads that meander through the Sacramento Valley.
In my opinion, the most picturesque time to be in the Sacramento Valley is just at daylight. On a clear day the sky is a bright red in the east and you can see thousands of snow geese leaving the refuges and flying out to the rice fields to feed. The noise they make is deafening as they pass over.
Another amazing sight is the Sutter Buttes, which rise out of the valley to the west. This is the smallest mountain chain in the world. The Buttes rise to 2,130 feet and are approximately 2 million years old. They were formed more than a million years ago from a now-extinct volcano.
What draws the millions of waterfowl to the valley is the feed and habitat. The thousands of acres of wetlands that consist of rice and aquatic weeds allow the birds to store up the needed fat for their long journey north to their nesting grounds.
The birds stay in the Sacramento Valley until late February and then fly north.
Most of the birds will be gone by March.
