THE FALCATED DUCK

About a month ago there was a news story that a rare Falcated Duck was spotted at the Colusa National Wildlife Refuge about 70 miles north of Sacramento. These ducks are native to China, with some living in Japan and North & South Korea – occasionally they make their way to the Aleutian Islands of Alaska but almost never to California!

This beautiful bird has been showing up at the viewing area of the refuge since December 8th and has drawn birding enthusiasts from all over the U.S. and Canada. Lou and I were looking for a fun day trip since our weather has been unseasonably warm and clear – so off we headed to Colusa this morning armed with our two bird identifying books and our cameras.

Some of the thousands of birds at the Colusa National Wildlife Refuge

Birds taking a break on their migration south for the winter

The park ranger told us the Falcated Duck hadn’t shown up yet today but he quite often appeared later in the day. After checking out the thousands of birds at the viewing platform, we decided to do the three mile drive through the wildlife refuge then check back to see if “Peking” (Lou’s name for him) had shown up. 

Three Greater White-Fronted Geese

A Great Egret - distinguished by his yellow bill & large size

A Northern Pintail - a gorgeous duck
(These four photos were taken by Lou with his 24x zoom lens)

A Northern Shoveler - our bird book is great for identifying these guys

There were literally thousands of these American Coots

The smaller Snowy Egret with its dark bill

Still no Falcated Duck after our three mile drive through the refuge so we hiked the one mile trail before heading to the Colusa Casino for lunch. We didn't see much on the trail but it was nice to get out and stretch our legs.

I liked this reflection along the hiking trail

I had a truly international meal at the casino buffet – Italian meatballs, an Asian spring roll, American potato salad, a Mexican taco and two desserts! Gotta get your money’s worth when you eat at a buffet. On the way out Lou tried his hand at the poker machine with no luck.

Back at the refuge, the joint was buzzing with excitement – Peking had made an appearance! His location was quickly pointed out to us with various descriptions, such as: just below the grassy island OR right behind the line of white-fronted geese moving to the left OR he’s hanging out with the two wigeons over there.

We were most definitely the novices of the group. J  We didn’t really know for sure which were the white-fronted geese and had no idea what a wigeon looked like. Most of the birders had expensive viewing scopes and 10,000 mm camera lenses that could probably kill someone if used as a weapon. Our cameras and binoculars looked like babies next to most of them.

Some of the enthusiastic birders with scopes and cameras

Can you believe this lens? I won't make any size jokes - wink, wink ;-) 

And now, the star of the show - the Falcated Duck. I'm guessing that he has no clue what a celebrity he is and what a stir he has caused. Lou took these pictures with his camera zoomed in all the way and steadied on the railing while I kept an eye on Peking through the binoculars to help with the spotting.

That's Peking on the left with the iridescent green head and silvery back

Falcated means sickle-shaped and refers to his curved wing feathers

It was quite a treat to see this incredible visitor to Northern California