Tongue-Gnawing Rarity...A Falcated Duck Abides...This Cat Is Distracting...Colusa National Wildlife Refuge.

Why this strapping duck was called a teal at any point, I don't know. All photos today are from Colusa National Wildlife Refuge, CA.

"There was a fast and terrible speed to it that was almost biblical - like the Book of Revelation, where the rivers fill with blood and the seeds of the land turn to poison and men will gnaw their tongues for pain." - Hunter S. Thompson, in Generation of Swine.

This description summed up how I felt shortly after I learned of Colusa National Wildlife Refuge's Falcated Duck. After the initial giddiness of learning about the bird wore off, the terrible reality that I might not see it set in and I began to panic. Terrible flashbacks of The Ivory Gull Incident blazed through my mind. What began as joy turned into a nightmarish sludge of nail-biting anxiety and Doom. Before I knew what had happened, I had torn out large clumps of hair and had chewed my nails down to bloody nubs....

Which was all for nothing, as you all know, as I was able to see the bird back in December, the day after it was found. But it was just so damn far away that it just didn't feel right, weeks later, when I saw daily reports of the bird being right next to the road and offering itself up for decent quality photographs. So I did what I thought was best and headed back there earlier this month.

A Falcated Duck is a true crippler. Not only is it an exceptionally rare bird ("MEGA"), it's also extremely good looking, and sports a classy word in its name ("Falcated", obvi) that no nonbirders have even heard of and relatively few birders comprehend. The majority of the world's population spends the winter in China, Japan and the Koreas, so this bird is a long way from home. For once, the California birding community has not seriously entertained the few feeble and baseless claims that this was a captive-released individual.

The duck stands out among its peers. I'm really glad that it survived hunting season. Suck it, trophy hunters!

Falcation!!!! "Falcated" means "sickle-shaped", which is a reference to those fancy extra-long tertial feathers you see here.

This is probably my best shot of a Greater White-fronted Goose. I am now accepting glory and adulation from all.


I would venture to guess that Florida's Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge has been the most blogged about National Wildlife Refuge the past several months in the Birdosphere, due to a recent birding festival held nearby and it's proximity to various highly gifted bird photographers. For a change of pace, I figured I would give some more publicity to northern California's own Colusa National Wildlife Refuge. No, it doesn't have Roseate Spoonbills and Reddish Egrets, but it was the only place in the Lower 48 where someone could see a Falcated Duck this winter.

Colusa National Wildlife Refuge is located north of Sacramento, CA, just off Highway 5, so it's an easy detour for a birder travelling up or down the center of the state. It is definitely managed as a classic waterfowl refuge, but of course the huge wetland complex attracts all sorts of raptors and other marsh birds. I've only thoroughly birded there in winter, and I'm curious about what it draws in during migration.

Greater White-fronted Geese. The lead bird is an immature (note lack of black barring on the belly).

I don't have a lot of silhouette shots I really like, but I think this White-faced Ibis came out ok.

This Great Egret helped out the photograph by putting its neck in Question Mark Position. By the way, there is a cat licking the hell out of my right arm right now and it's making it difficult to concentrate.

Most people will tell you that Northern Pintails are their favorite dabbling duck. But most people have not seen a Falcated Duck.

Unsurprisingly, the only approachable American Bittern I have seen in years also happened to be in some of the worst light possible. Oh well, still a rad bird.

I'll get you next time bittern.....next time.

Gadwall, a strict adherent to the philosophy of Economy Of Style. 

Snow Geese abound!

You asked for it....The Bellowing Falcated. What did it sound like? A bizarre mix of Russian and Chinese...a very communist quack, I suppose.