Last Wednesday David and I left the house at 5am to be at the Merced Wildlife Refuge before sunrise. Our agenda was to meet up with Michael Frye , Claudia Welsh and their friend Kirk Keeler at sunrise, Dan Mitchell would join us late afternoon. The MWR is a driving tour with a couple of viewing platforms where you can get out of the car. There’s also a short walking trail near the back viewing platform.
The drive down to the San Joaquin Valley held a sky of bright stars and a full moon. It was looking as if the sun would rise to a clear and boring sky. When we reached Merced I detected light ground fog, David wasn’t seeing it and doubted my judgment (he was busy driving). After we drove through Merced to highway 59 and then began heading south we hit the fog. I watched the foggy moon and landscape most of the way to the preserve until it disappeared into the dense fog. I took this photograph through the windshield while David drove on Sandy Mush Road. This is the moon, not a street light. 6:27am
The fog was too thick to see the sunrise. While we were photographing on this part of the auto tour, Michael and Claudia Frye arrived. They continued on to a spot they had in mind. David was photographing birds and landscapes, I was looking for possible future paintings. It was so foggy I wasn’t bothering to photograph birds. 6:53am
A little further along the auto route we came to this area where the Ross’s Geese were close to the road, close enough for me to take a couple of photographs. I was enticed by the fog induced soft lighting that was muting the birds’ silhouettes and I liked the graphics of the plants and the bird’s reflections. 7:51am
And then they decided to leave.
The Lesser Sandhill Cranes are very shy and don’t get very close to people. This group was almost completely shrouded in fog and close enough to the road to try photographing them. I think of this picture as the ‘Ghost Birds’. 8:34am
We arrived at the area where there’s usually a lot of Ross’s Geese and they didn’t disappoint us. The fog was slowly burning off. 8:50am
About a half hour later the fog was gone in our area but still lingered towards the west. Mid morning Michael and Claudia left to run errands. David and I had snacks and drinks so we remained at the preserve. 9:15am
We continued taking photographs, ate an early lunch, David read his book and napped and I made a couple of quick rough field notes with pastels. 6×10” 
While David was dozing and I was taking pictures out the car window, the geese suddenly ALL took to flight. It was fascinating to watch to entire flock wheel around, changing colors with their banking turns. To watch the video I took, go to my YouTube Channel. The videos aren’t very good quality but I hope they give you a sense of what it’s like being there. The videos in this blog are the first I’ve ever published, I know I need practice.
11:45am
We continued watching the birds all afternoon. There is a lot of hawk activity and lots of cotton tail bunnies. I took 600+ photographs, it wasn’t easy to limit my choices for the blog. I’m jumping ahead to the evening. Michael and Claudia have returned and Dan Mitchell has arrived.
The evening light makes the birds glow with warm light and gives the water such pretty hues. Slowly the geese have been leaving from the pond in groups, flying to the field behind us. The world is tinged with a rosy color from the setting sun. The geese look like white paper falling from the sky as they land in the field.
As each group flies over there’s a familiar sound all around me that’s almost disguised by their raucous calls. It doesn’t register at first and then I realize it sounds like rain. Miraculously I’m not being hit by all the bird droppings. Dan was the most popular target of the group. I believe he registered 3 hits, Michael was also targeted. To view a video taken during this time, click here for my YouTube channel link. 5:14pm
The sun has almost set. 5:24pm
The sun has slipped below the horizon, the birds are gone….to the field behind us and in the air all around. The air is filled with their calls, darkness has almost completely descended when the birds suddenly take flight in an unbelievable mass. As far as you can see more groups are arriving from all over the valley. Here’s a link to watch the video I made on my YouTube Channel.
