We took a last minute Saturday drive down to the Merced Wildlife Refuge to meet up with G. Dan Mitchell and his lovely wife Patty. The deck thermometer was reading low 50’s but the car read 57 degrees as we pulled out of the driveway at 2pm. After a short stop in Merced for a Starbucks, the temp a very warm 68 degrees, we headed to the preserve on Sandy Mush Road. My turtleneck, wool sweater and wool vest were rather warm attire for the beautiful valley day. The four of us had a fun afternoon of bantering and laughing while watching the birds. It’s so reassuring, and humorous, when the guys accidentally forget to change camera settings in the excitement of bird activity. There may be hope for me yet regarding photography.
The back platform held a view of a pond filled with geese, though there weren’t as many as our last visit. We stayed at this platform from late afternoon till dark. In this blog I’m sharing photographs of the same trees with various crops from slightly different views throughout the visit, with exception of the first photograph.
View of geese at 4:01pm.
5:13pm The sun is on the horizon.
5:23pm
5:28pm The sun has set but it seems to get lighter as the light bounces off the clouds overhead.
5:48pm It was fairly dark at this point.
5:58pm A Great Horned Owl is perched in the tree. The next blog has a closer picture.
