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Yours truly
Butte County in January
Northern California's central valley hosts millions of waterfowl from Alaska and Canada during the winter months. The wetlands, river valleys, and agricultural lands with rice stubble and other good feeding opportunities make this area a prime stop on the western flyway. Using the town of Chico as our hub, we visited several areas listed as sites for the Butte County Snow Goose Festival a week before the festival itself. These included the Llano Seco, Gray Lodge, and Sacramento River Wildlife Preserves, and the farmlands surrounding these areas. Click on any of the thumbnails or titles to go to the indicated page. Most pages have multiple images, so scroll down when possible.
All images on these pages were captured with a Canon 1D Mark II camera body. Most of the wildlife images were obtained using a Canon 100-400mm L IS zoom lens at 400 mm; the wide angle orchard image was taken with a Sigma 12-24 mm wide-angle zoom at 24 mm. The weather was continuously misty, foggy, or drizzly or all three at the same time (see Llano Seco in Fog, below).
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| Tundra Swans | Snow Geese | Greater White-Fronted Geese |
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| Other Birds (Bittern, hawk, heron) | Orchard in Winter | Llano Seco in Fog |
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| Muskrat |