Lovely afternoon to be here! Almost no people here today.

The walk was pretty boring. Those pools are drained right now, so not much action. I walked the extra loop on the other side of the road, those pools were more active.

The auto tour was also deserted, I had the viewing platform and that whole corner all to myself for at the forty minutes or so I stayed there.

The turtles are back! Sunning themselves on their old log just like old times. :)

The sounds of the birds, black birds and goodness knows what else down by the creek was mezmerizing.

Boring off season conditions. Coots and shovellers are most of the water birds. There were white-faced ibises, which are cool to look at. A relatively small crew of snow geese in the distance.

The Viewing Platform stop has been upgraded with another viewing platform at water level on the inside corner of the turn. Quite nice.

There were ring necked pheasants, which are gorgeous.

Cinnamon Teals, and Scaups, both Greater and Lesser (I think).

And off in a deserted corner, a couple of pairs of grebes. That pairs thing is so cute.

Pretty slow here bird-wise. The main thing I wanted to do was to check out the spring wildflower scene at their vernal pool. Not spectacular, but very pretty in the distance.

A lot of jackrabbits, and some wading birds. I am not good with naming the wading birds.

migratory birds are gone, so taking a nice sunset walk seemed like a better bet than a nice sunset drive past the occasional pintail or shoveler or coot

got here very late in the day, maybe 15 minutes before actual sunset, still way awesome. Mostly Pintails and the occasional Shoveler. I think I say Lesser Scaups in the distance.

The usual flock of snow geese in the corner near the lookout were gone (for the evening?), but there were huge numbers of them to the east of the lookout. In the very late dusk they started their evening migration. Wish I was closer and the light was better.

Visited the office to ask about the falcated duck.

Took an abbreviated version of the nature hike. This was disappointing, most of the area is apparently being rehabbed in some way, restored to another habatat or something, whatever, it’s all ripped up by bulldozers, devoid of wildlife and walking through a construction zone.

Getting dark. Again the usual suspects bird-wise, same as above plus a few redtails and that big flock of snow geese that hangs out at the corner.

The Big Payoff was getting to the observation platform right with the evening migrations were starting, It happens every night, but it’s still epic to be there in person. The water is reflecting the purples and magentas of the sky, clouds of birds are wheeling around in the distance and you can hear their sad cries in the silence.