Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area is a county park located in Irwindale, California. It is inside the Santa Fe Dam, a flood control dam which is dry most of the time, on the San Gabriel River, in the San Gabriel Valley. Much of the area consists of gravel quarries, many of them inactive. It is just off I-605, which I just learned is called the San Gabriel River Freeway. The reason for my visit was the beautiful 70 acre lake which provides some wonderful birding.
I visited on February 5, 2022 because I learned on eBird that a large white-fronted goose, which I'd never seen before, had been seen there recently. I visited with Judy and we not only found that goose, but some snow and Ross's geese as well.
Following are photos of some of the birds we saw:
 |
| Ruddy duck |
 |
| Yellow-rumped warbler |
 |
| Canada goose |
 |
| Snow goose |
 |
| Ross's goose |
 |
| Snow goose (left) and Ross's goose (right) together. |
 |
| The reason for my visit: the greater white-fronted goose. |
 |
| Egyptian goose |
 |
| Greylag x swan goose (domesticated) |
 |
| Greylag goose (domesticated) |
 |
| Black phoebe |
 |
| Great egret |
 |
| Mallard ducks |
 |
| Mourning dove |
I only spent an hour to an hour and a half, and for the most part, I stuck to the shore of the lake, and even then, I only did about 20% of the shore line. There are some areas to the north and east with great areas for birding which I only scratched and would like to explore more.
Your greater white-fronted goose has a beautifully colored beak and the snow goose has a really bizarre patch on its beak that almost looks like saw teeth.
ReplyDelete