PHOTO ESSAY: Bird Marsh, Kern & Pixley Wildlife Refuges Each winter a 2000-5000 acre area of the Northern San Joaquin Basin is flooded to provide a temporary stop-over for migratory birds on the Pacific Flyway. A system of levees and dikes permits a seasonal wetlands environment to be created. A 6-mile auto tour route permits viewing without leaving the car, making it comfortable and providing excellent conditions because the birds don’t fly away. All that’s needed is a bird book and a good binoculars. Hunting is even permitted 2 days a week in winter, but the experience is one of open translucent space, traversed by birds who so willingly offer their innocent private lives for viewing. Each winter a 2000-5000 acre area of the Northern San Joaquin Basin is flooded to provide a temporary stop-over for migratory birds on the Pacific Flyway. A system of levees and dikes permits a seasonal wetlands environment to be created. A 6-mile auto tour route permits viewing without leaving the car, making it comfortable and providing excellent conditions because the birds don’t fly away. All that’s needed is a bird book and a good binoculars. Hunting is even permitted 2 days a week in winter, but the experience is one of open translucent space, traversed by birds who so willingly offer their innocent private lives for viewing. PIXLEY NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE Nearby, the dry lakebed of Tulare Lake is now a bosom for agri-business. Still, migrating sandhill cranes come into rest after having flown all day, eating their fill, then returning to the Refuge to sleep, rising in the sky at dawn to feast again.

 Each winter a 2000-5000 acre area of the Northern San Joaquin Basin is flooded to provide a temporary stop-over for migratory birds on the Pacific Flyway. A system of levees and dikes permits a seasonal wetlands environment to be created.  A 6-mile auto tour route permits viewing without leaving the car, making it comfortable and providing excellent conditions because the birds don’t fly away.  All that’s needed is a bird book and a good binoculars.

Hunting is even permitted 2 days a week in winter, but the experience is one of open translucent space, traversed by birds who so willingly offer their innocent private lives for viewing. 

PIXLEY NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE

Nearby, the dry lakebed of Tulare Lake is now a  bosom for agri-business. Still, migrating sandhill cranes come into rest after having flown all day, eating their fill, then returning to the Refuge to sleep, rising in the sky at dawn to feast again.