Every Christmas morning for the past 15 years or so, I drive about an hour west from my mom’s house to look at wintering birds at Gray Lodge Wildlife Refuge.

The 9,100 acre refuge provides watery winter habitat for over one million birds. It is also home to 300 species of birds and mammals, although many waterfowl head north in the spring.

The auto route is a way to view wildlife in your movable bird blind. As long as you stay in your car, the ducks, geese, cranes, hawks, falcons, eagles, and vultures.

There are a few place where you can get out of your blind and stretch your legs and empty your bladder. At one of these stops you can walk over to an “observation hide”. This is a way to view birds without them viewing you.

There were not too many viewable birds outside the windows (a hundred not thousands), so I sketched the view with the Sutter Buttes in the background (featured sketch).

It was also a great day for bald eagles. At the end of the morning I saw seven eagles, five adults and two sub adults.