Rare Albino Goose Spotted Along Auto Tour Route

–The Union Slough National Wildlife Refuge will open up their Auto-Tour route next week to the public. Assistant Refuge Manager Erich Gilbert tells KLGA News that they have a unique visitor that has been hanging around the refuge for most of the summer.

Gilbert says having an Albino Canada Goose on the refuge is something that doesn’t come around that often.

While the dry conditions this summer have turned lawns brown and stressed crops, Gilbert says the animals and plant life at the refuge handle the drought pretty well.

Along with the Albino Goose, Gilbert says they have Sandhill Cranes back on the refuge this summer.

The auto tour route will open on August 1^st and remain open, sunrise to sunset, through September 20^th. The tour route starts at the Refuge Headquarters, 6 miles east of Bancroft along County Road A42. The route runs through the refuge and ends up at County Road B14. Besides the rare birds, visitors will see a wide variety of wildlife including duck broods, trumpeter swans, great blue herons, shorebirds, pelicans, grassland birds, river otters and white-tailed deer amongst others. Gilbert says the wildlife is most active during the morning or evening hours, when temperatures a bit cooler.