Stately great blue herons may be seen 
standing motionless along the canal 
banks, nearly hidden among the rushes, 
as they watch for fish. 
Thousands of white pelicans regularly visit the 
refuge, coming from nesting colonies on Gunni- 
son and Bird Islands in Great Salt Lake. Their 
community feeding, as a number of the great 
white birds move through the water together, is 
one of Bear River’s unforgettable spectacles. 
The two smaller herons of Bear 
River, the snowy egret (shown 
here) and the black-crowned 
night heron of shorter, stockier 
build, are often found fishing 
below the spillway near the 
refuge headquarters. 
Pure white geese with black 
wing tips that show best in 
flight are the lesser snow goose, 
an Arctic nester which swings 
down across central and western 
Canada and the United States 
to its winter range in California 
and on the Gulf coast. 
