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March 2023 Tall Forest bird survey
Glennah Trochet
I forward to the list the summary of yesterday's Tall Forest bird survey sent to a subset of my preserve family. I don't allow folks to join me if the survey is to be done in chest waders, since wading in opaque water involves the risk, indeed the expectation, that one will step into holes scoured by the high water or stumble upon submerged limbs drifted over the route. And I did both yesterday. Even though the birding, particularly the forest birding that I love, is much poorer in these conditions, I am thrilled to see the floodwaters moving among the trees. There was a time when this happened almost annually on all the Central Valley rivers. Only the Cosumnes now has water out on the floodplain almost every year. Best, John Trochet Sacramento ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: John and Glennah Trochet <trochetj@...> Date: Sun, Mar 19, 2023 at 10:13 AM Subject: March 2023 Tall Forest bird survey Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, When I got out of bed yesterday, my wife advised me that perhaps I should do the bird survey that morning because rain was expected on Sunday morning. She may disagree, but I do often listen to her, and I did indeed conduct the bird survey on Saturday. For the first time in many years I did so in chest waders, and they were still inadequate to get to many of my usual survey spots. But seeing the forest in flood is such a treat that I didn't mind at all. It's no surprise that under such conditions I had a few misses. There was no way to get on foot to the bald eagle nest on the east side of the forest to learn what, if anything, is going on there, or if the acorn woodpeckers are holding on in the flooded forest. More surprising to me was the number of resident canopy birds that were in the Tall Forest. In winter there are scarcely any such birds if water is running beneath the trees. But now that spring is nearly upon us, perhaps the urge to breed has led some among these species to reclaim the turf they'll need to do so. I'm more accustomed to finding the flooded forest full of mallards and wood ducks. They were in there in smaller-than-expected numbers, along with a pair of hooded mergansers, many ring-necked ducks, a single male lesser scaup and many common goldeneyes. Cathie and Mike, if this flooding continues for awhile longer, please keep a thought to finding common goldeneye nests or eggs in other nests when attending to your wood duck box routes. Out on the open ponds the numbers of ring-necked ducks were impressive, the best that I can recall since the Bottoms were grown to spikerush, cattails and tules in the late 1990s. The misses that come immediately to mind are gadwall, least sandpiper and Nashville warbler. The last is an unexpectable species at this season most years, but one has been wintering around the Love Shack. I saw it last weekend. On the flip side were a few surprising encounters. A blue-winged teal is always a treat away from Lost Slough and the ponds behind the VC. A blue-gray gnatcatcher seems too early to be a migrant, so I suspect that it wintered regionally at a spot that I don't habitually visit. By contrast, the chipping sparrow probably is a spring migrant at this date. And even behind the Farm Center gate, the pintails are not everywhere- almost all were on the west side of the Tall Forest, where I've not been able to get in rubber knee boots. Here's the summary: date and time: 18 March 2023, from 06:20 to 14:15 weather: clear to start, with slowly increasing high, thin clouds throughout the outing; very light, mostly S breeze after about 09:00; temperature 44 - 63 degrees F. route: this was a two-part survey: I was in chest waders in the morning and knee boots in the afternoon. In the waders I walked from the down levee road to the equipment pad and then down the east side road (water still too deep to make it to the Accidental Forest); then out the north edge of the triangle pond for about 600 meters; then back to the pad and down Wood Duck Slough for about 30 meters (too deep) and then down the west side road to Warbler Woods (too deep to make side trips to Wood Duck Slough and too deep to get through Warbler Woods); walk to Oak Island aborted because of water depth. Back to my vehicle via the NE corner of the west side rice fields and drove to the Farm Center, where I changed footwear and walked east to the Love Shack and vicinity, then back. solo survey birds: snow goose- 950 (no blue morphs and nothing obviously small) white goose sp.- 6000 (viewed from the pad; flew north from Lost Slough East before sunrise, making an impressive sound even from a mile or more away) greater white-fronted goose- 850 Canada goose- 4 dark goose sp.- 2100 tundra swan- 23 wood duck- 26 blue-winged teal- 1 male cinnamon teal- 11 blue-winged/cinnamon teal- 6 northern shoveler- 190 American wigeon- 9 mallard- 70 (mostly in the flooded Tall Forest) northern pintail- 370 green-winged teal- 850 ring-necked duck- 1450 (largest number in a long, long time; many in the flooded Tall Forest) lesser scaup- 2 males common goldeneye- 30 (mostly in the flooded Tall Forest) bufflehead- 1 hooded merganser- 4 ruddy duck- 2 duck sp.- 280 pied-billed grebe- 1 Eurasian collared-dove- 1 mourning dove- 4 Virginia rail- 1 (in the flooded edge of the road west of the shack) American coot- 60 sandhill crane- 145 (all in midday kettles, one of about 120 and the other two much smaller) black-necked stilt- 9 American avocet- 3 killdeer- 12 dunlin- 4 long-billed dowitcher- 110 Wilson's snipe- 2 greater yellowlegs- 10 gull sp.- 2 (heard only) double-crested cormorant- 3 great blue heron- 12 great egret- 18 green heron- 1 white-faced ibis- 5 turkey vulture- 6 northern harrier- 4 Cooper's hawk- 1 red-shouldered hawk- 4 red-tailed hawk- 4 Buteo sp.- 2 barn owl- 1 (heard only) belted kingfisher- 1 (heard only) downy woodpecker- 6 Nuttall's woodpecker- 6 northern flicker- 14 American kestrel- 1 black phoebe- 35 Say's phoebe- 1 Hutton's vireo- 1 (heard only) California scrub-jay- 10 American crow- 30 common raven- 2 oak titmouse- 4 tree swallow- 25 swallow sp.- 10 bushtit- 8 (paired up) wrentit- 2 (heard only) ruby-crowned kinglet- 15 (many singing) blue-gray gnatcatcher- 1 white-breated nuthatch- 6 house wren- 6 marsh wren- 1 Bewick's wren- 5 (heard only) western bluebird- 20 hermit thrush- 3 American robin- 30 northern mockingbird- 4 house finch- 35 lesser goldfinch- 1 American goldfinch- 5 (heard only) chipping sparrow- 1 fox sparrow (sooty)- 4 white-crowned sparrow (pugetensis)- 2 white-crowned sparrow (gambelii)- 20 white-crowned sparrow (unidentified to subspecies)- 12 golden-crowned sparrow- 25 Savannah sparrow- 4 song sparrow- 35 Lincoln's sparrow- 10 California towhee- 3 spotted towhee- 25 sparrow sp.- 45 western meadowlark- 18 red-winged blackbird- 80 brown-headed cowbird- 4 Brewer's blackbird- 15 blackbird sp.- 30 orange-crowned warbler- 3 common yellowthroat- 2 Audubon's warbler- 80 myrtle warbler- 2 yellow-rumped warbler- 100 A red admiral was my only butterfly. Jeri Langham commented recently about how advanced the season is on his patch along the American River. I chuckled when I read that because my impression is just the opposite. When I left for Louisiana more than a month ago, the willows were the only woody things turning green and the show among the mustards and wild radishes was very poor. There has been some advance on that but not nearly as much as I expected. Perhaps my view is clouded by the profusion of early flowers and greenery in the swamps that I visited in the Bayou State. Best, John |
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tundra swans
Michael Perrone
This morning a pair of tundra swans, heading north/northwest, flew over the Wildhorse Golf Course in Davis. The species is quite rare this late in the winter. Michael Perrone Davis |
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blue geese
Michael Perrone
Today in Yolo County in a field north of Road 27 and just west of Road 102 was a big flock of snow geese, maybe 5000 birds, including at least 24 blue-phase geese. I could only see about half of the birds clearly enough to assign them to race, so there were likely many more blues than I saw. This is an abnormally high proportion of blue geese, by a factor of perhaps ten or twenty or more. This flock, or parts of it, recognizable by having so many blue geese, has been in the general area for at least a couple of months. Michael Perrone Davis |
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Re: A Nighthawk Sp. was seen at Coleman Fish Hatchery , in Anderson
Bob & Carol
Thanks for the comments Jim.
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
From Bob & Carol Yutzy Redding, Ca On Mar 12, 2023, at 8:53 PM, James Laughlin via groups.io <ja_laughlin@...> wrote:
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Re: A Nighthawk Sp. was seen at Coleman Fish Hatchery , in Anderson
James Laughlin
Birders,
I was there the day they had flushed the bird at the hatchery. Poorwill did come to mind as well. We looked for it over the course of several days with no luck. If you are interested in looking for the bird these are the coordinates (40.398668, -122.143813) Good luck! Jim Laughlin |
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Re: [CALBIRDS] [centralvalleybirds] A Nighthawk Sp. was seen at Coleman Fish Hatchery , in Anderson
Bob & Carol
Details are below. Sorry re: the simple Nighthawk reference I should have said Nighthawk/Nightjar family or Caprimulgid.
From Bob & Carol Yutzy Redding, Ca On Mar 12, 2023, at 2:54 PM, Alvaro Jaramillo <chucao@...> wrote:
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Re: A Nighthawk Sp. was seen at Coleman Fish Hatchery , in Anderson
Alvaro Jaramillo
Agree, on N Poorwill. If they flushed it from the ground, it is a Poorwill. Nighthawks seldom roost on the ground, when nesting yes, and in some very open rocky areas yes. But classically in most places, a nighthawk will not roost on the ground. But maybe by “flush” I am reading too much between the lines and assuming it was on the ground. Any info?
Alvaro
From: centralvalleybirds@groups.io <centralvalleybirds@groups.io> On Behalf Of Andy Engilis via groups.io
Sent: Sunday, March 12, 2023 2:47 PM To: boby@...; ShastaBirders@groups.io; centralvalleybirds@groups.io; calbirds@groups.io Subject: Re: [centralvalleybirds] A Nighthawk Sp. was seen at Coleman Fish Hatchery , in Anderson
Did they consider a Poor-Will?
Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone From: centralvalleybirds@groups.io <centralvalleybirds@groups.io> on behalf of Bob & Carol via groups.io <boby@...>
Hello all, Two birders reported flushing a nighthawk twice on Feb. 27th around noon at Coleman Fish Hatchery in Anderson, just south of Redding in Northern California. Several birders searched the area without re-locating the bird. Given the time of the year and the observer's difficulty in gathering details from a flushed bird, the record in our county will just go as a Nighthawk species. Pretty darn unusual, especially since we have had several days of snow storms, sleet on many days and lots of rain. Bob Yutzy -- |
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Re: A Nighthawk Sp. was seen at Coleman Fish Hatchery , in Anderson
Andy Engilis
Did they consider a Poor-Will?
From: centralvalleybirds@groups.io <centralvalleybirds@groups.io> on behalf of Bob & Carol via groups.io <boby@...>
Sent: Sunday, March 12, 2023 4:40:27 PM To: ShastaBirders@groups.io <ShastaBirders@groups.io>; centralvalleybirds@groups.io <centralvalleybirds@groups.io>; calbirds@groups.io <calbirds@groups.io> Subject: [centralvalleybirds] A Nighthawk Sp. was seen at Coleman Fish Hatchery , in Anderson Hello all, Two birders reported flushing a nighthawk twice on Feb. 27th around noon at Coleman Fish Hatchery in Anderson, just south of Redding in Northern California. Several birders searched the area without re-locating the bird. Given the time of the year and the observer's difficulty in gathering details from a flushed bird, the record in our county will just go as a Nighthawk species. Pretty darn unusual, especially since we have had several days of snow storms, sleet on many days and lots of rain. Bob Yutzy --
Bob & Carol Redding, CA |
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A Nighthawk Sp. was seen at Coleman Fish Hatchery , in Anderson
Bob & Carol
Hello all, Two birders reported flushing a nighthawk twice on Feb. 27th around noon at Coleman Fish Hatchery in Anderson, just south of Redding in Northern California. Several birders searched the area without re-locating the bird. Given the time of the year and the observer's difficulty in gathering details from a flushed bird, the record in our county will just go as a Nighthawk species. Pretty darn unusual, especially since we have had several days of snow storms, sleet on many days and lots of rain. Bob Yutzy --
Bob & Carol Redding, CA |
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Cosumnes birds this weekend
Glennah Trochet
Dear Birders, Yesterday, pinch-hitting for Jim Rowoth, I conducted what will serve as this month's River Walk bird survey. I started at the TNC Barn ponds and covered what I could of the public trails. Much of the route was flooded, and I went over my knee boots repeatedly. Not surprisingly, there were several misses. Sandhill crane numbers were low, but the pre-dawn show put on by snow and white-fronted geese was still pretty good. Aside from northern shoveler and green-winged teal, duck numbers were poor. Highlights included a blue morph snow goose, an American bittern, an eared grebe and two violet-green swallows. A small flock of Oregon juncoes in a partially flooded grassland well away from trees or brush was in an odd location. Today I attempted to visit the Tall Forest. I might have gotten close in chest waders, but in knee boots I had to take an indirect route from the Farm Center just to reach the Love Shack. Again, the pre-dawn fly-out of geese (I picked out two blue morph snows) was pretty good, and I was surprised to find about 580 sandhill cranes. But ducks were very scarce. The shack area had a couple of treats. A pair of hooded mergansers were among the flooded wooden pilings supporting the shack, and the long-staying Nashville warbler was still present, today about 70 meters south of where I had found it previously. One fly-by long-billed curlew was nearly the only shorebird. Back at the Farm Center I picked up my starling for the outing (third preserve visit in a row with a single starling) and heard a mockingbird singing something sounding very like a calling whimbrel. Best, John Trochet Sacramento |
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Re: Summer Tanager reported at Fairytale Town, Land Park, Sacramento
Chris Conard
The tanager flew into the parking lot near the red building at 935. Chris Conard Sacramento --please excuse this brief message sent with my phone On Sat, Mar 11, 2023, 11:47 AM Chris Conard <conardc@...> wrote:
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Summer Tanager reported at Fairytale Town, Land Park, Sacramento
Chris Conard
Hi folks, I learned from Maureen Geiger today that a bright male Summer Tanager has been seen for a couple days (at least) in the parking lot east of the backside of Fairytale Town (38.5398761, -121.5001741) in Land Park near the Sacramento Zoo. If you come in from Land Park Dr, north from Sutterville, turn right on 15th Ave across from the zoo entrance. The road is lined with parking spaces, but if you pass Fairytale Town there is a small lot on the right. The bird appears to be going after bees in a box just behind the fence on the east side of the Fairytale Town property. It seems reasonable to suspect this is the same bird that was found there last winter. Pretty cool! Take care, Chris Conard Sacramento |
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Re: SAC Evening Grosbeak update and hotspot
Wayne Blunk
Observed flock of 13 Evening Grosbeaks under a large Redwood Tree at on the NE corner of Blazing Star Ct and Poker Flat Dr in Gold River yesterday around 12:20 PM. Wayne Blunk Carmichael
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Re: SAC Evening Grosbeak update and hotspot
naturestoc
Having trouble finding your hotspot? Dan Brown. Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone -------- Original message -------- From: Chris Conard <conardc@...> Date: 3/9/23 11:04 AM (GMT-08:00) To: Central Valley Birds <centralvalleybirds@groups.io> Subject: [centralvalleybirds] SAC Evening Grosbeak update and hotspot Hi folks,
The grosbeaks continue to be reported in the Roaring Camp Drive vicinity. I set up an eBird hotspot for the area for folks who want to use it or transfer past lists. The benefit of a hotspot is that observations are easier to search and access (rather then dozens of dots). The downside is you lose the exact location of the observation, but those descriptions/coordinates can be entered in the notes. I recommend that any observations more than a half-mile from the Roaring Camp Drive neighborhood should be entered as a separate point. Thanks, Chris Conard Sacramento |
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SAC Evening Grosbeak update and hotspot
Chris Conard
Hi folks, The grosbeaks continue to be reported in the Roaring Camp Drive vicinity. I set up an eBird hotspot for the area for folks who want to use it or transfer past lists. The benefit of a hotspot is that observations are easier to search and access (rather then dozens of dots). The downside is you lose the exact location of the observation, but those descriptions/coordinates can be entered in the notes. I recommend that any observations more than a half-mile from the Roaring Camp Drive neighborhood should be entered as a separate point. Thanks, Chris Conard Sacramento |
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Cosumnes birds yesterday; Tall Forest survey a week from Sunday
Glennah Trochet
Dear Birders, After three weeks out of town, I visited the Cosumnes River Preserve in southern Sacramento County to run my Lost Slough bird survey yesterday morning. I was reminded that my understanding of water movements onto the floodplain is only rudimentary. Quite evidently there was another flooding event in my absence, and lots of flotsam (including a Visitor Center picnic table!) was in places where there had been little or none last month. Surprising to me, since there was none in the south where I most expect it, was the amount of water still on the floodplain on the west side of the route. All this will be small potatoes if the weather forecast for the next few days is close to accurate. Flooding moves even canopy birds out of woodland blocks, so I was not surprised to find rather few passerines on the route. The most astonishing miss, however, was northern pintail! The least expected bird was a white-throated swift. Other birds of note included one blue morph snow goose, two canvasbacks, seven hooded mergansers, only ten sandhill cranes, over 900 tree swallows, and a strikingly leucistic fox sparrow. I have a conflicting obligation on my schedule for the usual third Saturday this month, so I am running the Tall Forest bird survey on Sunday, 19 March. We will go through the Farm Center gate, corner of Bruceville and Desmond Roads, at 6:30 a.m. Rubber knee boots will be required, and I doubt that we'll be able to cover the complete route. There is a substantial possibility that the survey will be cancelled owing to flooding. Watch this space for updates. The preserve staff requires sign-ups these days. If interested, you may do so on the preserve website at https://www.cosumnes.org. Click on the "Events" link and follow the directions from there. Best, John Trochet Sacramento |
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Spring arrivals
kuschmanfred
Despite the cold weather these past few days, the first Rufous Hummingbird, a male, and a pair of Tree Swallows showed up today in my garden to confirm that spring is right around the corner.
Manfred Kusch 3 miles west of Davis South bank of Putah Creek |
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Lawrence's Goldfinch - Citrus Heights - March 5, 2023
L Markoff
Hello CVBirders!
Lawrence’s Goldfinch has been #1 on my yard wish-list since we moved here in 2019. I have seen them in southern California, but never around here.
I was pretty sure that I saw one briefly on Friday, 3/3, when it was on the birdbath. I grabbed my camera, took one shot, and the bird flew off. Haven’t had time to download my photos until today and discovered that Friday’s bird looked good for a LAGO.
I didn’t need to worry though, because a little bit ago two gorgeous male LAGOs came to my feeder. Now that my wish for a yard Lawrence’s Goldfinch has been fulfilled, Costa’s Hummingbird moves from #2 into the #1 slot on my yard wish-list.
Go here for a few photos and a video: https://www.flickr.com/gp/canyoneagle/L2e9a921od
Lori Markoff Citrus Heights
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Re: Continuing Evening Grosbeaks in SAC
Sylvia Wright
More Evening Grosbeaks in western Nevada County today (3/5), including two in snowy Grass Valley. Sylvia Penn Valley, Nevada Co. Sylvia Wright I use Comic Sans font to make my emails more accessible to everyone. On Sun, Mar 5, 2023 at 8:55 AM Chris Conard <conardc@...> wrote:
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Swainson’s Hawk - 03/04
Ron Melcer
Yesterday a dark Swainson’s Hawk was moving north - catching thermals - in between groups of Sandill Cranes over South Land Park.
Cheers, Ron Ron Melcer Sacramento, CA |
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