The OBSERVER Sacramento Audubon Society THE 13TH ANNUAL GREAT BACKYARD BIRD COUNT General Meeting FEBRUARY 12-15 2010 Thursday, February 18, 2010 The Great Backyard Bird Count is coming up soon. The Great Backyard Bird Count is Shepard Garden and Art Center a great way for people of all ages to connect with nature. Audubon and Cornell invite 7pm General Meeting you to get involved, February 12-15–President’s Day weekend. It’s easy–just count the Audubon California birds in your backyard, local park or another location and report what you see online Working to Protect California Birds at www.birdcount.org. Taking part in the GBBC helps give scientists important infor- mation about birds and the environment we share. When you volunteer to help you Audubon California is building a bet- become part of a large team of Citizen Scientists across the country. You can see what ter future for California by bringing people birds are being reported in your own neighborhood and throughout the United States together to appreciate, enjoy and protect our and Canada by visiting www.birdcount.org. You can count anywhere you choose–at a spectacular outdoor treasures. As a dynamic local park, a school yard, even a city garden. field program of the National Audubon The SAS Education Committee has many events planned to get our Sacramento area Society with more than 50 affiliated chapters, checklist numbers up. Last year for Sacramento alone, 112 species and 216 checklist Audubon California is able to provide a rich were reported making it the number one city in California for checklists! This year’s outdoor experience for more than 100,000 goal is to get to the top ten cities in the USA! Not so far away, since number ten last members and supporters and at the same year was Wilmington, North Carolina with 250 cheklists, so let’s get everyone out time promote a variety of robust conservation counting this year! programs to protect birds, wildlife and habitat across the state. To start with, we have a series of Backyard Birds Workshops planned around the Sacramento area. These workshops include a 15 minute PowerPoint presentation Audubon’s mission is to conserve and about the GBBC followed by a 30 minute introduction to the birds of our Sacramento restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, area backyards. Appropriate for ages 8 and up. Note the special children’s event in other wildlife, and their habitats for the Old Town Sacramento. benefit of humanity and the earth’s biologi- cal diversity. Audubon California is a non- Workshop Remaining for this Year: partisan, non-profit organization responsible Saturday, February 6, 2pm, South Natomas Library for raising its own funds and setting its own Other Public Event: strategic course in California. It has a board of directors that serves in an advisory capac- Sunday, February 7, 1pm, Kid GBBC Workshop Trailmix in Old Town ity, and helps to guide and support its work. Sacramento, 116B I Street, right across from the California Train Museum. Audubon California focuses on three key strat- GBBC Field Trips continued on page 6 egies to accomplish its goals: * Direct conservation as well as at the state level on Audubon’s For more information about Audubon * Policy & advocacy priority projects for the Central Valley California, log on to: ca.audubon.org * Education & outreach and Sierra Nevada. Sacramento Audubon meetings are Jordan Wellwood is Audubon California’s Jordan will discuss the major threats held the third Thursday of the month at Conservation Coordinator for the Central that birds face in California and what the Shepard Garden and Arts Center in Valley and Sierra Nevada. She assumed that Audubon California is doing to protect McKinley Park. The public is welcome. position in January 2009. Prior to Audubon, the landscapes that birds will need in Visit our website Jordan worked on conservation policy in order to thrive in the future. She will also www.sacramentoaudubon.org and click Sacramento. She holds an Honors Bachelors of share opportunities for local citizens to on Society Info/Meetings, for further Environmental Studies from the University of get involved and make a real difference in information, including a map and direc- Waterloo in Canada. Jordan works with local their communities. tions. chapters on a variety of conservation projects, Lea Landry, Program Chair VOLUME 62 • NO. 2 FEBRUARY 2010 Field Trip Findings River Bend Park (1/13) — ”Leader Cathie Merganser and Horned Grebe for the trip, eral flyovers of mixed flock of Snow and LaZier reported: “No one showed up commenting “Fun time for all 12 people Greater White-fronted Geese. Their calls for the morning bird walk so I birded by who attended, Thanks to Ron Storey who were music to our ears. As usual, a good myself. Disregarding the weather fore- led the trip.” day out at the Bypass.” cast of rain until noon, the sun cast Sandhill Cranes and Other Wintering Bobelaine Audubon Sanctuary (1/2) a clear light on 47 species of birds, Birds of the Sacramento Valley (1/9) — — Leader Brian Gilmore reported that on including a pair of Great Horned Owls, a Coordinator Mike Savino reported: “Thirty an overcast day, highlights for eight bird- Red-breasted Sapsucker and an Anna’s visitors joined us for this Audubon/SOS ers was a Great Horned Owl, plus Snow Hummingbird busy with very early nest Cranes “crane tour.” Paul Tebbel began Geese and Tundra swan flyovers. construction. There were also three river the tour with a talk about crane behavior. Coastal Birding (12/26) — Leader Scott otters, an impressive variety of mush- (We did not see any cranes on Franklin Hoppe reported: “Six intrepid birders set rooms and two horsehair worms.” Blvd. or Desmond Road and were begin- out for the San Francisco Bay Area on this Salt Springs Valley (1/10) — Tim Fitzer, ning to think the tour would be a flop.) post Christmas Day trip, under threats of co-leader with Mark Martucci, reported: We then took our guests for a short rain. And we were not disappointed. The “Fog surrounded the lake but not the hike on the Wetlands Walk across from weather held and we tallied 84 species. valley. Highlights included 7 Ferruginous the Cosumnes River Preserve’s Visitors Highlights included: great views of 3 Hawks, 5 Bald Eagles, 2 Prairie Falcons, Center while Paul went looking for the Clapper Rails at Martin Luther King, Jr. 1 Rough-legged Hawk, 2 Burrowing Owls, cranes. We saw a wide variety of ducks Regional Shoreline in Oakland, a pair of Rock Wren, Red-breasted Sapsucker. A and some other birds while we waited for Peregrine Falcons strafing shorebirds at fun time for 21 participants.” Paul to call. He called us from Woodbridge the same location, a Burrowing Owl also Hot Birding Spots in the North Bay (1/9) Road where the cranes were found in at MLK and nearly 1,000 Bonaparte’s — Leader Ron Storey reported: “We met great abundance. We then drove in car- Gulls at Palo Alto Baylands. At Charleston at the parking lot of Shollenberger Park avan style down to Woodbridge Road Slough, we discovered a Sora out in the in Petaluma, but we did not birdwatch at where we saw thousands of Sandhill open on mud flats near some reeds. Shollenberger Park. Instead, we drove a Cranes, White-fronted geese, and Tundra Soon, another Sora crept out of the short distance and parked in the parking Swans. A close-up look at a White-tailed reeds onto the flats, and then the two lot for the new Ellis Creek area, adjacent Kite was a highlight for many of us. It engaged in a short aerial battle, ending to Shollenberger to the south. There looked like all our guests, some from the with one retreating to the reeds and the everyone saw Swamp Sparrow (after a Bay Area, were very pleased.” other holding its ground on the flats. Also long wait), Merlin, Sora, Mew Gull, and Yolo Wildlife Area (1/5) — Leader Marlene at Charleston Slough we saw 3 Black Blue-winged Teal. After lunch we drove to Ishihara reported: “Despite the fog, eight Skimmers, which were life birds for some Port Sonoma where an Eastern Phoebe participants saw 41 species of birds. The in the group. After Charleston Slough, 2 had been reported the previous day, usual ducks, shorebirds, blackbirds, and of the group dropped out and the rest of but we struck out and could not find the sparrows were present. But, the highlight us stopped at Lake Merritt in Oakland, Phoebe. From Port Sonoma we drove to was the large flock of Tundra Swans rest- adding Barrow’s Goldeneye, Redhead the Corte Madera Marsh where everyone ing in a distant northeast corner of the and Ring-necked Duck to our list. As we got excellent looks at Clapper Rail.” auto loop. Scope views were attempted were leaving and calling it a day, the rains Trip coordinator Tim Fitzer added but difficult to single out a possible came.” Greater and Lesser Scaup, Red-breasted Bewick’s. And, we were delighted by sev- Pete Hayes 2009-2010 CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT RESULTS BY AREA Folsom heard of some of the excellent finds, I Ferruginous Hawks, 4 Merlins, 2 Peregrine Jan. 3–Compiler Chris Conard reported: thought we might break the 150 barrier this Falcons, 10 Prairie Falcons (a new count “The 31st Folsom CBC was held January 3, time. But it was not to be. Our total was high), Mew Gull, Thayer’s Gull, Glaucous- 2010. This year there were 75 participants- a respectable 138 (within an historic range winged Gull (overall gull numbers were well -the second highest in count history (there of 123-146).