Last Saturday, the Stanislaus Audubon Society conducted its annual LaGrange/Waterford Christmas bird count. The count has been an annual event for well over thirty years, and usually tallies over 130 species and tens of thousands of individual birds. This year was different. Count compiler Jim Gain’s preliminary estimate of 112 species was the lowest total in over twenty years, and the total number of individual birds was also way […]
Nature
Stanislaus County Has a New Bird
It was only fitting that Stanislaus Audubon President Sal Salerno and Board member Ralph Baker were along when Harold Reeve added another bird to the Stanislaus County list. Reeve has been counting birds in Stanislaus County for over thirty years. He’s kept meticulous records of species, high and low counts, and rare occurrences. Periodically, the Stanislaus Audubon Society publishes an updated list of Reeve’s additions to the county bird list, […]
What’s that Bird in My Yard?
In 2001, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimated there were over 46 million birdwatchers in the United States—almost one in every five persons. A very large percentage of these people put out bird feeders and watch birds in their yards. Many delight in keeping a yard list that registers the different species that visit over the years. That’s certainly the case with John and Lisa Harris. The Harrises moved […]
Keiller Kyle and the Last Great Colonial Nesting Birds
No one alive today has seen two of north America’s three species of colonial nesting song birds. Both the Carolina Parakeet and the Passenger Pigeon went extinct in the wild over a hundred years ago. Today, the loss of these magnificent birds is lamented by nature lovers around the world. Unbeknown to most Valley residents, the last of our great colonial nesters is making a stand for survival right here […]
Rare Visitors Brighten Audubon Christmas Count
Most people wouldn’t give the shallow pond out near the San Joaquin River west of Modesto a second glance. But from a bird’s eye view, it’s like a table set with a holiday feast. That’s why there were Black-necked Stilts, Greater Yellowlegs, and Long-billed Dowitchers feeding along its margins on December 30, when two participants in Stanislaus Audubon Society’s annual Caswell-Westley Christmas bird count came upon the site in […]
Target Bird: Bald Eagle
Despite Ben Franklin’s preference for the turkey, most U.S. citizens share our forefathers’ enthusiasm for the Bald Eagle as a stirring symbol of many of the nation’s most enduring virtues. Free, strong, and proud, the Bald Eagle represents a people fiercely devoted to preservation of the values upon which the country was founded. Today’s Bald Eagle also symbolizes much of the paradox of our nation’s history. Once on the […]
Dazzling White Visitor Thrills, Puzzles Local Birders
Local birders ran for their cars when Central Valley birding legend David Yee reported an Iceland Gull in northwest Stanislaus County Saturday. It took Modesto residents Jim Gain and Sal Salerno just over thirty minutes to rush to the bird’s location. Oakdale’s John Harris wasn’t too far behind them. All three were treated to excellent looks at a bright white, medium-sized sea gull that had many of the characteristics […]
Tuolumne River Trust Commits to Dos Rios Restoration
“The people in this room aren’t like other people,” said award-winning outdoor writer Tom Stienstra. “We don’t have blood in our veins, we have river water.” Thus began Stienstra’s animated ode to California rivers in general and to the Tuolumne River in particular. Stienstra, who may know California’s many rivers as well as anyone, calls the Tuolumne the “Mighty T,” and claims it’s the premier river in the state. […]
Endangered Species: Looking for Love in All the Right Places
Friday, June 15, Point Reyes Bird Observatory (PRBO) field biologist Cory Gregory was slated to inventory the bird life on a portion of the San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge (SJRNW). He was on a restricted portion of the Refuge, not far as the crow flies from the publicly accessible Pelican Nature Trail. Stopping for a moment to listen to the dawn chorus of singing birds, Gregory heard a song […]
Target Bird: Black-headed Grosbeak
Until recently, some of our most exotic Valley birds could be found only by hard core birders with special knowledge not only of what to look for, but where and when to find it. Thus, those who wished to see the spectacular Blue Grosbeak, our most recently featured, “Target Bird,” were limited to a few locations where the bird might be seen, and most of the locations featured limited public […]