“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. […]
Nature
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 […]
Otters and Rabbits and Birds: and a Lot More
Otters and rabbits and birds—and a lot more—are out on the San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge, which until recently was accessible only via the viewing platform near the end of Beckwith Road, west of Modesto. With the recent opening of the Dairy Road entrance just east of River Road in western Stanislaus County, the refuge has a lot more to offer the public. For one thing, whereas the Beckwith […]
Chasing the Wild Blues Out on the Refuge
Few things develop one’s appreciation for a region as much as the native flora and fauna. Thus, the California coast, Sierra Nevada, and great southern deserts are special attractions for residents and tourists alike, each region’s allure derived from a special combination of location and unique natural features. For decades the great Central Valley was among the least appreciated regions in the west, in part because many of its natural features […]
LBBs and the Patagonia Roadside Rest Stop Effect
Sparrows are so difficult to identify many birders are content to lump them with similar drab birds, calling them, “LBBs,” short for, “Little Brown Birds.” However, there are ways through the confusing maze of “LBB” identification, and Riverbank’s Ralph Baker seems to have found one or two. Though he’s been birding only two years, Baker has impressed veteran birders with his sharp eye and quick learning ability. He recently found […]
Learning Your Local Birds Just Got a Lot Easier
In, “How to Really Learn the Birds,” we offered a method that greatly simplifies learning the common local bird species. With the recent publication by Stanislaus Audubon Society of, “The Birding Sites of Stanislaus and Merced Counties,” learning the birds has gotten even easier. The fundamental strategy for really learning the birds is simplification. Almost any field guide has a least seven-hundred species, not to mention the various plumages of […]
An Audubon Christmas Count with Wray Ladine
The first Christmas bird count was over 100 years ago, in 1900. Today, there are almost 2,000 counts encompassing over a dozen different countries every year around Christmas time. The many decades of records have become an important indicator of the health of both human and wildlife habitats. Before the San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge opened to the public, it consisted mostly of easements and agreements between the U.S. […]
Target Bird: Yellow-rumped Warbler
Wood warblers are among nature’s most spectacular creations, but often go unnoticed because of their retiring natures, dense leafy habitats and constant movement. Because they can vary a lot in plumage depending on their gender and the time of the year, wood warblers can also be challenging to identify. The strategy here is fundamentally the same as described in How to Really Learn the Birds. We’ll focus on a common […]
Target Bird: White-crowned Sparrow
When learning our last target bird, Nuttall’s Woodpecker, we discovered that in learning one bird, we can often actually learn three—a birding trifecta. The trifecta is also possible with our next bird, but finding the third bird in this trifecta is more difficult than it was in the woodpecker trifecta, which featured Nuttall’s, Acorn and Downy Woodpeckers. For many birders and nature lovers, the most welcome sign of the fall […]