When Jim Gain started his “Learn 100 Valley Birds” series, we immediately thought of one our earliest posts, “How to Really Learn the Birds.” We thought a few changes might make it more relevant to Jim’s exciting project. “How to Really Learn the Birds (Updated)” doesn’t contain anything new; rather, we’ve shifted the focus just a bit toward Jim’s excellent series, making it even more local. ed. The therapeutic benefits […]
Search Results for: How to Really Learn the Birds
How to Really Learn the Birds
Anyone who has never witnessed the migratory passage of Western Tanagers through the parks and gardens of the Northern San Joaquin Valley is missing one of our grander local spectacles. Male Western Tanagers have brilliant, flame-colored faces atop a bright yellow body cloaked in handsome black wings. Though stunning, they are easy to overlook as they pass through only during spring and fall migration. Nonetheless, with a little practice, almost […]
Learn 100 Valley Birds #2: Anna’s Hummingbird
Jim Gain calls Anna’s Hummingbird, the second in the “Learn 100 Birds” series, a “three-fer” because it illustrates one of the basic tactics for building a local birding list. This tactic involves knowing a birding fundamental: Learn the most common bird and you will often also learn one or two other similar but less common birds. The Anna’s Hummingbird offers a classic case. In the San Joaquin Valley, if you […]
Shorebirds in the Valley
Shorebirds occupy remnant wetlands and the mud flats around our lakes and reservoirs. The largest numbers occur during migration, when they pass through the Valley on their way to southern wintering grounds. Some also winter here. The larger species are the best known. Black-necked Stilts, American Avocets, and Greater Yellowlegs are often seen and sometimes even known by name. The “peeps” are another story. Small, brown or gray, and wary […]
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 […]
Target Bird: Red-shouldered Hawk
In “How to Really Learn the Birds,” we suggested using the “target method” as a quick way of learning the common birds around you. To use the target method, simply study a bird before going out and searching for it. The key is to study birds you can expect to find in a given season. We’ve got more about common local birds in “How to Really Learn the Birds.” […]
The Year in Review: Links to Some of The Valley Citizen's Best Stories
Dedicated to the memory of John Michael Flint, The Valley Citizen launched July 14, 2011. Last week was our biggest week ever, and we’re on our way to our biggest month ever. Thank you to our readers and contributors. Those new to the site may want to read some of our more popular older stories, which are archived on the site. Here follows a review with links. One of our […]
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 […]
Homeless: Gavin Newsom Chooses Cruelty
Gavin Newsom has doubled down on his failed policy of sweeps and criminalization as the state’s primary tactics for coping with homelessness. Late last month, California’s Governor called for the United States Supreme Court to overrule decisions that have protected homeless people’s rights to sleep in public spaces when no other options are available. Newsom wants legal authority to roust people from the only places they have to lay their […]
Linda Scheller’s Wind and Children: Heartbeats from the Classroom
Each school day for thirty-six years, the children walked into now- retired Ceres teacher Linda Scheller’s fifth-grade classroom, eager to learn but “often burdened by grinding poverty and difficult family situations at home.” “A lot of my students’ families were very, very poor,” Ms. Scheller recounted recently when interviewed about her powerful new collection of poetry, Wind and Children (Main Street Rag Publishing Company, www.MainStreetRag.com), which focuses on her lengthy […]