Join us for a morning of late spring migrants and riparian breeders next Saturday, May 20th, at the Putah Creek South Fork Preserve parking lot. We will walk the trail west of Mace into Solano County before returning to the Yolo side to walk the South Fork Preserve trails. This area has great valley riparian habitat with a dense mixed canopy of Valley Oak and Oregon Ash with scattered Cottonwood and Willow. The Yolo side will have similar habitat in a narrower strip along with open weedy grassland with Valley Oak and Mulefat plantings.
We can expect to see some later spring migrants like Yellow Warbler, Swainson’s Thrush, and Western Wood-Pewee plus riparian breeders like Tree Swallow, Bewick’s Wren, House Wren, California Towhee, and Spotted Towhee. The number of breeding Spotted Towhees on the Solano side is quite stunning compared to other riparian sites in our area, and there are abundant cavity nesters on the Yolo Side due to a wealth of natural and artificial cavity nest sites. Swainson’s Hawks will likely be very abundant as well.
We will cover about 1.9 miles of trail, ~.35 miles (one way) on the Solano side and a ~1.2 mile loop on the Yolo Side. The Yolo side trails are well established dirt trails, and the Solano side trail is a narrower dirt path with occasional stick and log debris brought in by last winter’s flooding to step around.
This trip will be led by Konshau and Lynette Williams Duman (konshaud@gmail.com, lynettebarbarawilliams@gmail.com). Feel free to email us with any additional questions regarding the trip or transportation from Davis to the South Fork Preserve.
Yolo Audubon Society field trips are free and open to the public. Carpooling is strongly encouraged, but all rides are private arrangements between driver and riders.