Welcome Back
YBA Members and Friends!
Summer shorebird habitat at the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area ©Zane Pickus
The Yolo Bird Alliance board is back from summer break and excited for the season ahead! At our recent planning meeting, we welcomed two new board members: Tom Uslan of Clarksburg and Kevin Hunting of Winters. We also were reminded that Zane Pickus, who has been on our board since high school, is now a senior at UC Davis!
Among his many accomplishments with Yolo Bird Alliance, Zane has played a big role in encouraging younger people to get involved with birds, and we’re committed to continuing that with his leadership this year. With that in mind, a committee of board members is designing a project to put “Birding Kits” in each library in Yolo County for loan. Each backpack will have a pair of binoculars, a bird field guide, a Yolo County Bird Checklist, and other materials. It should be a great way to encourage new birders.
As we expand our outreach in the community, volunteers are needed to support our efforts. Opportunities include:
- Joining our every other week Bobcat Ranch surveys
- Representing Yolo Bird Alliance at outdoor events and tabling opportunities
- Using your artistic talents to refresh our display materials
- Helping later this season with nest box monitoring at the Woodland Regional Park Preserve and the North Davis Channel
The Central Valley Birding Symposium will be held November 20–23, 2025. As one of California’s premier birding festivals (and co-sponsored by Yolo Bird Alliance), it’s always a highlight of the year. Registration opens Sept 7, and the most popular field trips and workshops fill quickly – check out the schedule here.
Finally, we want to extend a big thank you to Garrett Spaan, Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area Manager, for his amazing work managing summer water levels for shorebirds. The results have been spectacular! Since July, Zane Pickus and fellow YBA members Emmett Iverson and Julian Johnson have counted more than 25,000 shorebirds there, capped by the exciting sighting by many of a Little Stint. You can read more about it in Zane’s Recent Sightings column.
–Genevieve Colborn and Ann Brice