Tricolored Blackbird; © Lynda Goff
Nearly all of the world’s tricolored blackbirds nest in the Central Valley and nearby foothills. Yolo County has been home to several breeding colonies in recent years, totaling twenty thousand or so adults, and often with large numbers in winter as well. Thus, Yolo Audubon has an unusually direct stake in the welfare of the […]
Bobcat Ranch March 2021; © Sonjia Shelly
Spring is underway and I thought you might enjoy seeing how Bobcat Ranch currently looks. The fire was devastating, but you can’t but feel hopeful when you see a sight like the one above. The phenology volunteers reported a great survey on March 20th that included Lawrence’s Goldfinc, Band-tailed Pigeon, Peregrine Falcon and Mountain Quail. […]
Allen's Hummingbird; © Zane Pickus
It was a slow month for the Yolo eBird reviewers but a few great birds kept March interesting for birders. The find of the month was an adult male Allen’s Hummingbird found south of Clarksburg on March 17th. (TU) This is one of very few chaseable records in the county. A common breeder as close […]
Rufous Hummingbird; © Manfred Kusch
Signs of spring are here! The migratory waterfowl are moving north, and some birds are starting their nesting activity, like the Red-tailed and Red-shouldered Hawks on my property. I checked in with Audubon member Manfred Kusch who lives along Putah Creek and always writes eloquently about the birds on his patch. He reports that the […]
Harris's Sparrow; © Rob Floerke
Emmett Iverson here, taking over for Steve Hampton after twenty-some odd years of writing monthly reports for the Burrowing Owl. Steve will be sorely missed by the birding community, not only for the birds he finds but for the knowledge, skill and outreach he has provided for the past three decades. Don’t feel too badly for […]
Lazuli Bunting; © Ann Brice
From 1912 to 1923, Joseph Grinnell and fellow ornithologists at UC Berkeley surveyed birdlife in spring and summer at forty-one stations in the Central Valley, producing a baseline list of the breeding birds of the region. One hundred years later, another UC Berkeley group revisited the same stations at the same seasons. A member of […]
Broad-billed Hummingbird; © JoAnne Fillatti
The Broad-billed Hummingbird recently found in Davis has given hundreds of people great pleasure. This first county record (and perhaps even first Central Valley record) was all thanks to Victoria Cross and Thomas Gatewood, who first observed the bird in their backyard on January 29th. They knew it wasn’t an Anna’s, but being new birders, they listed […]
Woodland Regional Park nest box installation; photo Jennifer Segar
Placement of nest boxes for small songbirds along the Putah Creek corridor has had a history of success. Birds fledge young from them in large numbers, year after year (see this column, February 2017). A recent string of boxes in the heart of Davis has been likewise well received by birds (this column, September 2019). […]
Broad-billed Hummingbird; © Bart Wickel
Steve Hampton has been compiling monthly Yolo County Notable Sighting reports for the YAS’s Burrowing Owl newsletter since August 2001. This is his last report for us as he is relocating to Washington state. All of us at YAS wish Steve and his family the very best in their new adventure. January had several stars, […]
Pine Siskin; © Steve Hampton
We are receiving a number of reports of sick and dying Pine Siskins and goldfinches at area bird feeders. Krysta Rogers of the Wildlife Investigations Laboratory of the CA Dept. of Fish and Wildlife believes this is due to Salmonellosis, a bacterial infection spread through feces of infected birds. The outbreaks always involve bird feeders […]
Never Too Young; © Josh Galland
Happy New Year! As we all try to stay safe and be patient during the COVID times, I’d like to recommend a page from the National Audubon website called The Joy of Birds. It’s described as a “Birdy Care Package from Audubon” and is full of entertaining and useful information–good for a rainy afternoon at home. I […]
LNU Complex Fire; © Sarah Mayhew
The complex of wildfires in late summer that burned large swathes of Yolo, Solano, Napa and other counties devoured oak woodland, forest and chaparral indiscriminately. Wanting a sense of the effects of those fires on the birds of the area, Steve Hampton and I pored over reports from birders around the burned zones, both during and […]