From Knights Landing to a bit past the Colusa County line, the land along State Highway 45 and over to the Sacramento River belongs to River Garden Farms. It supports crops from alfalfa to watermelons in the growing season, and a remarkable variety of birds in winter.
Three thousand acres of fallow rice fields are flooded, both to decompose rice straw and attract wintering waterfowl, including thousands of ducks and geese and several hundred tundra swans, and sometimes thousands of shorebirds–dunlins, dowitchers, snipe and others. Various shorebird fields, totaling about a thousand acres, are held at different water levels to match the specific needs of birds large and small. Intentionally flooded farm fields like these now comprise most of the winter habitat for shorebirds in the Central Valley, and are thus essential for their survival.
Damp fields in winter are full of red-winged blackbirds, dry fields have horned larks, and areas in and near trees provide flocks of lark sparrows. So far this winter, birds of prey are plentiful, including rough-legged hawks and short-eared owls. Bare fields near the county line are easily the most reliable spot in Yolo County for mountain plover in recent years, with flocks of up to eighty birds this winter.
Not satisfied with being a bird haven, the farm also grows food for salmon fry migrating down the Sacramento River. Fields flooded with irrigation drain-water grow large crops of small invertebrates, and the water and its contents are then released to the river when salmon are present. Thus enriched with food organisms, the river boosts the growth of salmon that might otherwise lose weight as they head for the Delta. Beyond that, the miles of drainage canals on the farm are home to significant numbers of the giant garter snake, a quite rare reptile almost everywhere else in the Valley.
So, what are you waiting for? Grab your binoculars and telescope and head for Knights Landing and points north while the swans are still there.
Michael Perrone, YAS Conservation Chair