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16th Annual Snow Goose Festival of the Pacific Flyway

By on December 12, 2014 in Events
Ross's Geese

Ross’s Geese Taking Off

Birders and nature enthusiasts of all ages are invited to attend the 16th Annual Snow Goose Festival, one of the premier birding events in California. This action-packed 5-day event celebrates the millions of waterfowl migrating along the Pacific Flyway that call the Northern Sacramento Valley their home during the winter months. It also gives our local community an opportunity to rediscover the abundant treasures the North State has to offer all year round, from wholesome foods and delectable wines to inspirational artists and gifted musicians. And with the wide variety of engaging youth activities, there truly is something for everyone at the Snow Goose Festival!

The Pacific Flyway ranks as one of the greatest migratory pathways in the entire world, stretching from the Bering Strait off the coast of Alaska to the steeps of Patagonia in South America. Millions of birds representing hundreds of species use this great avian highway each year, and nowhere is this abundance of wildlife more accessible than right here in the Northern Sacramento Valley.

With an ideal combination of mild winter weather, abundant food and rich quantities of water, the area attracts a huge wintering population of waterfowl and raptors. A local favorite among these is the majestic Snow Goose. With the estimated overall population of Snow Geese exceeding 5 million, as many as one and a half million use the Pacific Flyway. Tens of thousands of these will winter right here in our own backyard.

In Chico and the surrounding communities, we celebrate this magnificent spectacle of nature with the Snow Goose Festival of the Pacific Flyway. Altacal Audubon’s mission unites and energizes all of the many volunteers, artists, trip leaders, workshop presenters, educators, community members and sponsors involved with the Snow Goose Festival. They strive to increase public awareness, understanding, appreciation and conservation of the incredible wildlife and related habitats of the Northern Sacramento Valley.

Get all of the information about this event at their website: http://www.snowgoosefestival.org/

Wildlife-killing Contests Targeting Nongame Animals Banned by California Fish and Game Commission

By on December 6, 2014 in In the News
Coyote

Coyote photo by Robin Silver

VAN NUYS, Calif.— In response to overwhelming public support for banning wildlife-killing contests, the California Fish and Game Commission voted Wednesday to adopt regulations prohibiting hunting “derbies” targeting species such as coyotes, raccoons and badgers. The ban came after thousands of Californians expressed opposition to the killing competitions.

“We’re grateful that the commissioners responded to the public’s call for science-based, ethical and ecologically sound stewardship of California’s wildlife,” said Amaroq Weiss, the Center’s West Coast wolf organizer. “Banning contests that reward people, including children, for killing animals is the right thing to do.”

Few Californians knew that existing state law allowed wildlife-killing contests. That changed in early 2013 after wildlife conservation groups pushed to increase public awareness of an annual “coyote-drive” killing contest held in Northern California. While wildlife-hunting contests occur throughout the state, the location of the coyote-killing competition sparked additional attention because it was held in Northern California counties frequented by OR-7, the dispersing Oregon wolf who became California’s first confirmed wild wolf in 87 years.

Outrage over the antiquated killing contests, including the threat to dispersing wolves like OR-7, resulted in public outcry for a statewide ban.

Under California law species such as coyotes, raccoons, badgers and others are designated as “nongame mammals” or “furbearers” — both of which can be killed in any number without limit. The commission’s decision to ban competitions targeting those two categories of animals was based, in part, on its recognition that subjecting the species to contest hunts does not reflect good sportsmanship. The commission’s vote does not ban contest hunts of species that are designated as game mammals, such as deer and elk.

“Today’s vote adds a measure of restraint and respect for species that are highly persecuted by some members of society and revered and loved by others,” said Weiss. “The commission and the state wildlife agency it oversees are required by state law to manage our natural resources, including wildlife, according to ecosystem-based management based on credible science, and these contests don’t come close to meeting those standards.”

Additional efforts across the country to end wildlife contest-hunts are meeting with success. In response to a lawsuit filed by the Center and allies, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management decided last week to withdraw a permit it had issued to a private party for a predator-killing contest in Idaho. Earlier this year a coyote-killing contest in Oregon was shut down after public outcry, and Washington residents spoke out at a commission hearing against similar contests.

White-crowned Sparrows Are Regular Visitors to Redding

By on November 30, 2014 in In the News
White-crowned Sparrow

White-crowned Sparrow

Birds are among the most evident wildlife around the world. They sing, sport a crazy variety of shapes and sizes and live in all sorts of habitats. They’re also often colorful and can be lured into close-up viewing. And they live here.

In Shasta County, we have more than 250 species seasonally every year, plus another 50 species who have made cameo appearances.

One regular visitor that graces our parks and backyards every winter is the diminutive white-crowned sparrow. This ball of feathers, the size of a child’s fist, is perhaps our most common bird of brush and patio. It has a subtle beauty that unmindful people will easily miss.

Its underside is a plain gray and, like most sparrows, its back is a mottled brown. But its bill is egg-yolk yellow and its head is decked out in bold black and white racing stripes.

That yellow beak is short and chunky — good for cracking seeds. These sparrows are eager visitors to bird feeders, where they specialize in eating up grains scattered on the ground. A close-up feeder or a pair of binoculars will allow precise inspection of the black-and-white head, which can reveal where the bird travels to nest in the summer. If the black-line behind the eye continues forward of the eye, that sparrow likely nests in Lassen or the Northern Rockies, from Colorado through Montana and Idaho.

These birds have mostly passed through our area and are now wintering at a resort in Baja. If the black line stops at the eye, these travelers may nest as far north as the high arctic of Canada and Alaska, a journey of as much as 200 miles — no mean feat for little birds that often look like they have to work hard just to cross the yard.

Whether in Redding, Baja or Fairbanks, sparrows are brush birds. White crowns nest within a few feet of the ground, building a soft cup of plant material. As is the case in many species, the female picks the nesting site. She typically lays three to five eggs, and both parents feed the young until they fledge in a week and a half, and then a little longer to get them going.

If you notice a sparrow whose black and white stripes are replaced with reddish-brown and tan, you are looking at a young bird, just hatched last spring. If it can survive through winter, it will fly to its nesting grounds, grow adult feathers, and try its own hand at raising a brood or two before returning to your yard next fall.

Wintu Audubon provides the new BirdWords column. Please send your local bird questions to education@wintuaudubon.org

Nearly Half of Our Birds Are at Risk of Extinction This Century

By on September 9, 2014 in Conservation
Common Loon

Common Loon (Wikipedia Commons)

The National Audubon Society’s Birds and Climate Change Report should give us all deep cause for concern. The findings are heartbreaking: Nearly half of the bird species in the United States will be seriously threatened by 2080, and any of those could disappear forever.

For the first time, Audubon scientists have analyzed decades of historical bird and climate data to understand how 588 species of North American birds will fare as the climate changes. More than half of species studied (including the Bald Eagle and nine U.S. state birds, from Idaho to Maryland) are at serious risk – some are forecast to lose more than 95 percent of their current ranges.

While some species will be able to adapt to shifting climates, many of North America’s most familiar and iconic species will not. The national symbol of the United States, the Bald Eagle, could see its current summer range decrease by nearly 75% in the next 65 years. The Common Loon, icon of the north and state bird of Minnesota, may no longer be able to breed in the lower 48 states by 2080.

The study predicts that 314 North American bird species face the risk of extinction before the end of this century. They have separated those 314 species into two groups: climate threatened (may lose over 50% of its range by 2080) and climate endangered (may lose over 50% of its range by 2050).

American Avocet

American Avocet

Ten birds that could lose 99% or more of their current range by 2080:

Rufous Hummingbird Male

Rufous Hummingbird Male

Some bird species will be able to adapt to new climatic conditions, but certainly not all. And while many people assume that climate change will simply shift habitats farther north or to higher elevations, for the 126 climate-endangered species, including the Burrowing Owl, their climatic ranges are not only shifting but also dramatically shrinking. If we stay on our current carbon-spewing path, some of those species may have nowhere to go.

Burrowing Owl Family

Burrowing Owl Family

We do have hope. This science is a very serious warning, but we know that birds are resilient and that people have and can again come together to create significant positive change. And that’s what we’ve got to do – band together and build a brighter future for ourselves and our birds, drawing on our American ingenuity and determination.

In order to give our birds a chance, we need to do two things: Let’s protect the places on the ground that we know birds will need today and in the future, and let’s work together to reduce the severity of global warming.

Go to the Audubon Climate Report page to see what you can do to help protect birds.

Last Known Passenger Pigeon Martha Died 100 Years Ago

By on August 30, 2014 in Conservation
Passenger Pigeon

Passenger Pigeon (image from Wikipedia Commons)

The Passenger Pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) was once the most abundant bird in North America, and possibly the world. These seemingly numberless flocks were considered an infinite resource and exploited so drastically that the species was driven to extinction in mere decades.

One flock in 1866 in southern Ontario was described as being 1 mile wide and 300 miles long, took 14 hours to pass, and held in excess of 3.5 billion birds.

Passenger Pigeons

Lewis Cross: Passenger Pigeons in Flight, painted in 1937

The extinction of the Passenger Pigeon had two major causes: commercial exploitation of pigeon meat on a massive scale and loss of habitat. Large flocks and communal breeding made the species highly vulnerable to hunting. As the flocks dwindled in size, populations decreased below the threshold necessary to propagate the species.

Naturalist Paul R. Ehrlich wrote that its extinction “illustrates a very important principle of conservation biology: it is not always necessary to kill the last pair of a species to force it to extinction.”

The story of the Passenger Pigeon is a poignant reminder of the need for effective conservation. The 100th anniversary of the species’ disappearance reminds legislators and people everywhere of the importance of protecting endangered wildlife before it’s too late.

Protecting endangered wildlife is part of Audubon’s Mission: “To conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife, and their habitats for the benefit of humanity and the earth’s biological diversity.”