Tag Archives | Anderson River Park

Anderson River Park Bird Walk

Yellow Warbler

Location of where we will meet: Parking area southeast of Kiddyland to the far right near the picnic area.

Walking distance estimated at 2.5-3 miles (4-5 km)

Welcome back to Shasta Birding Society’s 2024-25 Season and active calendar of events. Grab your favorite optics and come join us for this no fee event.

This first Saturday in September we are kicking off the season with a bird walk of Anderson River Park. This 440-acre recreational facilities managed by the City of Anderson has a vast network of trails and diverse riparian habitat. On trail conditions you should expect fairly level areas for walking variation of paved, dirt, and gravel surfaces. At times we might be sharing the trail with runners, bicyclists, pet walkers, and in specific areas horseback riders.

All these trails will offer scenery of the Sacramento River, various ponds, open fields, and heavily wooded areas of natural flora with a mix of evasive plant species as well.

It is recommend that you bring comfortable footwear, plenty of water, snacks, and insect repellant.

Trip Leader: Dan Bye, contact me by danbye56@gmail.com for more information.

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Anderson River Park Bird Walk

California Thrasher

California Thrasher

Explore the banks of the Sacramento River, four ponds and a shady oak woodland to look for arriving spring warblers and Osprey.  A large variety of year-round birds frequent the park, including Yellow-billed Magpies, Bald Eagles, Osprey and a variety of woodpeckers.  A special treat would be a sighting of the elusive California Thrasher.

Meet at 8am at Kiddyland (the children’s playground) in the park, located at 2800 Rupert Road in Anderson.  We will spend about two hours walking less than two miles on paved and hard-pack dirt trails and across grass lawns.  There are bathrooms located at Kiddyland.

Contact trip leader Tricia Ford at triciathebirdnerd@gmail.com for more information.

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Osprey are Awesome!

Osprey Adult with Nestlings Underwing

Osprey Adult with Nestlings Underwing

The Osprey, aka fish hawk, is a bird of prey with some very special adaptations giving them their own taxonomic genus, Pandion and family, Pandionidae. Their outer toes, like those of owls, are reversible, allowing them to grasp their prey with two toes in front and two behind. Osprey toes also have sharp spicules on their lower surface allowing them to grasp slippery fish. They are the only raptor that plunge-dives feet first for live fish, which account for over 99% of their diet.

Osprey Diving For Fish courtesy of Teddy Llovet, Flickr Creative Commons

Like the Bald Eagle, Osprey populations suffered major declines largely due to the use of DDT in the 1950s and 60s. Osprey studies provided key evidence in court to block continued use of persistent pesticides, and Osprey populations recovered rapidly thereafter. Although small pockets of contamination remain, their historic range has greatly expanded and many populations in Canada and the United States now exceed historical numbers, owing to a cleaner environment, increasingly available artificial nest sites, and this bird’s ability to tolerate human activity near its nests. Now Osprey are the second most widely distributed raptor species, after the Peregrine Falcon, found in temperate and tropical regions of all continents, except Antarctica.

Osprey Building Nest at Shasta Dam

Being a predominately fish eating raptor, they nest near fresh or salt water, building large stick nests historically atop trees, rocky cliffs, and promontories. However, predation, loss of trees, and development of shorelines have been driving forces of Osprey shifting their nesting preferences to an array of artificial sites like channel markers in harbors and busy waterways; towers for radio, cell phone, and utility lines; and platforms erected exclusively for the species.

Osprey On Nest Platform

Osprey On Nest Platform

Shasta County is blessed, having many nesting locations for Osprey, several of them being man-made platforms. There was a pair of Osprey that built a nest atop the soccer field lights at Anderson River Park for many years. Unfortunately, the lamps in that light array had to be replaced every so often which usually caused damage to the nest. Wintu Audubon Society and the late Karen Scheuermann, wildlife rehabber of Tehama Wild Care, coordinated with the City of Anderson to install a permanent nesting platform atop that light stand to allow the Osprey to nest there in the future without being disturbed.

Osprey are usually monogamous and mate for life. They also show high fidelity to successful nest sights. We are pleased to announce that a pair of Osprey have indeed accepted our nest platform at the Anderson River Park soccer field and are currently raising two young! In the coming weeks we will be mounting a plague on the light pole to commemorate this coordinated and successful effort to advance the continued breeding success of this beautiful raptor.

Osprey Adult with Nestling at Anderson River Park

Osprey Adult with Nestling at Anderson River Park, June 17, 2021

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Anderson Christmas Bird Count

This very successful count features much public land with ample opportunities for walking. Meet at the amphitheater parking lot in Anderson River Park for assignments and location of the dinner and compilation. Contact Brooke McDonald, (bmm11@humboldt.edu) for further information.

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