Tag Archives | birds

Winter Wings Festival

The Klamath Basin Audubon Society (KBAS) produces the annual Winter Wings Festival to celebrate THE LARGEST WINTERING POPULATION OF BALD EAGES IN THE LOWER 48 STATES, as well as the abundance of all the birds that make the Klamath Basin their home. The Winter Wings Festival welcomes all birders and wildlife enthusiasts to hear keynote speakers, take field trips and enjoy the other activities that enhance the appreciation of the spectacular beauty of the Klamath Basin. Any surplus from the festival is used to support community outreach, wildlife, and youth education programs in the Klamath Basin.

The Festival will be celebrating its 39th year in 2018. We are one of the largest festivals in the nation that is an all-volunteer effort.

 

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North State Gold

Lesser Goldfinch Male

Lesser Goldfinch Male

Nature offers relentless beauty, free—not for the taking, but still for enrichment. One of this season’s beauties is goldfinches.

If you hang a feeder with thistle seed out your window, then a dozen or more of these lemon cuties may well deck the twigs nearby. They’re tiny, just elongated ping-pong balls, but on a chill winter morning they can turn bare branches into a Christmas tree.

The birds are known as Lesser Goldfinches. “Lesser” because they are smaller than their cousin American Goldfinches, and because in summer the cousins have more stunningly bright plumage. But in winter the larger birds lose their brilliance, turning an amber tan, while the lesser goldfinches continue to shine.

As is common in birds, the males are the prettier ones. Their wings are black with small flashes of white, and they wear smooth black caps. Their greenish backs melt into bright yellow undersides. The females dress in similar colors, but muted and without the hat.

It is uncommon to see a solitary goldfinch. They are gregarious, hanging out together like teens at the mall, and filling the air with their wheezy chittering and trills. In their native western US and Mexico, they can be seen wherever the small seeds they thrive on are abundant. They scour sycamore pods high in city treetops; they flock through weedy lots and fields; and they congregate at feeders. Development does not seem to have reduced the presence of weeds or seeds, and the goldfinches are prospering.

Our North State climate is temperate enough that the goldfinches out your winter window will stay in the neighborhood for their spring nesting. Finches are singers, and a male will twitter and tweet until a female succumbs to his melody and allows him to perch by her. He will eventually begin feeding her, a consideration he will continue as she selects a nest site and does the work of construction. She is practical in this task, weaving her grassy cup in a leafy tree or shrub and lining it with fluff from flora or fauna, making a soft, warm bed for the naked nestlings.

The nest is usually just 4-8 feet off the ground. Keeping it low facilitates his food delivery to her while she incubates their eggs, and later, their exhaustive efforts to fill the bottomless pits of their annual handful of children. In under two weeks of incubation, the young hatch out scrawny and helpless, but strong enough to demand that incessant deliveries of seeds and insects be gathered from the neighborhood and fluttered up to them. In less than two weeks more they will be as big as their parents, feathered, and flapping awkwardly from the nest.

Lesser Goldfinch Female with Nestlings

Lesser Goldfinch Female with Nestlings

After a little more tending, the weary parents can take a break. Their energetic young flutter on, replenishing the local flurry of color and song, continuing the persistent beauty of the natural world.

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Wintu Audubon Presents Florida Birding Hotspots

David Bogener will be sharing photos and information on Florida’s birding hotspots,including Ding Darling NWR, Little Estero Lagoon, Corkscrew Swamp, Shady Hollow Rookery, Anhinga Trail, Green Cay Wetlands Wakodahatchee Wetlands, and other known birding areas.

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Second Saturday Bird Walk at Clover Creek Preserve

Clover Creek Preserve has a large, permanent pond with surrounding cattails and reed marsh, shallow winter pools and uplands planted to oaks. Plan to see shorebirds as well as species rare to urban areas such as Western Meadowlark, Western Bluebird, and Say’s Phoebe. The Great-tailed Grackle has expanded its range northward to include Shasta County and inhabits the cattail marsh. Meet your trip leader at the preserve near the south end of Shasta View Drive for this ½-day trip.

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Discover Birding at Turtle Bay

Our youth/beginner bird walks are conducted on the first Saturday of every month throughout the year at Turtle Bay. Wintu Audubon can provide binoculars and field guides. Call Roberta Winchell at 945-8342, with questions or for more information. We assemble at the Venture Properties parking lot. Take the first left before the Redding Civic Auditorium.

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