Tag Archives | birds

What’s the buzz? Could be a Chipping Sparrow

Chipping Sparrow courtesy David Bogener

Quick! They’re passing through just now, so this is the time: check your feeders, walk your woodlands! The cutest little sparrows of North America are dressed up and on the move!

They’ve been in their winter browns, south of us and down into Mexico. But now the chipping sparrows have donned their red caps and broad white eyebrows. They are flocking up the Sacramento Valley and will nest in the mountains above us and northward far into Canada.

Look in the grasses among the oaks. Like other sparrows, “chippers” have the short, hefty bills designed for eating grass and weed seeds. But look in the trees, too. Insects are hatching out, and traveling sparrows are eager to load up on that high-protein fare.

And listen! Often traveling in small groups the birds keep in touch with one another and tune up for the breeding grounds with their song, a distinctive reedy trill on a single pitch.

A male will use that trill to stake out a breeding turf, usually in an open conifer forest. There he will vigorously chase off encroaching males–just as he will be chased from neighboring territories. Neither males nor females seem finicky about fidelity.

They are attentive parents, however. The female builds the nest, usually on or near the ground. It is a flimsy thing of grasses and soft fibers; it only needs to last about twenty-four days from eggs to fledging–even though the young hatch naked, blind, and weighing just one twentieth of an ounce. After a good start with the first fledglings the male typically continues to tend them while the female starts a second nest.

Chipping sparrows are common in their habitat from coast to coast, and number among the continent’s most numerous species, with population estimates up to 230 million. Still, they are not immune to changes in the world. Like other birds, their numbers have declined by about a third over the last fifty years, and now, like other birds, they are expected to be shifted northward.

There they will meet boreal forests that are being heavily logged for paper products. Efforts to keep the northern forests intact for chipping sparrows, numerous other feathered and furred creatures, and climate stability include consumer information about paper product sourcing. Our purchases impact these birds! Of widely available toilet paper, paper towels, and facial tissue, products from Green Forest consistently get high marks for their high recycled content. A substantial paper-product scorecard is available with an internet search of NRDC’s “The Issue with Tissue.”

Keep their nesting grounds intact, and look today for this red-capped cutie trilling buzzily as it passes through your neighborhood!  It’s a spring treat!

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John Reginato River Access Trail

Nashville Warbler

Join us to look and listen for spring warblers in the big oaks along this Sacramento River trail.  If we’re lucky, we might also see the resident pair of Peregrine Falcons or Barn Owl.

Meet at the parking lot near the boat launch at the John Reginato River Access at 3855 South Bonnyview Road.  This area is also known as the South Bonnyview boat ramp.  We will spend about two hours walking less than two miles on a rocky path with river cobblestones.  Hiking boots are recommended.  There are rest rooms at the boat ramp.

Contact trip leader Tricia Ford at triciathebirdnerd@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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Clear Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant

We are again scheduling a visit to the ponds targeting waterfowl, shorebirds and migrating warblers. Assemble at the Treatment Plant’s Administration Building at the end of Metz Road at 8:00 am to meet your leader, Larry Jordan. This is a 1/2-day trip that may end in the early afternoon if the birding is good. Directions to the Clear Creek Plant: Take Hwy 273 and look for River Ranch Road after crossing Clear Creek. Cross over the Railroad tracks and turn left on Eastside Rd. Entrance is on Metz Road on the right.

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Clover Creek Preserve

Western Meadowlark

Western Meadowlark

This preserve within the Redding city limits has a large, permanent pond with a marsh of cattails and reeds, shallow winter pools and uplands planted with oaks. We hope to see grassland species such as the Northern Harrier, Western Meadowlark, Say’s Phoebe and Western Bluebird, as well as a variety of ducks.

Meet at 8am at the preserve, 3705 Shasta View Drive, at the main parking lot. We will spend about two hours walking less than two miles on a paved trail. There is a port-a-potty located in the parking lot and a full restroom at the nearby Shasta Trinity Fly Fishers Club.

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

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