No fee event. We will all meet at Safeway parking area in Burney at 8:30am. Here we might be able to carpool before we reach Fall River Mills.
Walking distance estimated at 1-1.5 miles (1.6-2.4 km), Driving distance (while birding) 6-10 miles (9.7-16.1 km). Our first destination to visit is Fall River Lake which is great for Water Birds and an occasional Raptor. As we approach the town of Fall River Mills, we will turn left on Long St. and head north to the end of the road at a boat launch and picnic area. We will bird from here then slowly head back towards town making stops at each pullout to make observations along the way back to the dam. We will make additional stops below the dam with one final stop at the south end of Long St. to see which species are available at the Bridge St. bridge. Done at Fall River Mills, we will now head out for McArthur. In McArthur, we will be turning north at Main St. then turn northeast on Rat Farm Rd. We will caravan on Rat Farm making our observations where we should see many raptors as we travel. This road will end at Big Lake Boat Ramp where we will certainly see more water birds. To complete our field trip, we will return back to Main St, and drive northwest on McArthur Swamp Rd continuing our caravan looking for what we can find along the ditch up to the end of the road, where we will reach the Tule River. Then we are done.
We will postpone and possibly reschedule if severe weather is forecasted. Please check our calendar or contact Trip Leader if you have questions. Our calendar is available at: https://shastabirdingsociety.org/calendar/
Trip Leader: Dan Bye, contact me at danbye56@gmail.com for more information.

Eared Grebe in Breeding Plumage By David Bogener

There is, apparently, a lot to be said for having a time of rest: trees drop their leaves and go dormant; fungi retreat underground; insects wrap in cocoons, and chipmunks hibernate; lizards and turtles brumate – the reptilian version of hibernating; we humans developed a Sabbath, and weekends.

Birds, however, are largely committed to being lightweight and active. Hibernation and weekends are not options for them. Some smaller birds and nightjars can lower their metabolism to sleep through a cold night or even longer harsh conditions, but mostly birds survive tough weather by either migrating away or foraging voraciously.

Eared grebes, however, have found another way to amplify the benefits of rest.

Eared Grebe in Non-breeding Plumage by Ingrid Taylar

Out on our lakes and rivers, they are in their resting mode right now. As many birds do, they have toned down their social demands, dropping their extravagant yellow plumes of breeding plumage–their “ears”–and the showy dances that go with them. They wear plain black and white now. They are not singing, and scarcely even talking, spending their time in loose solitude. Most stunningly, they cannot even fly.

For 9-10 months of the year, eared grebes don’t need to take wing. They need to feed–for themselves in winter, for their young in the spring. So they give up flying for extended periods of the year. Their flight muscles shrink, and their digestive organs grow. They eat and they rest. The invertebrates of open water in places like Turtle Bay and along Park Marina become their meals and muscle. The water itself is their home and refuge. The birds don’t hibernate, but they eat and store their calories with high efficiency.

Spring will call soon. Then the eared grebes’ pectoral flight muscles will grow, and the winter’s rest and food storage will power their flights. First they will wing their way to either Mono Lake on the east side of the Sierras or the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Those two lakes act as a staging ground for 99% of all the eared grebes in North America. They are rich in brine shrimp, and the grebes feed voluminously. The more shrimp they swallow, the greater their reproductive success.

Well fed, the grebe flight muscles again develop and they fan northward to nest in freshwater and saline lakes from northern California up through central Alberta and Saskatchewan. There they will court with elaborate dances on the water.

Well built for swimming, with their feet located back toward their tails, grebes are awkward, essentially crippled, on land. Following their successful aquatic-dance courtships, they will build floating nests in cattails or similar vegetation. Depending in part on the density of brine shrimp in their staging ground lake, the grebes will raise one to eight chicks.

The chicks are quickly active, diving and hiding just an hour after hatching. But they are also not above taking warm rides on their parents’ backs. Eared grebe parents will join with neighboring nesters to share their parental duties.

As summer progresses the young will be increasingly on their own. By September they will have developed the strength to fly to one of the great saline lakes of the American west, where they can continue the cycle of losing their flight muscles, and feeding and resting.