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Confessions of a Shorebird Nut

By on October 6, 2020 in

The Ins and Outs and Ups and Downs Of Mendocino Coast Audubon’s Save Our Shorebirds Program

“Isn’t always easy and isn’t always simple, but it’s nearly always fun,” Becky Bowen says about Save Our Shorebirds. She will tell the story of the Mendocino Coast Audubon Society’s shorebird conservation program at the chapter program meeting at 7 p.m., October 19 on Zoom.

Save Our Shorebirds is an ongoing long-term Mendocino Coast Audubon citizen science program in cooperation with California State Parks. It grew out of a friendship between State Parks Environmental Scientist Angela Liebenberg and Becky in 2004. The two came up with the idea during long in-field surveys in MacKerricher State Park where Angela organized local Western Snowy Plover volunteers monitors. The Western Snow Plover is listed as threatened on the federal Endangered Species List. Local birding legend Dorothy Tobkin talked them into making the program about all shorebirds, since so many of them were listed as birds in decline by National Audubon and the American Bird Conservancy.

Angela now is a Senior Environmental Scientist at California Fish & Wildlife. Becky, a retired production manager at ABC-TV in Hollywood, now lives in Caspar and is the volunteer SOS data compiler and surveyor coordinator. “Running the SOS program is not that different than working on the Academy Awards telecast,” she says. “You plan it, budget it, put it on, and pay the bills-and always have a backup generator, and take good care of the crew and, oh yes, the stars.”

The stars of SOS are the shorebirds of MacKerricher State Park and the volunteers who have gathered data about the birds since June of 2007. Please tune in to see photographs, listen to the SOS story, and hear what the birds have been telling us for fourteen years.

Have questions about shorebirds? Send them to Becky at casparbeck@comcast.net If you miss the live Zoom presentation, look for a recording on YouTube.

To join our Zoom Meeting via desktop, laptop, tablet, or smart phone:
At 6:45 PM, click on the following LINK – We are requesting that you to click on the link 15 minutes prior to the start of the event, so that you can make sure that your audio and video are working properly.

If you cannot join by computer, tablet, or smart phone, you can dial the number below from any telephone and listen to the presentation: 1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose) or 1 253-215-8782 US (Tacoma)
Meeting ID: 821 4315 2741
Passcode: 943782

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Clear Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant Outing – CANCELLED!

By on February 24, 2020 in

Interested in meeting Shasta County’s avian migrants? Biologist, David Pluth will lead a walk through the Clear Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant to seek both resident and migrant bird species who visit the wastewater treatment plant each year.  In total, there have been 215 species reported at the Clear Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, making it one of the best birding locations in the county. On a good day 50 – 70 species may be seen! Some of the more uncommon species that have been observed at the plant during this time of year include long-billed curlews, black-necked stilts, black-chinned hummingbirds, yellow-headed blackbirds, and blue-winged teals to name just a few.  Come join your fellow birders for a casual and informative morning stroll.

Meet David at the entrance gate to the Clear Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, located at 2200 Metz Rd.  (left exit off 273 to Eastside Rd, 1 mile south of Win River). David will also provide waiver forms that will allow individuals to visit the plant on their own. 

For those interested, after the walk we will have lunch at Kutras Lake.

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Godwit Days

By on March 2, 2019 in

Godwit Days

Come celebrate the Marbled Godwit and explore the lush Redwood Coast. Observe many bird species and wildlife through our selection of field trips, lectures, workshops, and boat excursions led by experienced local guides during our annual week-long festival each April. Tour the expansive mudflats, the wild river valleys and the rocky ocean coast of this sector of the Klamath bioregion in northwest California.

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Second Saturday Bird Walk at Clear Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant

By on December 19, 2018 in

We are again scheduling a visit to the ponds targeting wintering waterfowl and very early migrating shorebirds. We hope that the winter rains will provide abundant open water and muddy shorelines for these species. Assemble at the Treatment Plant’s Administration Building at the end of Metz Road at 8:00 am to meet your leader, David Pluth. 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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Wintu Audubon Outing to Arcata Marsh

By on August 27, 2017 in

We will gather at the Arcata Marsh Interpretive Center parking lot to meet trip leader Bill Oliver. Many participants on this trip spend the night in Arcata to meet there in the morning. The 307 acre Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary integrates the City of Arcata’s wastewater treatment plant with 5 miles of walking paths through freshwater marshes, salt marsh, tidal sloughs, grassy uplands, and mudflats. Many shorebirds and migrants along the Pacific Flyway are seen here. Call Bill @ 941-7741 for more information.

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