Join Shasta Birding Society for a bird walk around Lema Ranch on Saturday, November 2nd at 7:30 am. We will be birding the oak woodlands and ponds at the Ranch on fairly level paved paths. We will bird Leah’s loop beginning at the main parking lot. This two mile paved trail overlooks Secluded Pond and Hidden Pond. The trail offers excellent views of Lema Pond, the largest pond on the site, and Leah’s Pond. We expect some late summer birds as well as migrants and a variety of waterfowl. Park and meet your leader, Larry Jordan at Lema Ranch main parking lot at 610 Armando Avenue off Hemingway Street. Questions? webmaster@shastabirdingsociety.org
Come out to bird with us along the Sacramento River Trail in Redding! This will be along a 3.5-mile stretch of the upper Sacramento River between Lake Redding (Diestelhorst Bridge) and Keswick Dam. The trail begins at the center of town, making its way through shaded residential areas, and eventually through the wilder, rocky canyon below the dam. Along the way, we will encounter many types of birds singing their morning chorus in the dappled shade of mature river oaks. As the day warms up, surprises await us on the water, and in the open sky above. Water birds keep cool in the rushing river, waders lurk in the shadows, predators keep watch overhead, and many small wonders flit between leaf and branch.
This is intended to be a one-way walk, so we will shuttle 2 parties of vehicles between both ends of the trail. However, you are welcome to walk (or bike!) the whole way back to the beginning on the opposite side of the river, or turn back at any point.
Meet at the Keswick Dam Trailhead at 7:30 am. The parking lot is on the North side of Keswick Dam Road, about ¼ mile West of Keswick Dam. The entire trail is flat, paved, bike-friendly, and wheelchair accessible. There are bathrooms at both ends of the trail and another in the middle.
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.
This is a no fee area and a very active hotspot this time of the year, especially with all the recent weather events we have had in 2023 so far. We are planning to meet at the Bass Pond Parking Lot at, 22459 Bend Ferry Rd, Red Bluff, CA 96080, at the main entrances to the Wetlands. Link: https://maps.app.goo.gl/qQ89aRHfRg7gbHhDA
This half-day event should yield many varieties of waterbirds, raptors, woodpeckers, and many songbirds in this unique and open wetlands area. From the parking lot we will start with a walk on a two-mile loop through several ponds to the south side of the road. If time permits, we will take a short drive to Payne’s Creek Crossing to round out our journey.
Please contact Dan Bye, by text/cell 530 228 9373 or email danbye56@gmail.com for more information.
The cattails are chattering, chittering, burbling, trilling, and buzzing! The noises of spring, evidence of things not seen, are pouring forth! And now is the best time to actually see the maestros of the marsh!
Responsible for most of the cattail chatter you’ll likely hear are marsh wrens. They are quintessential and versatile singers, storming the reeds with song from their little walnut-sized bodies. Some have stayed around all winter, quietly tucked into the tules. Now the longer and warmer days draw them out from their hideaways, both down in the ditches and down south.
Males are busy building many nests throughout their marshy turf, and scolding away invaders–other male marsh wrens, too-forward blackbirds, poking egrets, and passing people. The nests are about a yard above water, big hollow softballs of reeds with a small entrance hole, all tied to surrounding vegetation. When a female arrives, with song and fluttering he will give her a guided tour of his six or ten or twenty nests. If she sees him as energetic enough to keep local predators away and help feed the fledglings, and if his territory is biologically rich enough to provide abundant insects and snails, she will line one of his nests with soft vegetation and feathers, and there incubate a handful of eggs.
A second and even a third female will receive the same treatment from the male, and the new females will make similar instinctive calculations.
All the parents seek to protect resources for their children, and will pierce the eggs or nestlings of competitors–usually blackbirds or other wrens. The birds are conducting their own sub-humane warfare, each parent liable to the same treatment it tries to deliver.
Eggs hatch after two weeks of incubation. Both parents feed the blind and naked babies, who in another two weeks turn bugs into a nest full of young birds as big as their parents.
Eventually the young will grow their adult feathers–buffy browns, a white-ish eyebrow, and decorative black and white-lined plumes on their back. Good luck seeing them! Now, while they’re out courting, is the time!
