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Turtle Bay – An in-town Treat

Cinnamon Teal Pair

Cinnamon Teal Pair

Since water is fundamental to all life on Earth, rivers create particularly desirable ecosystems for people and many other species. In Redding, it makes for good bird-watching right here in town.

At Turtle Bay the Sacramento River offers an especially prosperous riparian habitat. Along the Sundial stretch the river runs briskly, with gravel bars that riffle the water, oxygenating it, supporting abundant aquatic insect life. These insects become food for salmon, trout and other fish that in turn feed ospreys and cormorants, gulls, turkey vultures, kingfishers, fish-eating ducks such as mergansers, several species of grebes, and of course our famous eagles.

Many birds bypass the fish and eat the bugs directly. In winter, ducks from the high arctic and the Great Plains pothole country—golden-eyes, buffleheads, and ruddy ducks—along with the more local wood ducks and occasional scoters sheltering inland from the stormy ocean—gather for the Good Life of clean water and plenty of insects and snails. In spring, prolific hatches of aquatic insects provide food not just in the water but over it, protein and calories for cliff swallows up from South America, who nest colonially under the bridges and snatch winged breakfast for both themselves and their young.

Downriver, around the bend, the riverflow is broken into quieter bays and side channels that offer resting places for numerous species. There, along with Canada geese, more ducks of winter—mallards, gadwall, ring-necked ducks, and sometimes teal, shovelers, pintails, and canvasbacks—nibble at the pond plants, fattening up for the next spring’s long flights and nesting season.

Wading birds hunt the shorelines year round. Great blue herons, egrets, killdeer, yellowlegs, snipe, and spotted sandpipers stalk and snatch fish and invertebrates at the water’s edge.

Brush along the banks and around river backwaters provides homes for song sparrows, bushtits, and towhees, and vital feeding corridors for migrating warblers.

Above the brush, cottonwood trees create a spreading canopy for nesting and feeding. This riparian wood, especially in dead trees, is soft, so Nuttall’s and Downy woodpeckers readily excavate numerous nesting cavities, used in spring by bluebirds, titmice, nuthatches, wrens, tree swallows, and ash-throated flycatchers. The trees’ leafy twig-ends can hold the rocking cradles of orioles. Heavier branches form the foundations for robin nests, not to mention osprey and eagle eyries.

The Turtle Bay cliffs offer nesting to a pair of peregrine falcons, and merlins will appropriate the nests of other birds. These predators can prosper because the smaller birds they eat are so abundant.
It’s a rich little jewel, here in the heart of town, a gem connected to others by the flowing river that makes it all possible.

Wintu Audubon offers walks at Turtle Bay on the first Saturday of every month, meeting at 9am at the concrete monolith.

Local Weekday Bird Walk at Cascade Park

Northern Shoveler Drake

This park at the confluence of Olney Creek and the Sacramento River packs a lot of habitat into a small area: riparian, open field and oak woodland. All of the local resident woodland species can be seen as well as both resident waterfowl and winter visitors – Northern Shovelers were seen last week, for example. Other wildlife are present including a beaver colony – we may see their dam and note the habitat it creates.

Meet leader Linda Aldrich at the Cascade Park parking lot at 8:00 am. Go south on Hwy 273 (from Redding), turn off at Girvan Rd and follow over the Olney Creek Rd. Use the same directions from Anderson but travel north on Hwy 273.

Lewiston Lake Outing

Lewiston Lake is a reservoir created by Lewiston Dam on the Trinity River just north of Lewiston in Trinity County. We will visit the California Department of Fish and Wildlife Fish Hatchery on the Trinity River. Many raptors and other fisheaters are attracted to the hatchery’s outflow. Then we will travel up the west side of the lake stopping to scan the lake for ducks and the bordering marsh for passerines. Meet at the south parking lot of the Redding Civic Auditorium to carpool for this full-day outing. We especially invite our Trinity County members to join us. They can meet the Redding group at the Plug & Jug in Lewiston at 8:30 am. George Horn will lead.

Second Saturday Bird Walk at Lema Ranch

An hour long bird walk on the Lema Ranch trails will be held for attendees of the Northern California Audubon Council Meeting. All Wintu Audubon members are also invited, regardless of whether you are registered to attend the meeting. Of course, those not attending the meeting are free to continue birding the grounds as council attendees make their way to the 8 am meeting.

Discover Birding at Turtle Bay

Our youth/beginner bird walks are conducted on the first Saturday throughout the year. Bring your family and friends to the Turtle Bay Monolith. Wintu Audubon can provide binoculars and field guides. Call Dan Greaney, 276-9693, with questions or for more information.