Birds of the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge

Last January a friend and I went to Gray Lodge Wildlife Area to see the much talked about hundreds of thousands of snow geese. On that trip I saw exactly one snow goose on that trip. Still in search of the snow geese a friend and I took made the trip up to the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge last weekend with much better results.

Nearly all national wildlife refuges I've been to look pretty much alike. Large marshy areas, some grasslands, some open water and a narrow dirt road passing through it all. As I started driving through the Sacramento National Wildlife Area I had a sense that I'd seen all this before. But then we started seeing the birds. Hundreds of pintails, a hundred shovelers, a few widgeon, dozens of gadwall, a hawk passing over head here and there. Then the snow geese came in to view. Hundreds of thousands of snow geese. They seem to like to hang out together in very large flocks. At one point an enormous flock filled the sky, a storm of thunderous white wings and lots of honking.

Once we had seen the hordes of snow geese I felt the trip and my current birding goals were fulfilled. But of course we stayed on and I was pleasantly surprised in seeing a bald eagle and peregrine falcon. We stopped briefly at the Colusa Wildlife Area on the way home to make the trip complete. Throughout the day we saw lots of other great birds,probably at least a million, including tens of thousands of white fronted geese. A complete list follows:

Waterfowl: Bufflehead, Ring-necked Duck, Ruddy Duck, Gadwall, Greater White Fronted Goose, Snow Goose, Mallard, Northern Pintail, Northern Shoveler, American Wigeon, Ross's Goose, Cinnamon Teal, Green Winged Teal, Eared Grebe,
Other Water Birds and Shorebirds: Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, White Faced Ibis, American White Pelican , Double Crested Cormorant, Black-necked Stilt, Killdeer
Raptors: Northern Harrier Hawk, Red Tailed Hawk, Turkey Vulture, Bald Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, American Kestrel
Gallinaceous Birds: Ring-Necked Pheasant,
Rails: American Coot, Common Moorhen
Other Birds: Black Phoebe, American Crow, Western Scrub Jay, Red-Winged Blackbird, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Golden Crowned Sparrow

What happens at a trail work day?

A year or two ago a Sierra Club friend of mine suggested I might like to join him on an East Bay Regional Parks trail work day. The promise of a free lunch was enticing so I agreed. I've now participated in several trail work projects and each one has been very enjoyable, though one or two would have been more pleasant had the weather been a bit cooler! And so I found myself waking up at 7:00am on Saturday morning to head to Crockett Hills Regional Park for the Bay Area Ridge Trail Service day sponsored by REI. I chose to volunteer at Crockett Hills because it was a place in the East Bay Regional Park District I had never been to before. Not all the workdays I participate in have the level of involvement from REI that this one did, but the event is pretty much the same. If you've ever thought about joining in a trail work day but wanted to first know more about what it entails read on!

After getting just a little lost I arrived at Crockett Hills around 8:30am. REI was sponsoring this particular workday so there was an REI tent where all volunteers had to sign both an REI waiver and an East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) waiver form. I also filled out an all important raffle ticket with high hopes of winning a backpack. After completing the registration I grabbed some coffee and pastries while waiting for the rest of the volunteers to arrive. While waiting I chatted with a few friends I knew from past work days and met a few new people as well.

Once the expected volunteers were assembled the Bay Area Ridge Trail Council, EBRPD and REI all gave a few words of thanks. An EBRPD employee then described the different projects of the day - clearing thistle, installing new fenceposts, and trail restoration. He also introduced the tools we would be using and said a few words on their safe use. The volunteers divided into groups according to which project we each wished to work on, I chose trail restoration in order to see more of the park.

Past trail restoration projects I have participated in at the EBRPD, involves smoothing out trails torn up by winter rains and cows, obliterating shortcut trails or as in this case more clearly defining a new trail. In all these cases the work involved is similar, rough ground needs to be hacked out and graded using two tools - the McLeod and the Pulaski. The McLeod is a long handled tool with a large hoe like blade on and a tined blade like a heavy duty rake on the other. The Pulaski combines an axe and adze in one. It's strong head can be used to dig through very hard, dry soil.

At Crockett Hills the group working on trail restoration piled into a van and an EB Parks employee drove us and our tools up to the section of the park we would be working on. We got out of the van high on a grassy hill overlooking the Carquinez Strait. For this trail we would work mostly with the McLeod though a few Pulaski's were available for areas the dirt was particularly hard. I pulled on my gloves, picked up my McLeod and headed over to the trail area. The EB Parks employees explained that the grassy track we could see cutting across through the hillside was a fairly new trail. Over the winter little use and wet weather would cause the grass to grow up and the trail would likely disappear into the overgrown hillside. So our job was to scrape away the grassy surface of the trail to expose the bare ground underneath, converting the green path into a recognizable brown trail. The group of about a dozen spread out along the trail a couple arm widths apart and went to work.

Little by little as I hacked away at the ground with the hoe side of the McCleod blade the ground appeared underneath the grass. The tined side of the blade was then used to rake away grass and smooth out the train. The ground was hard but not impossible to dig through having been softened a little bit by the fall rains. The progress was slow going at first but seemed to progress quicker as the morning went on. Trail work days provide lots of opportunity to converse with the people working next to you. Most of the people who participate are outdoor enthusiasts, I enjoy talking with the other volunteers and almost always learn about new hiking places in the Bay Area and beyond. Though scraping the ground with a McLeod is hard work the time passes pleasantly with good company, and fantastic views. Everyone works at their own space, as soon as I finished one spot I moved down to the end of the line to start again. After a few hours, looking back across the hillside to where we started I could clearly see a defined trail marking our group's efforts.

We had restored the trail most of the way around the side of a hill and almost all the way to the trail junction when the EB Parks leader said it was almost noon and time to head back for lunch. When our group arrived back at the Crockett Hills staging area lunch was laid out for us - Chipotle Burritos! EB Parks, the Bay Area Ridge Trail and REI again thanked all the volunteers and raffled off a few backpacks (I'm still hoping to win one day). Each volunteer also received a shirt from REI.

After lunch it was time to say goodbye and depart for the drive home. I always enjoy the trail work days. As a frequent user of local trails I like contributing my time to help keep the parks maintained. The hard work is good exercise and gives a sense of accomplishment at the end of the morning. Through work days I have also visited parks that I had never been to before and now want to go back to. Winter rains are on their way, this year's trail projects are over. Check the EB Parks website for the 2011 work schedule. I hope to see you there!

Birds of Gray Lodge

My dad gave me a deck of Bay Area Backroads cards while I was home for Christmas. Looking through them the other week I made piles of cards for places I've been, places that are too far for one day, places better in the summer, and most importantly places I could visit in the next few weeks. One of those cards in the last pile is Gray Lodge Wildlife Area. After reading about Gray Lodge's millions of waterfowl including hundreds of thousands of snow geese I was entranced by the idea of visiting the place. It's over a two hour drive to get there, so I was very thankful that a friend agreed to go on a rainy day and what's more he offered to drive!

So last Sunday my friend and I packed the telescope, binoculars, bird books and lunch into his car and started off shortly before eight o'clock for Gray Lodge which is located not too far from Yuba City. After a stop in Yuba City to get a tire fixed we arrived at Gray Lodge a bit after eleven o'clock. On the way to the wildlife area we saw many raptors along the road and tundra swans in the flooded fields. The recent week's deluge made for an interesting drive crossing flooded rivers.

At the check in kiosk we paid our $2.50 per person entry fee and were given a map and bird list to check off. It was raining slightly and steadily but an auto tour route winds through the marshy wildlife area so we could see a lot right from the car. There are also a couple of beautiful bird blinds at Gray Lodge. These are large concrete structures with benches inside and viewing windows that open out onto the marsh. We set up the telescope in one a blind while heating up some soup for lunch.

There were a lot of waterfowl in the marsh, maybe not a million birds but a lot. And all day we only saw one snow goose but it was an interesting day nevertheless. The American Widgeons and Eurasion Widgeons were side by side as were the Coot an Moorhen. It's valuable to see these similar looking birds side by side to observe the differences between them. Among the thirty three identified species of birds we saw were an American Bittern, and White Faced Ibis both uncommon sightings and neither of which I had seen in California. Many many raptors perched on branches or flew overhead as we drove through the marsh but they are often hard to identify especially in the rain and poor light. In the afternoon we walked the nearly two mile flyway loop, which was a nice break from being in the car even in the wet. The rain didn't really let up all day so unfortunately I was unable to bring out my camera but overall not a bad place to be in the rain. The following is a list of birds I checked off as definitely identified:

Waterfowl: Bufflehead, Ring-necked Duck, Ruddy Duck, Gadwall, Greater White Fronted Goose, Snow Goose, Mallard, Northern Pintail, Northern Shoveler, Tundra Swan, American Wigeon, Eurasion Wigeon
Other Water Birds: American Bittern, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, White Faced Ibis, Double Crested Cormorant
Raptors: Northern Harrier Hawk, Red Tailed Hawk, Turkey Vulture
Gallinaceous Birds: Ring-Necked Pheasant, California Quail
Rails: American Coot, Common Moorhen
Other Birds: Belted Kingfisher, Northern Flicker, Black Phoebe, American Crow, Western Scrub Jay, Yellow Billed Magpie, House Finch, Red-Winged Blackbird, Golden Crowned Sparrow

Oh and we also saw a black tailed jackrabbit, brush rabbit and black tailed deer!