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WALDO HOLT December 16, 1948-July 11, 2007 
San Joaquin Audubon Society's Conservation Chair for over 20 years Anyone interested in making a tax-deductible donation to support the Waldo Holt Habitat Fund should make their check payable to: Quail were once a common bird in most of central California below the level of the coniferous forest. In the coniferous forest you can expect the Mountain Quail, the one with the reversed topknot. The Native Americans hunted quail both with snares and with bow and arrow. But quail numbers were not reduced until “market hunting” began in the nineteenth century. As late as the 1870’s, the ornithologist William Dawson noted that flocks of from one to five thousand were common! “In 1867, we moved to a ranch near Spanish Town, now called Half -Moon Bay, and San Gregorio, on the coast side of San Mateo County. There I saw quail by the thousands everywhere; every canyon gulch and ravine contained quail and the whole country seemed to be alive with them.” (Walter Welch 1931) The naturalist Jose L. Martinez mentions a “plague” of quail at the missions, and other observers tell of bands of several thousands which fed on clover on the plains in the spring and nested under briars and cuttings. In the 1880’s and 1890’s, millions of quail were shot or trapped for the markets of various cities. During the open quail season of 1895-96 for example, 177,366 quail were sold in the open markets of Los Angeles and San Francisco alone. Valley quail populations were diminished by overshooting, trapping, and poisoning from grain impregnated with thallium, a metallic poison that was scattered far and wide to poison ground squirrels. In 1901, a bag limit was established for quail and their sale was prohibited. A. Starker Leopold, the great wildlife biologist, wrote that the quail of California would have been exterminated without this law. California quail numbers have rebounded in suitable habitat, although not to their historic high numbers. Too much of their habitat has been cleared. They need shelter in thickets and chaparral and a daily source of water. At night they need a roost of dense shrubbery and trees. In fall and winter they feed and roost in groups of from 20 to 60. This year there has been a large crop of acorns, and in some areas quail could be seen feeding on roads where the acorns had been crushed by cars. At one time quail were abundant in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, but have nearly been eliminated there by feral cats. I recall that Ed Wager, a past San Joaquin Audubon president, often led bird trips on the Calaveras River in Stockton where quail were usually observed. Not any longer, as most of the vegetation has been removed from the river bottom. In foothill areas where shrubs and dense trees remain quail are doing well, except where preyed upon by cats, in addition to their natural enemies; fox, bobcats, coyotes and Cooper’s Hawks. Quail lay a large clutch of eggs in depressions on the ground and the chicks are particularly prone to predation. But our State Bird is doing much better than the Grizzly Bear, which is now found only on the California State Flag, the Tule Elk, found on the Stockton City seal, and the California Condor which has been reintroduced into southern California and Arizona. Submitted by Steve Stocking. Principal source of information: Tending
the Wild, M. Kat Anderson 2005, U.C.Press
Every summer, millions of Sooty Shearwaters
arrive off the coast of California, their huge flocks astonishing visitors
who may have trouble grasping that the dark swirling clouds over the water
consist of seabirds. Scientists have long known that Sooty Shearwaters
breed in New Zealand and Chile and migrate to feeding grounds in the Northern
Hemisphere. But the details of this remarkable transequatorial migration
are only now emerging from a study using electronic tracking tags to follow
individual birds. The flights of Sooty Shearwaters documented in
this new study represent the longest animal migration routes ever recorded
using electronic tracking technology: around 65,000 kilometers (39,000
miles)! Taking advantage of prevailing winds along different parts of the
migration route, the birds trace giant figure eights over the Pacific Basin.
One of the very best things you can do to make your garden more attractive to birds is to plant a songbird flower bed, says Steve Kress, a bird conservation expert and vice president of the National Audubon Society. Kress recommends a mixed bed of trees and shrubs and perennial flowers, perhaps along the edge of your property. Combine evergreens and deciduous plants, and include shrubs with thorny stems and plants with berries. Evergreens offer shelter from the wind and from birds of prey. Thorny shrubs are safe spots for nesting, and berries provide food as well as a bright touch in the winter garden. Give birds a tall tree, too. "That's the singing perch," Kress says. "They need a tall tree to sing from." A mixed border along the property line can provide lunch for birds if it is full of dogwoods, serviceberries, viburnums and other berry-producing plants. These trees and shrubs also have pretty flowers in spring or summer, and some have colorful fall foliage. A well-layered bed also serves to separate one area of the garden from another. Every garden should have a water feature, too. In Kress' garden in Maine, a lily pond, with water circulating around natural rocks, is the centerpiece of the landscape. "It attracts a huge number of birds," Kress says, "and I plant hummingbird plants around it." If you don't have the space for a pond, a simple, nicely placed birdbath gives a garden a subtle focal point and will bring many birds to your garden. Kress recommends shallow birdbaths, no more than a couple of inches deep. A diverse landscape that includes native plants will provide seeds and berries, and a natural habitat will supply insects for the birds to eat, but bird feeders help birds through the winter and "provide great entertainment for people," Kress says. "One thing is for sure, they help you learn the birds," Kress says. Instead of placing bird feeders in an open area far from the house, pick a spot close up, he says, within three feet of the windows or even closer. The more aware birds are of figures behind the glass, the less likely they are to fly into a window, Kress says. Birdhouses are among the most charming of garden decorations, and birds just love them. "Just like in the real-estate business, the key is location, location, location," Kress says. "You can really affect your success by thinking about where you put the house." Whimsical birdhouses that look like Swiss chalets or French cathedrals may look terrific to you, but birds can be rather particular, and if you want to attract a family of bluebirds or wrens, it's important to mount it at just the right height, facing the proper direction. A birdhouse also has to have the right-sized hole. It's worth the trouble to do a little research on the preferences and requirements of various birds. (There are guidelines available on the Internet at www.birds.cornell.edu/birdhouse.) Right now is the time to take down your birdhouses and clean them out, Kress says. Birds are not sticklers for tidiness. In fact, they like unmowed areas where the grass can go to seed. Birds like to look for insects in leafy mulch in flower beds and under shrubs. "A really tidy yard is a bad bird yard," Kress says. You may not be able to let any of your grass get tall enough to go to seed, but you can probably find a place for a brush pile. Instead of running branches through a deafening chipper, you can heap the brush in a corner, pour yourself a tall lemonade, and sit back and listen to the birds sing. From an article by Marty Ross, UPS, February 16, 2007
PO Box 7755, Stockton, California 95267 For more information contact: Jim Rowoth: rowoth@sbcglobal.net or Kasey Foley: kaseyfoley@sbcglobal.net |
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"Birding
In and Around San Joaquin County" is hot off the press.
