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San Joaquin Audubon Newsletters
BIRD SIGHTINGS Mid-June,2010 – August 11, 2010 (All sightings pertain to San Joaquin County) Submitted by Liz West On a July 23rd visit to the Lodi sewage ponds, David Yee saw a Snowy Plover, a juvenile Semipalmated Sandpiper and a Solitary Sandpiper. The following day Jim Lomax saw the snowy plover and a Common Tern. In addition to the Snowy Plover, Rob Fowler refound the Semipalmated Sandpiper July 24th. On August 1st, Rob Fowler saw a Solitary Sandpiper and a Bank Swallow at the Tracy sewage ponds. On the same day Jim Rowoth had six Marbled Godwits at the Lodi sewage ponds. On August 8th, Jim Rowoth reported a juvenile Snowy Plover at the Lodi sewage ponds. Tim Fitzer, Kathy and Virginia Bonham saw it earlier in the day. Participants of a Sacramento Audubon field trip saw it the next day. During the Sacramento Audubon trip at the Lodi sewage ponds on August 9th, Ed Harper found a Baird’s Sandpiper. It was present in the southeast pond through at least August 10th. Sal Salerno saw six female Lawrence’s Goldfinches at Caswell State park August 11th.
CALAVERAS BIG TREES STATE PARK ASSOCIATION - SEMINARS FOR THE 2010 SEASON All of these are on Saturday mornings from 10 a.m. to noon. There is a Park Entrance fee for each car, but no fee for the seminars which are in Jack Knight Hall near the Visitor Center. Saturday, September 25: Michael Wurtz, Archivist of the John Muir Papers at U.O.P. will present a program on John Muir and the Big Trees. John made two visits to Calaveras Big Trees. A new book on the history of the Calaveras Grove will soon be out. Saturday,
October 2: Dr. Harry Sharp, retired from Cal Poly and a docent in the
coastal redwood parks will present his program on
For More information contact Steve Stocking, Calaveras Big Trees Association board chair for seminars at snlsox@earthlink.net
Hospitalization of Pinnacles condors focuses attention on dangers of lead in the environment Lead poisoning mars celebration of first California Condor chick in Pinnacles in more than 100 years.
May 14, 2010 – With the recent announcement that the first California Condor
chick to hatch in the Pinnacles National Monument in more than 100 years
has been removed from its nest for treatment for lead poisoning, more attention
will be focused on the dangers of lead in the environment, particularly
lead from spent ammunition.
What Were Birders Seeing Around Here 100 Years Ago? The oldest west coast birding guide that I have is the “Handbook of Birds of the Western United States,” by Florence Merriam Bailey, 1902, with an addendum revised to 1920. The addendum changes the nomenclature to conform to the 1920 A.O.U. checklist. Another interesting section of the addendum is the list of “supplementary references.” There are many articles included which have regional bird lists, but few of these are from the Central Valley or the central Sierra. Most are from coastal areas. Many of these were published either in the “Condor” or in “Pacific Coast Avifauna,” which were products of the Cooper Ornithological Club, a highly respected organization of the day. Other than the 33 plates by Louis Agassiz Fuentes, the illustrations of the “Handbook” were from museum specimens. I decided to review a few of the publications that I could find from the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s to see how both the birds and the nomenclature had changed in the last 100 years. I chose “A Partial List of the Birds of Central California,” by L. Belding of Stockton, published in the Smithsonian Proceedings of April 22, 1879; “A List of the Land Birds of the Placerville-Lake Tahoe Stage Road,” by C. Barlow from the Nov. 1901 issue of the “Condor;” and “Some Birds of the Fresno District, California,” by John C. Tyler, a Cooper Ornithological Club publication from 1913. The earliest publication reviewed was the one by Belding. He mentions the extensive tule swamps west of Stockton and the birds he observed on trips from Stockton to Murphys, Calaveras Big Trees, and Soda Springs, as well as a visit to the Marysville area. He noted the “Red-bellied Hawk” (Swainson’s) which was very common in the Stockton area in summer and nested in oaks. He describes the valley east of Stockton as being very level, sparsely timbered except for narrow strips of oaks and willows along the principal water courses. “Because of the scarcity of water in the breeding season, birds are not numerous.” He also used the interesting name of “Tell Tale” for the Greater Yellowlegs, “Sheldrake” for Common Merganser, and “California Squirrel Hawk” for Ferruginous Hawk. He observed that Yellow-headed Blackbirds were abundant in the valley, but not Tricolored Blackbirds. Most of his observations of foothill and mountain birds were the same ones we would see today. But I did note that there were no observations made of Common Ravens in the hills or mountains. The only hypothesis that I can make about this omission is that Ravens are very smart birds, and may have avoided areas of human habitation where they quite possibly could have been shot. There were no protected species back in the 1800’s. Like Belding, Barlow was both an experienced observer and a collector. He collected both eggs and the birds themselves in the form of skins. His observations were annotated by W. W. Price, who had made extensive observations in the area for many years. The birds studied are, like those studied by Belding, ones which summer in the Sierra. Fall, winter, and spring birds were not noted. That said, it is interesting to note that the summer birds are the same ones we would observe at the same elevations at the present time. If global warming has had an impact on bird species which spend their summers in this area, it is not obvious. House Sparrows were observed at Placerville, but no European Starlings, Wild Turkeys, or other non-native species were noted. Again, and surprisingly, no Ravens were observed. I know little of the other authors, but John C. Tyler, author of “Some Birds of the Fresno District, California,” has a Stockton connection. He was a Fresno businessman and an active amateur who wrote extensively about the birds of the Fresno area. He, too, collected bird eggs for museums and probably to sell to collectors. Collecting eggs was a rather common hobby and there was a journal, “The Nidologist,” for bird egg collectors. Tyler was the father-in-law of Jack Arnold, who taught for years at Stockton (Delta) College and College (University) of the Pacific. He later developed the biology department at the new Sonoma State College as well as spending time after retirement as an ornithology research associate for the California Academy of Sciences. In the agricultural area around Fresno, Tyler noted many species (the names of which have since been changed), such as Florida Gallinule, Forbush Sparrow, Linnet, Hudsonian Curlew, Hutchins’ Goose, and Duck Hawk. But all species are the same as those which would be found in the area today. Can you figure them out? One interesting observation was that there was an “increasing rarity of Magpies.” A local migration of Tricolored Blackbirds was described as passing over at frequent intervals from daylight until after sunset. Swainson’s Hawks were common, and one farmer noted that they kept the mice and gophers in check, so he allowed them to hunt “undisturbed over his place.” Tyler did note Ravens on the west side of the valley near the foothills. It appears that the birds, if not the birders, have changed less than we might think over the last 100 years. I would like to dedicate this article to my recently deceased father, Dr. Kenneth M. Stocking, who was the president of the Stockton (San Joaquin) Audubon Society in 1942 and introduced me to the pleasures of watching birds soon after. Steve Stocking, Education
Chair
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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Membership in the National Audubon Society includes:
AUDUBON MAGAZINE HOOT OWL NEWSLETTER
To sign up today please click here» Audubon Membership |
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