Page updated: August 23, 2010
 
SAN JOAQUIN AUDUBON SOCIETY
A California Chapter of the National Audubon Society Serving the communities of Stockton, Lodi, Tracy, Manteca, Escalon, Ripon, and Lathrop--All of San Joaquin County.
LINKS TO AUDUBON INFORMATION and more......

Places to Visit on our Website

Chapter Officers & Board Members 

  • Program and Field Trip Information 
  • Field Checklist of the Birds of San Joaquin County
  • Calaveras Big Trees Seminars
  • Bird Sightings in San Joaquin County
  • San Joaquin County Birding Areas
  • Membership Benefits-JOIN US!
  • Other Web Pages to Visit

  • Help with Indentifying Birds
  • I've Found a Baby Bird, now what?
  • Wildlife Rehab Information Directory
  • Central Valley Birds Listserve
  • San Joaquin Birds Listserve
  • Stanislaus Audubon Society
  • National Audubon Society 
  • Central Valley Bird Club 
  • California County Geographic Birding Guide 
  • Kern River Preserve
  • Artist Keith Hansen
  • Artist Rene C. Reyes
  • San Joaquin Audubon Newsletters

  • Hoot Owl September-October 2010
  • Hoot Owl July-August 2010
  • Hoot Owl May-June 2010
  • Hoot Owl March-April 2010
  • Hoot Owl January-February 2010
  • Hoot Owl November-December 2009
  • Hoot Owl September-October 2009
  • Hoot Owl July-August 2009
  • Hoot Owl May-June 2009
  • Hoot Owl March-April 2009
  • Hoot Owl January-February 2009
  • Hoot Owl November-December 2008
  • Hoot Owl September-October 2008
  • Hoot Owl July-August 2008
  • Hoot Owl May-June 2008

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    BIRD SIGHTINGS
    Mid-June,2010 – August 11, 2010
    (All sightings pertain to San Joaquin County)
    Submitted by Liz West
      Jim Rowoth found a juvenile Solitary Sandpiper at the Lodi sewage ponds July 5th.  Kathy Parker saw it the next day.

         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
    "Exploring Life at the Top". This program is about the findings of the scientist climbers who have been studying "what is up, up there".

    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.
         Researchers from the Monument and the Ventana Wildlife Society, which have been monitoring the nest, announced yesterday that they had removed the 50-day-old chick from the nest for treatment of extremely high levels of lead in its system. The chick’s male parent was also evacuated for treatment.
    “This news about the Pinnacles condors is just terrible, and it highlights the dangers that lead presents to condors and other birds,” said Gary Langham, Audubon California’s director of bird conservation. “The bottom line is that lead is a poison, and has no place in our natural environment.”
          One of the biggest sources of lead in the environment is spent lead ammunition. California Condors frequently feed on animal carcasses left behind by hunters, and often consume great amounts of lead from ammunition. Audubon California was one of several groups that in 2007 successfully pushed for the passage of a ban on lead ammunition within the condor’s range. Audubon California is currently sponsoring a bill, Assembly Bill 2223, to ban the use of lead shot on state wildlife areas, because of the danger that presents to sensitive bird populations.



    What Were Birders Seeing Around Here 100 Years Ago?
       Have you recently spotted a Plumed Quail, Willow Woodpecker, Intermediate Sparrow, Lutescent Warbler, or a California Squirrel Hawk?  Recently I was checking out some old articles about central California birds and I came across these names.  Others included Tell Tale, Ground Tit, Western Grass Bunting, and Black Ptilogony.  Present-day names for some of these were easily determined, but others were much more difficult to pin down.
         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




     
     


    SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY BIRDING AREAS
    As Published by Jim Gain

    Lodi Lake
    Lodi Sewage Ponds
    White Slough Wildlife Area
    Woodbride Regional Park
    Woodbridge Rd/Isenberg Crane Reserve
    Oakgrove Regional Park
    Stockton Sewage Ponds
    Flood/Waverly Roads
    Caswell State Park
    Mokelumne Day Use Area
    Tracy Sewage Ponds


     
     
    San Joaquin Audubon Society
    PO Box 7755, Stockton, California 95267
    For more information contact:
    Jim Rowoth: rowoth@sbcglobal.net
    or Kasey Foley: kaseyfoley@sbcglobal.net
     
     
    For San Joaquin Audubon Field Trips visit our Field Trips Page.
     
     
    MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION

     Membership in the National Audubon Society includes:

     
  • San Joaquin Audubon's Hoot Owl newsletter 6 times per year.
  • AUDUBON magazine.
    Monthly field trips led by San Joaquin Audubon members.
    General Membership meetings from September-December and February-April.  We often have local experts presenting topics such as Beginning Birding, Gardening for birds and butterflies, Raptor Rehabilitation, Sandhill Cranes-our local winter wonders, Swainson's Hawk conservation, Slide presentations on trips to Mexico, Galapagos, Honduras, Florida,and much, much more.

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