A Beginner’s Guide to the Delta

The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is a large, and highly complicated place. With all the rivers and other waterways, all the history, all the endangered species and habitats, all the people, and all the threats on the horizon, it can be daunting for anyone to begin to learn about. Where to start?

Well, a Sea Grant Fellow working at the Delta Protection Commission has created a good answer to that question. Heidi Williams received a fellowship from an organization called California Sea Grant to work in the area of science communication. She spent her one year fellowship at the Delta Protection Commission where she worked to create virtual tour of the Delta. This broad introduction to the the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is called “A Beginner’s Guide to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.” The whole digital “Guide” can be found here, and it makes for a very interesting and well assembled read that includes an overview of many of the topics that make the Delta such a complex place to work and live. it also includes quite a few sources which allows for further reading and exploration.

Tule Elk in Suisun Marsh (cover photo from the “Guide”)

Even thought it is called a beginner’s guide, I will guarantee that anyone who reads through all the materials that have been assembled in this “Guide” will learn something.

 

 

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100 Per Month – May

This year, 2018, I have set up a little challenge for myself. The challenge is to see 100 or more species in Yolo County each month. Now, that does not mean that the 100 species of February have to all be different species from the 100 species in January. Rather it means that the total number of species seen in each month should get to a total of 100 or more. So, if I see a Red-tailed Hawk some time in January it gets added to the January list. If I see a Red-tailed Hawk some time in February it get added to the February list.

I am hoping this will help me to notice more details as I search to find that next species for a given month, encourage me to visit more habitat types each month, and highlight the seasonal differences as species come and go from my monthly list. This first few months, I have really been enjoying it, and will share what I see with you as the months go by.

Below is my species list from May. It has a total of 97 species, so I did not make my target. This is the first month of the year that I have ended with under 100 species, and it was a bit of a surprise. I did miss two weekends of birding this month which certainly presented a challenge, but I also missed several species that I thought I would see easily. Northern Flicker was one of the most conspicuous misses. I searched and searched for days to see or hear one, and could not find one anywhere! I also visited a spot along Putah Creek outside of Davis that I thought would be an easy place to find Acorn Woodpeckers, but found none. Virginia Rail, Barn Owl, Lincoln’s Sparrow, and an absurd lack of gulls were a few other species that I was kind of surprised I was not able to find despite specifically looking for them.

When I started this challenge, I was slightly worried that I had made it too easy. In January and February I was able to clear the 100 species mark easily, and was thinking about raising my target to 110 species or maybe even 115. Now that spring is ending and summer is just around the corner, and having ended May three species short, it looks like 100 species per month is a worthy challenge after all.

Some of the highlights from the month were a couple of Ring-necked Ducks and a lovely male Green-winged Teal at the Yolo Bypass, a Burrowing Owl that I spotted on the side of an on ramp to I-80 in Davis, a Loggerhead Shrike that flew past me just beside the Yolo County Landfill, and the lovely and colorful assortment of Central Valley breeding birds like Bullock’s Oriole, Blue Grosbeak, and Lazuli Bunting.

With five months down, and my first under-100 total, I am determined to get over 100 species in June! We will see what I am able to find!

Here is my May species list.

Species – Yolo County – May
1	Canada Goose
2	Wood Duck
3	Cinnamon Teal
4	Northern Shoveler
5	Gadwall
6	Mallard
7	Green-winged Teal
8	Ring-necked Duck
9	Ruddy Duck
10	California Quail
11	Ring-necked Pheasant
12	Wild Turkey
13	Pied-billed Grebe
14	Double-crested Cormorant
15	American Bittern
16	Great Blue Heron
17	Great Egret
18	Snowy Egret
19	Cattle Egret
20	Green Heron
21	Black-crowned Night-Heron
22	White-faced Ibis
23	Turkey Vulture
24	Osprey
25	White-tailed Kite
26	Northern Harrier
27	Cooper’s Hawk
28	Red-shouldered Hawk
29	Swainson’s Hawk
30	Red-tailed Hawk
31	Sora
32	Common Gallinule
33	American Coot
34	Black-necked Stilt
35	American Avocet
36	Killdeer
37	Least Sandpiper
38	Spotted Sandpiper
39	Greater Yellowlegs
40	California Gull
41	Rock Pigeon
42	Eurasian Collared-Dove
43	Mourning Dove
44	Great Horned Owl
45	Burrowing Owl
46	White-throated Swift
47	Anna’s Hummingbird
48	Belted Kingfisher
49	Nuttall’s Woodpecker
50	Downy Woodpecker
51	American Kestrel
52	Pacific-slope Flycatcher
53	Black Phoebe
54	Ash-throated Flycatcher
55	Western Kingbird
56	Loggerhead Shrike
57	California Scrub-Jay
58	Yellow-billed Magpie
59	American Crow
60	Common Raven
61	Northern Rough-winged Swallow
62	Tree Swallow
63	Barn Swallow
64	Cliff Swallow
65	Oak Titmouse
66	Bushtit
67	White-breasted Nuthatch
68	House Wren
69	Marsh Wren
70	Bewick’s Wren
71	Western Bluebird
72	Hermit Thrush
73	American Robin
74	Northern Mockingbird
75	European Starling
76	Cedar Waxwing
77	Orange-crowned Warbler
78	Common Yellowthroat
79	Yellow Warbler
80	Wilson’s Warbler
81	Savannah Sparrow
82	Song Sparrow
83	California Towhee
84	Spotted Towhee
85	Western Tanager
86	Blue Grosbeak
87	Lazuli Bunting
88	Western Meadowlark
89	Bullock’s Oriole
90	Red-winged Blackbird
91	Brown-headed Cowbird
92	Brewer’s Blackbird
93	Great-tailed Grackle
94	House Finch
95	Lesser Goldfinch
96	American Goldfinch
97	House Sparrow

 

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