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Daily Bucket - More Migrants are Showing Up at the Cosumnes River Preserve [1]
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Date: 2023-11-08
Another week and visit to a local wildlife preserve - the Cosumnes River Preserve which is situated 20 miles south of Sacramento just off of Interstate 5.
The preserve is a joint venture of federal, state, local government agencies, Ducks Unlimited and the Nature Conservancy. It features a visitor center and a number of walking trails. A number of trails are paved and ADA accessible. The preserve has a variety of habitats: open fields, wetlands, vernal pool grasslands, oak forests and riparian woodlands. It also serves as a floodplain for the Cosumnes River and Sacramento River delta. It’s a major stop on the Pacific Flyway.
The Daily Bucket is a nature refuge. We amicably discuss animals, weather, climate, soil, plants, waters and note life’s patterns.
We invite you to note what you are seeing around you in your own part of the world, and to share your observations in the comments below.
Each note is a record that we can refer to in the future as we try to understand the phenological patterns that are quietly unwinding around us. To have the Daily Bucket in your Activity Stream, visit Backyard Science’s profile page and click on Follow.
Sandhill Cranes rest in an unfilled pond.
In previous posts I mentioned that the ponds for many of the refuges were still dry. I found the following explanation on how the pools are filled on the Preserve’s webpage:
Every year Preserve staff create a plan for how each pond will be managed. We adjust that plan frequently based on what grows in each pond and how well the birds use the ponds each year.
The Preserve’s wetland ponds get flooded on a rotational basis, beginning with a single pond in late August or early September. This water supports birds that migrate early, such as shorebirds and some dabbler ducks moving south for the winter.
When it is hot, we limit the amount of water that gets released into the ponds. This helps to decrease the risk of diseases, such as avian botulism.
We flood ponds very slowly to allow birds to take full advantage of the vegetation and seeds in each ponds. Flooding them up too quickly to their maximum depth wastes these precious carbohydrate resources and makes the water too deep for the birds to reach the food.
We increase the number of ponds that get flooded weekly as the weather cools and as more birds begin to arrive at the Preserve (usually mid to late October).
The last few ponds receive water around the middle of December to match the peak number of birds. This also provides late arrivals access to fresher water.
We manage water level depths for all species of waterfowl and waterbirds, so some ponds (or areas within ponds) will be shallow mudflats for shorebirds, while other areas will be deep for diving ducks.
In the spring, we drain several ponds very slowly so the birds can take advantage of the aquatic invertebrates that get concentrated into the remaining available water. This is a huge protein source for birds about to migrate north for the breeding season.
In the summer, we disk, mow, and irrigate ponds to promote desirable vegetation, including three of the most important plants for waterfowl: watergrass, smartweed, and swamp timothy.
The third point talks about limiting water when the weather is warm to prevent disease. We have had a very warm autumn which is why I am seeing a lot of dry ponds this late in the year.
The warm autumn may be the reason I didn’t see a lot of migratory species earlier in the fall. On this visit, I saw the greatest diversity of birds so far this year. Here are the some of the first of season (FOS) birds:
FOS Ross Geese hang out with White Fronted Geese, Northern Pintails, and Green-Winged Teals on a slowly filling pond. Note the small round white head and no black on the beak on the Ross’s Geese.
FOS Green-Winged Teals. Note the European Starling to the left.
FOS Cinnamon Teal and Northern Pintail
FOS Least Sandpipers
FOS Lesser Yellowlegs
FOS Pacific Cackling Goose
I have noticed a lot more White-Fronted Geese and Northern Pintails everywhere. They have always been plentiful but this year the numbers of these two birds dominate all other species. I still have not seen Snow Geese except for the ones pictured above. They are usually here by now. Here are other migrants birds I’ve saw at the refuges:
White Crowned Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Male Red-Winged Blackbird
Black Phoebe highlighting accessibility
Killdeer
Black-Necked Stilts
Short-Billed Dowitchers
White Fronted Geese coming in for a landing
American Coots on feather covered water
Northern Shovelor
Canada Geese
Great Egrets
Turkey Vultures
Finally, as I walked along the short wetlands trail, I watched a flock of red-winged blackbirds take off after a turkey vulture that ventured too close to their roosting tree. They promptly chase that vulture away.
Vulture flew low to avoid the blackbirds
The Vulture flew into those trees to get away from the blackbirds
Sacramento area had clouds and light showers at the beginning of the week. Temperatures the rest of the week expected to be in the 60s with some cloudiness but no real rain.
What’s up in your neck of the woods?
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