Natural History Journal

Technically, according to the calendar, it's still spring.  Technically.  However, as temperatures push toward 100 degrees Fahrenheit here in California's Great Central Valley, it is rapidly beginning to feel much more like summer than spring! In the bird world, spring migration has pretty nearly wrapped up for the season, as birds settle down on their breeding territories.  Many of our local resident breeders have been hard at work raising their young for a couple of months now, many of whom have already fledged their first brood this season.   Across the wetlands, riparian woodlands and grasslands, even throughout urban and suburban neighborhoods, the air is full of singing males defending their territory and the sound of hatchlings and fledglings begging their parents for food.  Yes, the nesting season is well underway indeed! Singing Marsh Wren: because nobody defends their territory quite like these little mites of the marshes! We've been fortunate eno...

I was born into a world where wild California Condors were a thing of the past - and little more than a dim hope for the future.   But in the three decades since, California Condors have become the stars of one of the most amazing comeback stories in the history of wildlife conservation, a story filled with controversy, pitting doubt and uncertainty against unwavering hope and perseverance.   Today, thanks to years of painstaking effort on the part of hundreds, if not thousands, of wildlife biologists and conservationists, we can once again look up into Southwestern skies and see condors soaring above on majestic wings.   The story, like the birds themselves, inspires. Male condor 602 hatched at the Los Angeles Zoo in 2011 and was released at Pinnacles in 2013. During the late Pleistocene, California Condors ( Gymnogyps californianus ) were widespread across North America.  15,000 years ago, when megafauna like mammoths, mastodons and giant ground slot...

Springtime wetlands in California's Great Central Valley resound with birdsong, a cacophony of beautiful and often strange sounds that can only be attributed to the wide diversity of avian life found here.  Take for example the maniacal laughter of the Pied-billed Grebe , the liquid "plumping" call of the American Bittern , the descending whinny of the secretive Sora , and the abrasive metallic screech of the Yellow-headed Blackbird .  Underpinning all of these weird wetlands sounds, you are also likely to hear another: the incessant, insect-like chatter of the Marsh Wren ( Cistothorus palustris ). If you're new to birding, or maybe new to exploring our beautiful wetlands at all, the tiny Marsh Wren is a bird you might not be familiar with.  They are small, quick, almost constantly in motion, and tend to keep to the shelter of reeds.  In short, they are more often heard than seen and many visitors to wetland areas never know they exist. But exist they d...

It's been a few weeks since my last visit to our local wetlands (namely, the San Luis, Merced and San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuges) but even from my vantage point in my own backyard, I can tell you that exciting things are happening in the avian world!  Spring migration is in full swing, and birds we have been eagerly waiting for have returned: swallows, flycatchers, orioles, tanagers, warblers and vireos are filling the riparian woodlands (for a more complete sampling, check out the last few posts by Garry Hayes over at  Geotripper's California Birds !)  The bird composition has been changing in my backyard as well - the Yellow-rumped Warblers and White-crowned Sparrows of winter have departed (heading north and up-slope into the Sierra) while  Cliff Swallows  and Swainson's Hawks have arrived! In the wetlands, one of the most elegant birds of late spring is perhaps the American Avocet ( Recurvirostra americana ).  While they are prese...

Last week, I wrote about the diminutive and disguised nests of the  Anna's Hummingbird.   March is nesting season for many resident birds in California's Great Central Valley, and hummingbirds are certainly not the only birds that go to great lengths to hide their nests from predators. Killdeer ( Charadrius vociferus ) are a familiar species to many birders and non-birders alike across the United States.  The cry of the Killdeer is a plaintive and distinctive call heard across open ground from coast to coast, and you may be acquainted with the sight of these beautiful plovers scurrying across the ground in wild as well as suburban areas. Killdeer inhabit a wide variety of open spaces, from rural fields and mudflats to urban lawns and gravel parking lots.  They are opportunistic foragers, feeding on invertebrates like worms, snails, beetles and larvae, as well as seeds and even the odd frog or fish, if the opportunity presents itself. Because they are a...

It is that most beautiful time of year again -  spring in the Great Central Valley !  All around, grasses are greening up, wildflowers are beginning to show their faces and our local avifauna are getting restless.  For some birds, the time to depart and return to their northern breeding grounds is drawing near.  For others, our resident birds, the breeding season has already begun.  I've written before about our little gem of a resident,  Anna's Hummingbird  (Calypte anna), defying the odds to remain in Northern California throughout the winter.  And I've also written about the beauty, intricacy and strength of  hummingbird nests .  Today, I have the good fortune of being able to combine the two in a couple of special photos I took yesterday of a female Anna's Hummingbird on her nest. The nests of Anna's Hummingbirds are extremely difficult to spot.  Though they build their nests fairly low on horizontal limbs of trees and sh...

Spring is in full swing here in California's Great Central Valley, and for a naturalist, that means blue skies and warm weather, blooming flowers and budding trees, butterflies and baby animals, and, of course, birds!  Spring brings a whole new assemblage of bird species to the Valley: colorful, subtropical birds that spend winters in Central and South America.  A few of these birds include Western Tanagers and Black-headed Grosbeaks, both of which nest and spend their summers in the conifer forests of the Sierra Nevada; riparian species such as Bullock's and Hooded Orioles; brilliant blue Lazuli Buntings and a host of warbler species.   Another group of birds that have returned are among my favorite birds to watch: the swallows.  Some species, such as the Tree Swallow and Violet-green Swallow remain in the Central Valley through the winter.  (Other populations of these swallows are migratory....