Date: 4/9/25 9:12 am From: Glennah Trochet via groups.io <trochetj...> Subject: [centralvalleybirds] Tall Forest bird survey this Friday
Dear Birders,
My weekend dates already otherwise committed this month, I have scheduled the Tall Forest bird survey at the Cosumnes River Preserve for Friday, 11 April. We will go through the locked gate at the corner of Bruceville and Desmond Roads at 05:45. The river is still shallowly out of its banks, so you'll need rubber knee boots for the Accidental Forest portion of the survey route. Bring water, a snack, TP, and your optical aids. A clothing layer for first thing in the morning will be worth having, too. The recent flush of water rendered several fields good for shorebirds too deep for them, but perhaps they will be suitable once again. Other fields have had water run off them in advance of preparation for planting this year's organic rice, so too dry for shorebirds. So I am unsure whether we'll turn any of these birds up. But after touring the wooded portions of the route, we'll certainly look for them. If interested in joining us for this survey, please sign up on the preserve's website, www.cosumnes.org, under the events link.
Last Friday a pair of ring-necked ducks was loafing on the flood[lain northeast of the Tall Forest very near where ring-necked ducks nested two years ago. A female hooded merganser was farther south. A Savannah sparrow sang a couple of times from a berm between two dried out rice fields on the west side of the woods. The closest breeding location known to me for that one is the McCormack-Williamson Tract a few miles west. One spring a couple of males sang at the Twin Cities Unit, but they didn't stick, I don't think.
On Saturday I visited the TNC Barn ponds and walked the public trails, making two passes through the oak copse at the Point. I found five blue-winged teal, 18 ring-necked ducks, four buffleheads and three ruddy ducks on the ponds, a singing Hutton's vireo at two places at the Point, and a singing purple finch near where the trail first approaches Middle Slough.
On Sunday I ran this month's Lost Slough bird survey. If one arrived no earlier than sunrise, the opportunity to witness the fly-out of the still-numerous geese and pair of sandhill cranes was missed. The best find of the morning was a least bittern, my first at the preserve in several years. A fair showing of shorebirds included two black-bellied plovers and a lesser yellowlegs. I also saw a pair of blue-winged teal, only four northern pintail, one common goldeneye, one American white pelican, two Caspian terns, and one Hutton's vireo. But aside from western kingbirds and Bullock's orioles, which have been back for about two weeks, I saw none of the early returning Neotropical migrant songbirds.
