Date: 6/18/25 5:37 pm From: Glennah Trochet via groups.io <trochetj...> Subject: [centralvalleybirds] recent birds at the Cosumnes River Preserve; variant bird survey this Saturday
Dear Birders,
So far as I know, several of the scarce, less than annual breeders are absent at CRP this season: western flycatcher, Oregon junco, and orange-crowned warbler have so far evaded my detection. Yellow warblers have made a pretty good showing, with 3-4 pairs near the Accidental Forest and up to 7 males in the western Bottoms. At least one nest at the former spot has been successful in fledging warblers and not cowbirds. I'm not sure when, but the bald eagle youngster has fledged from the nest on the east side of the Tall Forest.
On Sunday, I visited the McCormack-Williamson Tract for the first time in two years. As Andy Engilis and Jason Riggio told me, a lot has changed in the perimeter levee system (I covered all of it) and in the vegetation. There's a permanent breach in the levee at the south end, near Wimpy's, and two other low water crossings. There's now permanent water in much of the interior that ebbs and flows with the tides. Tidal marsh has grown up impressively. An interior levee protecting KCRA's broadcast antenna is growing up to good-looking mixed riparian, including California sycamore. Taking the bad with the good, a nice stretch of cottonwood-willow on the west side is now permanently inundated, and the trees are mostly dead. Habitat for breeding Savannah sparrows and horned larks is gone. I didn't find any birds of great note, but the osprey nest in the north looked to be active still, and the one in the south might be as well. That seems late to me. Afterwards I headed to the Tall Forest, where I found a male summer tanager along Wood Duck Slough. It was still there this morning. Vocal output has been uneven, great on Sunday, poor on Monday and middling today.
On Monday a bobcat sprang into view near the Accidental Forest. I spent 50-60 minutes watching adults tending to fledglings of a bunch of avian species: song sparrows, tree swallows, house wrens, spotted towhees, black-headed grosbeaks, Bullock's orioles, bushtits, oak titmouses, and yellow warblers mostly. I was basically stationary, slowly wheeling around to take in all the activity. I just happened to be facing in the right direction when a bobcat leaped some 6-7 feet into the air attempting to snag a song sparrow youngster perched in a willow tree about 35 feet away. I think all the young sparrows were safely away when the cat descended to the ground. I'm quite sure that I was seen during that descent, for the cat landed very low to the ground and quickly scuttled away, its course betrayed by rather minimal shuddering of the vegetation it moved through. I would have thought that I should have been scented, but I had on loads of DEET. That has concealed me in the past from lots of different mammals.
On Saturday 21 June the next Tall Forest bird survey will take place. It will be somewhat abbreviated because of a scheduling conflict. Kathy Schick is running the annual butterfly count at the preserve, and I try to do that every year, too. Butterflies were my first love in natural history, and they can still drive me to distraction. So the plan is to cover the bird survey route as well as we can but be done by 10AM or 10:30, then switch to the butterfly survey route. Bird survey participants not wishing to stay out until 2PM or later can be let out the Farm Center gate before I devote my attention to leps. But if you'd like to do both, you'd be welcome to do so. If you have a net and a butterfly field guide, bring those as well as your binoculars. There are still a few spots open for these surveys. If interested, please reply to this e-mail and I will let you know where to meet and the departure time, etc.
