Date: 12/31/25 11:39 am From: Fred Werner via groups.io <sustainablefred...> Subject: [centralvalleybirds] CV-wide updates?
Happy New Year everyone! Is there a blog or website (or a person?) that can give a broad sense of where in the valley the biggest waterfowl flocks are at any given time, or how the birding is at various hotspots relative to what it's typically like (or can be at its best) at this time of year? Or how would you recommend someone visiting the Central Valley decides which of the many rich birding areas is their best bet on any particular day?
Each year, we make a few trips into the valley to see the wintering cranes and waterbirds. And every year, it's a bit of a struggle to get good info on current conditions that could help us decide which route to take. Should we head north to Sacramento NWR or Gray's Lodge? Or south to San Luis or Merced? Or stay in the Delta, maybe Cosumnes, Woodbridge Rd., Staten Island? Or explore other places?I've often posed the question here, and typically have gotten helpful responses though of course it's never truly comprehensive.
eBird does have tons of data, and it's easy to map hotspots by species #, and high-numbers of a given species. For each hotspot, it also shows recent lists or the lack thereof (which leaves the question of whether there's few birds there or it just hasn't been birded recently for other reasons). It seems like someone could use that data to support a broad overview. But sifting through it on your own is time-consuming and unreliable, it didn't pan out so well for us yesterday.
Yesterday, we started at the Beckwith Rd. Observation Platform, which is usually fantastic, and someone had reported 3,000 Snow Geese there on eBird the day before. When we got there, it was quite dry, and there were no waterbirds, it didn't seem like those fields had been flooded anytime recently. We did however find some flocks visible far south of the road, ~1/2 a mile east of there.
Then we went to the San Luis NWR, which has also been great on previous visits, and had some intriguing birds reported that morning. Yes, we found dozens of species, and the massive murmurations of Brewer's Blackbirds and starlings were truly astonishing. And I shouldn't complain about dipping on a Short-eared Owl or Virgina Rail. But it just seemed really quiet overall. Refuge staff said their numbers are way down this year, and their typical big flocks of waterfowl haven't arrived yet, they don't know why. This is the kind of info that would've been useful to know beforehand.
Of course there's never any guarantees in birding, and the quest to see what we can find is a big part of the fun. It just would be helpful if there was some way to find current info on conditions and overall bird pop.s at various locations, to help us choose where to go on the limited days we have to explore the valley, and experience the astounding wildlife spectacle that we're graced with each winter.
