01 Feb Saturday Walk – San Luis NWR Feb 2025
San Luis NWR
Saturday Feb. 1, 2025
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FAS Release of Liability Form
Registration is required for all participants.
NOTES from trip leader John Fulton
Feb 1, 2025: We will meet at the Visitors’ Center (VC) parking lot on Wolfsen Rd. The VC and office is closed on weekends now; scheduled hours changed recently to exclude weekends, but there are vault toilets that are open so that will be our meeting place. There is the trail and boardwalk right there, for folks to explore, if they arrive early. I am quick to change plans, to adapt to more current information so this will only be a tentative plan. We will scope the elk enclosure from the VC to see if the antlers have started to drop, The biggest racks drop first so on Feb 1st, I think we might see a bull with only one side, having dropped the other. Harems may no longer be defended.
From there we will be listening for Sandhill Cranes as we make our way north, right through the heart of the original San Luis NWR parcel, acquired in about 1967, on Historic Dickenson Ferry Rd. That was about the time the US Army Corps of Engineers (COE) helped build the levee to keep the river off of the flood plain so cows in the wetlands could keep their feet dry. (Only partially kidding). With the help of the COE a Levee District was formed to keep the water off the refuge; the refuge that was established at that same time to put water back onto those same wetlands and the flood plain. The Levee District has a single mission: to defeat the Refuge and keep the refuge dry. After over 50 years, the levee is still there on the refuge and the public is not allowed to drive on it.
So as we drive towards the old ferry landing we will be heading towards the levee, the one that we cannot drive on. We will have to turn right, onto the Waterfowl Tour Route, and get a chance to really appreciate the job that the refuge staff does to manage wetlands despite the COE and the Levee District’s mandated mission.
On the drive northward we will hope for upland grassland species like Meadowlarks and several sparrow species. While rare, this stretch of upland north of the elk enclosure has been where Short-eared Owls, Horned Larks and White-tailed Kites have been seen a few times over the years.
In the Waterfowl Tour Route’s wetlands, interspersed within the uplands, we should see waterfowl—of course, but also Ibis, Cranes, Pied-billed Grebes and waders. As we approach the southern edge of the refuge we will turn left and head east to the Sousa Marsh. If there are swans in the area, and there should be at this time of year in early February, Sousa Marsh is the place to see them. There is a mile hike in riparian forest at the Sousa Marsh and its observation platform. Then it is back to the VC for snacks or a lunch break. Depending upon time and the “will-of-the-people,” we can decide on an afternoon add-on destination. If folks want to, and depending on recent scouting reports, we can visit West Bear Creek, the Forebay, or Merced NWR, or one of the many other birdy spots in the area.
Checklist: binoculars, scope, field guide, snacks, lunch, water, sunscreen, hat, radios
Contact:
Lowell Young
(209) 617-9921
yosemite.birder@gmail.com
Registration is required for all participants.
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