Editor’s Note

The Yellowbill is published monthly except in June, July and August. It is edited by Robert Snow (rsnow@fresnoaudubon.org) except for the Member Photos section, which is edited by Clayton Dahlen (dahlenmc@yahoo.com).

President’s Message

Greetings, FAS members and friends. I hope this message finds you well. Happy autumn to all of you! I hope that you are all able to get out and enjoy some wonderful fall birding, whether you’re here in the San Joaquin Valley or somewhere farther away.

FAS would like to extend a sincere thanks to all who signed up to become members of FAS during the 2022-2023 membership drive. Your support means a lot to us and helps keep us afloat as an organization. If you have not yet joined for the year, it’s not too late! You can still join or renew your membership, but those joining after September 30 are ineligible for the drawing. We will announce the winner of the drawing for a copy of David Sibley’s latest book What It’s Like to be a Bird during the next general meeting on Tuesday, October 11.

Our September field trips were a big success! We enjoyed outings to Grant Grove, Wildwood Native Park, and Jensen River Ranch. Many thanks to all who participated!

We have some exciting outings scheduled for the month of October as well which are listed below:

• Sunday, October 9-Introduction to Birding Class with the Sierra Foothill Conservancy at McKenzie Table Mountain Preserve
• Wednesday, October 12-Madera Wastewater Treatment Plant
• Saturday, October 15-Dry Creek Park and Cottonwood Park at Clovis Botanical Gardens
• Wednesday, October 26-Lost Lake

Anyone interested in these and other upcoming events can check out the FAS event calendar for more information and links to registration: https://fresnoaudubon.org/event-calendar/.

Now that the weather is cooler, we are resuming Introduction to Birding classes and hikes out at the River Center. The first class is scheduled for Saturday, October 15 from 9:00 AM through 12:00 PM. This class will be held on the third Saturday of each month through May. The course will include a brief lecture portion followed by a guided hike around the River Center. Children are welcome!

We would like to remind everyone of the current requirements for attending FAS in-person field trips and classes.  We are no longer requiring that participants be fully vaccinated. Masks are now optional for all FAS outdoor events. We still require that participants must not be exhibiting any symptoms of Covid-19. Registration is still REQUIRED for all in-person field trips, and participants must register individually. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation.

We would like to thank those who attended the September 13 general meeting. Ornithologist John Sterling talked to us about his tour adventures in Morocco. If you missed John’s talk and would like to view it, you can find it and other general meeting presentations on our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/FresnoAudubon.

The next FAS general meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, October 11.  Avid birder, educator, and author Larry Parmeter will be talking to us about how birds taught humanity how to fly. Here is the link to registration: https://conta.cc/3S1vapg.

To end this message, I’d like to share some photos I took recently of a non-breeding Spotted Sandpiper. Note the pale, un-streaked breast, the warm brown backside with delicate streaking, the longish beak, yellowish legs, pale eye-line, and the pale ‘finger’ beneath the brown patches on either side of the breast.  Enjoy!

Membership

Thank you to all of you who generously support Fresno Audubon by paying annual membership dues. Your support makes it possible for FAS to host outstanding speakers on our Zoom General Meetings, maintain our website, conduct guided field trips, teach introductory birding classes, maintain the bird feeding station at the River Center, conduct multiple bird surveys, and advocate for regional and local bird-related issues. To learn more about our work, download our 2020 Annual Report.

October General Meeting

Speaker Bio

Larry was born in San Francisco, but raised in St. Louis, Missouri. After graduating from Centenary College of Louisiana, he returned to California, attending graduate school at Long Beach State and becoming a teacher of high school English and History, which he did for 35 years before leaving the classroom in 2015. Today, he teaches for the Osher Adult Continuing Education program at Fresno State and works with elementary school children in the environmental education program at the San Joaquin River Center. He has been with Fresno Audubon for over 30 years, is a past president, past board member, and past and current field trip leader. He has had a lifelong interest in astronomy and the space program and has been editor of the Central Valley Astronomers newsletter for over 20 years. He writes and publishes poems, short stories, and commentaries; he published his first novel in 2017 and just published his second novel on his internet website.

Program Description

His talk, How the Birds taught Humanity to Fly, reflects his longstanding interest in flight and the connections between humans and the natural world.

To receive the Zoom link for the meeting, please register here.

General Meeting Speaker Schedule

Following is the schedule for future speakers. This schedule is subject to change due to cancelations. Check the FAS events calendar for the latest information: https://fresnoaudubon.org/events.

FAS Fall Potluck

Saturday, November 5, 2022

Sumner Peck Ranch

14439 W. Friant Road

11:30 am – 3:30 pm

Introduction to Birding Classes at the River Center

October Field Trips

FIELD TRIP GUIDELINES DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ⏤ Fresno Audubon Society is offering field trips during the now-endemic COVID-19, subject to the following rules. With the continuing risks of exposure and potential illness,  everyone must determine their own level of risk aversion. The CDC has recommended that masks should be optional when outdoors. It has been shown that a well-fitting N95 mask protects the wearer for several hours from an infectious dose of virus, so anyone concerned about exposure can choose to wear a mask near others if they feel at risk. Following are our current guidelines for our field trips.

1. Participants must pre-register individually using the FAS event registration system.
2. Participants must self-screen their own temperature before the outing and must not attend if they are feverish.
3. Participants must consent to Fresno Audubon Society’s Liability Waiver by pre-registering.
4. Social distancing is encouraged.
5. Masks are not required, but participants are encouraged to wear a mask whenever they feel the need.
6. Some field trips meet up at a central point before traveling to the field trip location. Participants may form their own car pools at these meetup points.
   
7. Participants must contact their trip leader should they test positive for COVID-19 within three days following the outing so that we can notify others who attended the trip.

Wednesday 12 October 2022 ⏤ Madera WTP with ROBERT SNOW

The group will meet at the MacDonald’s parking lot in the Marketplace at El Paseo (6741 N Riverside Dr, Fresno, CA 93722, see map below) at 7:45 am for an 8:00 am departure to the WTP. Secondary meeting point is at the facility, 13048 Rd 21 1/2, Madera, CA 93637. at 8:30 am. See maps below.

With migration beginning we expect to see plenty of shorebirds and other migrants and perhaps Peregrine Falcons.

Checklist: ID, binoculars, bird guide, water, sun protection and lunch. 

Saturday 15 October 2022 ⏤ Clovis Botanical Gardens: Dry Creek Park and Cottonwood Park Field Trips with Susan Heidebrecht

The Fresno Audubon Society will be hosting a Bird Walk on Saturday October 15, 2022 during the Fall Plant Sale at the Clovis Botanical Gardens. The walk will include the Botanical Gardens, Dry Creek Park as well as Cottonwood Park and ponding basin.

The walk will be about 1-1/2 hours and will be led by Susan Heidebrecht.

We expect to see a good variety of birds including warblers, bushtits, raptors and waterfowl.

You can also check out the Fall Plant Sale at the Botanical Gardens after the walk.

We will meet for the walk at the Audubon table by the entrance to the Botanical Gardens.

Participants should bring snacks, lunch (if desired), water, hat, sunscreen, and binoculars, and should dress in layers. 

Registration is required for the Bird Walk.

Register Here

Contact Info:

Susan Heidebrecht sunheidebrecht@comcast.net (559) 313-1776

Wednesday 26 October 2022 ⏤ Lost Lake: Introduction to Birding with eBird with George Folsom

Join trip leader George Folsom at Lost Lake for Introduction to Birding with eBird.  If you are interested in joining eBird and learning how to use it, you can download eBird from the App Store before the trip.  We will go through the basics of creating, entering species and posting a list.  

Lost Lake possible species include phainopepla, western bluebird, spotted towhee, lark sparrow, spotted sandpiper, osprey, bald eagle, kingfisher, red breasted sapsucker, herons, egrets and many more. 

There is a $5.00 fee to enter the Park so you may want to carpool and share the fee. 

The meeting location for those who want to carpool is the River Center at 11605 Old Friant Rd, Fresno Ca 93703 at 7:45 AM. 

We will meet in L.L. Park at the Audubon Trailhead at the south (downstream) end of the park at 8:00 AM. 

The walking will be easy and flat. Bring water, sunscreen, hat, snacks, lunch (optional), binoculars and bird guides, and dress in layers.  Registration is required for this event.

Register Here

If you have any questions, please reach out to trip leader George Folsom (559) 351-7192 (voice or text).

Field Trip Schedule

This schedule is subject to change due to cancelations. Check the FAS events calendar for the latest information: https://fresnoaudubon.org/events.

September field trip reports

Fresno-Madera Birds

by Jeff Davis
Including reports for the period of
August 16 to September 15, 2022

Rare shorebirds at the Fresno WTP included a single Marbled Godwit September 2 (ph. GW), plus two on September 12 (ph. GW, ph. GF) and September 14 (RS), a Sanderling August 17 (ph. GW), another September 12 (ph. GW, ph. GF), and a Semipalmated Sandpiper August 29 (ph. GF).

Three Common Terns, our first since 2019, were at the Fresno WTP September 12 (ph. GW, ph. GF).

A Zone-tailed Hawk at Norris Trailhead August 24 (ph. GF, GW) provided the first record for Madera County.

The fourth Bank Swallow reported this season was at the Fresno WTP August 29 (ph. GF).

Three Pinyon Jays recorded near the Twin Lake Trailhead on Kaiser Pass Rd September 15 (EE) established the first record for Fresno County.

Establishing another Fresno County first, and evidently just the second for the Central Valley, a Prothonotary Warbler delighted many birders at Woodward Park September 4 (RC, ph. GW, ph. JS, et al.) through September 7 (ph. m.ob.).

Fresno County’s seventh American Redstart was spotted in Auberry August 31 (KB).

Cited Observers: Keith Bailey, Rachel Clark, Elias Elias, George Folsom, Rick Saxton, Jeff Seay, Gary Woods.  ph. = photographed by.  m.ob. = many observers. WTP = Wastewater Treatment Plant.

If you make an interesting observation, we’d love to hear about it. We are especially interested in birds listed as casual or rare on the Fresno Audubon checklist and those found out of season, out of normal habitat, or in unusually large numbers. Please submit reports to eBird, the Fresno County Birders e-mail list, or Jeff Davis (jndavis@ucsc.edu).

Member Photographs

Please send your photos in jpeg format with a width of 1024 pixels and a resolution of 72 pixels/inch to dahlenmc@yahoo.com with how you want the photo credit to read. Birds may be from anywhere. Limited space may restrict publication to a later issue. We will also showcase your photos on our social media.

Larry Cusick

Clayton Dahlen

George Folsom

Robert Lutz

Birds in the News

Links to Recent Articles on Birds

Hooded Pitohui – The World’s First Scientifically-Confirmed Poisonous Bird

Wikipedia reports that in the same year that Jack Dumbacher made his serendipitous discovery, scientists preparing the carcasses of hooded pitohuis for museum exhibitions experienced numbness and burning when handling them. However, most sources credit Dumbacher for discovering the poisonous nature of the bird. He asked the natives of New Guinea about the pitohui and they all seemed to know about its toxicity. They called it “garbage bird”, as it gave a foul odor when cooked, and was only consumed as a last resort, when no other food source was available.

 Read more…

How Swainson’s Hawks target bat prey in a swarm

A new study published in Nature Communications shows how hunting Swainson’s Hawks solve the problem of intercepting a single bat within a dense swarm. The findings increase our understanding of how predators select and track a target among thousands of potential prey.

 Read more…

Scientists Discover Bird Species at Tip of South America

Weighing just 0.035 pounds (16 grams), it’s understandable why the Subantarctic rayadito has only just been discovered. Scientists recently discovered the species on the Diego Ramírez Islands, off the southern tip of South America. The species is small with brown, black, and dark yellow feathers. But one of its most interesting features is the bird’s beak, which is large for the bird’s size despite the species being found in a grassy area without trees.

Read more…

Why Birds Changed Their Tune During the Pandemic

IN THE SPRING OF 2020, as eight million residents of the Bay Area hunkered down at home hoarding toilet paper and dried beans, the natural world sprang to life. By night, San Francisco’s darkened, deserted streets echoed with the howl of coyotes. By day, they filled with the song of birds. It wasn’t just that the pandemic-induced pause in activity made it easier to hear urban wildlife. Some animals adapted almost instantaneously to exploit soundscapes vacated by traffic and construction. In the unnatural quiet of the Bay Area, amid noise levels that hadn’t been heard since 1954, white-crowned sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys) changed their tune.

Read more…

Scientists Are Using These High-Tech Tools to Study Bird Migration

Although it still feels like beach weather across much of North America, billions of birds have started taking wing for one of nature’s great spectacles: fall migration. Birds fly south from the northern U.S. and Canada to wintering grounds in the southern U.S., Caribbean and Latin America, sometimes covering thousands of miles. Other birds leave temperate Eurasia for Africa, tropical Asia or Australia.

Read more…

Drumming woodpeckers use similar brain regions as songbirds

Artist Adds Exquisite Bird Paintings To Vintage Book Pages That Describe Them

Vintage book pages merge with realistic renditions of birds in the art of Craig Williams. The Australia-based painter sources these unconventional canvases to create intentional juxtapositions between his art and printed text. This thoughtful combination results in pairings that appear to have been made for each other. Williams brings his background in zoology and experience working in museums and wildlife parks into his creative practice. Each of the bird portraits is done with faithful accuracy to the species. In many instances, the choice of bird relates to the book page that it is painted on. “The use of vintage book pages as the substrate brings an underlying story to the piece through the history of the books themselves which is often evident in the imperfect nature of the paper with blemishes, marks, creases, and wear,” he tells My Modern Met.

Read more…

Birdlife International’s State of The World’s Birds

Birds are better known and more widely studied than any other group of animals. They are popular and engaging, can be found in all countries, are generally easy to detect, identify and count, and their populations react to changes in the environment. This makes them excellent “ecological indicators”—by collating and analysing bird data, we not only understand their condition, but are also afforded an unparalleled insight into the health of the natural world as a whole. In effect, birds enable us to “take the pulse of the planet”.

Read more…