The Valley Habitat

February 2013
A Joint Publication of the Stanislaus Audubon Society and the Yokuts Group of the Sierra Club

February 15th, 2013 Yokuts Program: Member Slide Show

Join us for the always popular Member Slide Show as glorious scenes of summer hikes warms us in the depth of winter. Bring your slides on a disc or thumb-drive and share your outing and wilderness adventures. For more information, contact Alexandra Hoffmann, program chair, (415) 755-3092, or Anita Young, Yokuts chair, (209) 985-9680. Friday, February 15, 2013 at the Fellowship Hall of the College Ave. Church, 1341 College Ave. (at Orangeburg) in Modesto. Refreshments and socializing begin at 6:45 p.m. The program starts at 7 p.m. It is free and open to the public. A Wildlife Refuge of Genuine Consequence by Brad Barker, Conservation Chair Friday, February 1st, is the last day to submit comments on the proposed expansion of the San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge -- just a 15 minute drive from downtown Modesto. Read more at http:// go.usa.gov/YMWY. And then your comments, even brief ones, can be submitted to Richard Smith of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service at fw8plancomments@fws.gov . Considering the spectacular possibilities for restored habitat and increased wildlife viewing, the expansion is a nobrainer for nature-lovers and would bring many benefits to our region. Here's the "official" Yokuts Group comment on the proposal: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Pacific Southwest Region, Refuge Planning, Attention: Richard Smith Dear Mr. Smith, On behalf of the management team of the Yokuts Group of the Sierra Club, I am writing to express our strong support for the proposed expansion of the San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge. Please consider this letter as an official comment in the decision process. Our Sierra Club group has over 800 members here in Stanislaus County. And this proposal is exactly what we've been waiting for. The proposal is just what our region needs to restore a fraction of the lost natural habitat of the San Joaquin Valley, and to establish a wildlife refuge of genuine consequence. The Sierra Club's founder John Muir wrote about this valley as it was in the 19th century in "The Bee Pastures" from The Mountains of California. Every spring, "the Great Central Plain of California...was one smooth, continuous bed of honey-bloom, so marvelously rich that in walking from one end of it to the other...your foot would press about a hundred flowers at every step...The radiant, honeyful corollas, touching and overlapping, and rising above one another, glowed in the living light like a sunset sky -- one sheet of purple and gold." (continued on page 6) Valley Habitat 1

Stanislaus Audubon Society

RECENT SIGHTINGS OF RARE OR UNCOMMON BIRDS
MERCED COUNTY: On December 18, Kent van Vuren had a FRANKLINS GULL on Gun Club Road. A SWAMP SPARROW was seen by birders at San Luis N.W.R. during the Merced N.W.R. Christmas Bird Count on January 2. On January 4, Jon Dunn and Steve Summers had a male EURASIAN WIGEON at Santa Fe Grade Road. STANISLAUS COUNTY: John Harris had a female CASSINS FINCH at his home feeder, four miles east of Oakdale, on December 22. During the Caswell-Westley Christmas Bird Count on December 30, Eric Caine found an EASTERN PHOEBE, and shortly afterwards found a first-year female VERMILION FLYCATCHER at the same location. Amazingly, these two vagrant birds were perched for a while on the same tree limb! Jon Dunn and Steve Summers found a first-year male RED-BREASTED MERGANSER at Woodward Reservoir on January 14. The sightings of these four birds are currently under review by the Stanislaus Bird Records Committee.

Vermilion Flycatcher Jim Gain

Eastern Phoebe Jim Gain

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR ALL AUDUBON MEMBERS

EARLY BIRDERS CLASS, WINTER 2013

Many nonprofit organizations are choosing the green alternative by going wholly or partially paperless. Stanislaus Audubon Society, like its Yokuts printing partner, wants to reduce paper, as well as printing and postage costs, for the Valley Habitat. S.A.S. is now offering the option of Valley Habitat online.

Salvatore Salerno is offering another Early Birders class through the M.J.C. Community Education Department. This course is designed for the beginning or intermediate birdwatcher in the identification and appreciation of wild birds. The class meets on Thursday, February 7, If you want to receive this newsletter electronically, 2013. The field trips are to Merced NWR on Saturthen send an email to phalarope@sbcglobal.net with day, February 9, and to San Luis NWR on Saturday, Online Newsletter in the subject line. Put your memFebruary 16. The class is listed in the mjc4life catalog. bership name in the body of the text. If you still want to have Those interested can register online at the newsletter sent in the mail, no further action is needed. We www.mjc4life.org. hope that many of the 540 members of our local chapter will decide to read and print their newsletter online, where our bird and birder photographs are displayed in beautiful color.

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Stanislaus Audubon Society

WHOSE BIRDS ARE THOSE, ANYWAY?
Humans parcel the earth into cities, provinces, and nations, but wild birds travel and live anywhere, heedless of local or national boundaries. They are fixed to habitats by instinct, thriving wherever they can, across state and national borders, even from one continent to the next. For birds that migrate in the New World, whether to call them North, Central, or South American birds depends on how home is defined. We know what our homes are sanctuaries where we may live in comfort with our family, pets, and perhaps yards or gardens. That definition, however, becomes trickier when applied to wild animals. We may have built the most permanent structures on Earth, but only wildlife and especially migratory birdscan truly earn the title of world citizens. Of course, there are many bird families that dont migrate in the classic sense, but are mostly sedentary species. (I must use qualifiers, since some species dont conform to the life histories of the others in their families.) Sedentary birds engage in post-breeding dispersal and may change altitudes seasonally, but they dont perform mass movements over long distances. Among those birds are quail and grouse, pigeons and doves, corvids and chickadees, American Dipper and Wrentit. This also holds true for most owls, most rails, some wrens, some sparrows, and most thrashers. The true world citizens are the 200 or so species of birds, at least a few in most families, called Neotropical migrants. These birds live for up to six months in their breeding ranges in North America, but then they migrate to Central or South America, or the Caribbean islands, in the winter. The demarcation that determines whether
by Salvatore Salerno

a species is considered Neotropical is the Tropic of Cancer, which runs across Mexico at 23 N. latitude. About 60% of our resident birds in the U.S. are Neotropical migrants, flying north in the spring, breeding in the summer, and returning south in the fall. These are the bird families that delight us by providing so much color and song to our environments warblers and hummingbirds, swallows and swifts, tanagers and orioles, flycatchers and vireos, grosbeaks and buntings.

from a foreign land? Exactly where is this birds home? The simple answer would seem, A birds home is where it builds a nest and raises young. In most cases, however, those tasks do not comprise the majority of a birds life cycle. Once the young have fledged, many birds abandon that area and roam over wider territory once more. Parenting is a cyclical condition, not a permanent one. A substitute answer might be, A birds home is where it spends the most time. In the case of many Neotropical migrants, that might be at their wintering quarters. But what about all of the staging areas that migratory birds use during the year? How much time birds spend on those beaches, in those forests and plains, varies according to human obstacles, the vagaries of weather, and even the amount of fat they have stored. Migrants may live in staging areas, their bedrooms and dining rooms, for weeks or even months yearly. Conservationists understand that migratory birds belong to both continents. The Prothonotary Warbler breeds in North American wooded swamps and river bottom forests, and projects are underway to preserve those habitats. Our counterparts in Costa Rica and three other countries in South America are doing what they can to preserve the vanishing mangrove forests, where this warbler winters for seven months yearly. Whose birds are they? Thats a trick question, for in an ecological sense, they are neither ours nor theirs. Its a seamless world, after all. Wild birds belong wherever they happen to be, and wherever we roam, we are always traveling through the

PROTHONOTARY WARBLER

Tom Grey

Other bird families, called Nearctic migrants, have more extensive ranges. Many shorebirds fly from one end of the Americas to the other. Red Knots and White-rumped Sandpipers, for example, nest in the tundra of northern Canada, and they winter in Tierra del Fuego, flying more than 10,000 miles. The Arctic Tern is the champion of such a cycle, since it circumnavigates from the Arctic to the Antarctic, a distance of 22,000 miles, every year. Those migratory patterns present an intriguing question. When North American birders see a Prothonotary Warbler, are they beholding a resident native or an exotic visitor

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Stanislaus Audubon Society

Audubon Field Trips
February 16 and March 17. San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge is huge and offers the most diverse habitats in the area, including mixed species transitional savannahs, riparian forest, oak woodlands, grassland, and seasonal wetland. Trip leader chooses the particular habitats to visit each month based on conditions and season. Meet at the Stanislaus Library parking lot at 1500 I Street. at 7:00 a.m. We'll be back early afternoon. February 23. Merced National Wildlife Refuge. For all-around birding (water birds, shorebirds, perching birds, raptors) this may be the best place to bird near Modesto and it will be in high season. Meet at 7:00 a.m. at the Stanislaus Library parking lot at 1500 I Street. Trip leader, Bill Amundsen, 521-8256, birdscouter@prodigy.net). We'll be back mid afternoon. March 9. San Luis National Wildlife Refuge and Santa Fe Grade Road. These two birding jewels near Los Banos offer wetlands and grasslands habitats that can be expected to be rich in their respective birds this time of the year. Trip leader, Dave Froba, 209-521-7265, froba@comcast.net. Meet at the Stanislaus Library parking lot at 1500 I Street. at 7:00 a.m. We'll be back mid afternoon.
STANISLAUS AUDUBON SOCIETY RECEIVES GRANT

Audubon Field Trip Email List

If you would like to be on a group email to advise you of all Audubon field trips, please email: Dave Froba at froba@comcast.net

Stanislaus Audubon Society

Board of Directors: Bill Amundsen, Ralph Baker, Eric Caine, Lori Franzman, Jody Hallstrom, David Froba, Jim Gain, Daniel Gilman, John Harris, Harold Reeve, Salvatore Salerno. Officers & Committee Chairs President: Sal Salerno 985-1232 (bees2@sbcglobal.net)

Vice President: Eric Caine 968-1302 (ericcaine@sbcglobal.net) Treasurer: David Froba Secretary: John Harris Membership: Revolving San Joaquin River Refuge Field Trips: Bill Amundsen 521-8256 (birdscouter@prodigy.net) Other Field Trips: David Froba 521-7265 (froba@comcast.net) Christmas Bird Counts Coordinator; Secretary, Stanislaus Bird Records Committee: Harold Reeve 538-0885 How To Join Audubon: To become a member of National Audubon Society, which entitles you to receive Valley Habitat and Audubon Magazine, send your check for $20.00 to: National Audubon Society Membership Data Center P.O. Box 422250 Palm Coast, FL 32142 If you are a current member, please check the expiration date on the mailing label, so that you may rejoin in time to continue receiving our publications. Visit our website: www.stanislausbirds.org 521-7265 (froba@comcast.net) 848-1518 (johnh@mills.edu)

The board members of Stanislaus Audubon Society have been participating in Audubon Californias Im for the River campaign since June of 2012. They were able to collect 897 communications during that time, more than any other participating chapter. At the recent general meeting, Meghan Hertel of Audubon California awarded S.A.S. the final payment of the grant, for a total of $1,700.

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Yokuts Group of the Sierra Club

Saturday, February 2nd Day hike, (2B) Toro County Park
Request for Assistance- Frogs in the City Do you have or know of an urban or suburban pond or waterway that has Toro Park, in Monterey County had west of Salinas, is a prime location amphibian activity (i.e. frogs, toads, for a mid-winter hike rolling hills, mixture of open fields, oak salamanders)? Graduate student from woods, and various shrubs. The California State University, Stanislaus hike will be loop of approximately needs tips and permissions to 9-10 miles and 1,200 ft. elevation access urban and natural ponds and gain. For further information, inwaterways for thesis project that will cluding the meet-up time and place, be looking at breeding success of amplease contact Yokuts trip leader phibians across Stanislaus and San Randall Brown at 209 632-5994 Joaquin Counties. Examples of ponds and waterways needed (may be permaFebruary 10, Sunday nent Sierra Club Day Hike (1A) or seasonal): backyard/frontyard, golf courses, cattle ponds, stormwater Snowshoe trip at Crane Flat, ponds, parks, businesses, apartments, Yosemite National Park. etc. Project set to start spring Long-eared Owl Snowshoe from parking area to the 2013. Even if you have a pond with no Jim Gain Crane Ridge lookout and helicopter known amphibian presence, please base, an easy 400 feet climb in 2 An owl species called a Long-eared contact: Felicia De La Torre at e-mail: miles. Lunch at the lookout, and Owl has been making local appear- fdelatorre@csustan.edu or phone: then return to trailhead. Adverse ances lately in a lot of urban com- (209) 324-5532 weather conditions will cancel. munities. Jim Gain saw this one in Felicia De La Torre Details and reservations required from Stockton November 27, 2012, at Graduate Student leader, Frank, phone 209-962-7585, the Rural Cemetery. M.S. Ecology and Sustainability email: frank oyung@sbcglobal.net. California State University, Stanislaus

Sierra Club Calendars

Sierra Club Calendars will be for sale at meetings. There are two choices, Wilderness Wall Calendar, $14, and Engagement Calendar, $15. Calendars may be purchased by mailing an order to: Sierra Club Calendars, P O Box 855, Modesto CA 95353, or by phoning Doug at 209-524-6651. These calendars make great gifts and are always appreciated the first of the year. This is a great fund raiser for the Yokuts.

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Yokuts Group of the Sierra Club

(Wildlife Refuge, continued from page 1) Thank you for considering our comments. --Brad Barker, Conservation Chair, Yokuts Group of the Sierra Club Those flower fields that Muir saw are mostly gone. And, the riparian forests and wetlands -- they're mostly gone too. We've dammed, diked, drained and diverted too much water. The herds of tule elk are gone, and the pronghorn. Hundreds of thousands of salmon migrating up our rivers are mostly gone, and the eagles that fed on them are rarely seen. The lowland bears that became the symbol of our state, the California grizzlies, they're gone forever. Very little of the natural land of our valley remains today. So much of our natural heritage has been lost that when the chance comes to acquire and restore riparian land for future generations, we must act decisively. Valley residents are greatly under-served in terms of educational and recreational opportunities on natural lands. California residents who live in coastal regions, mountain regions, and desert regions have many different ways to access natural lands and to explore the natural history of the places they live. But, because our San Joaquin Valley landscape has been so drastically altered for agricultural and urban uses, valley residents are sadly disconnected from the rich, natural world that once existed here. This expansion would help to mitigate some of that imbalance. We feel that the increased recreational and educational opportunities resulting from the expansion would generate new tourist dollars for our area, and this new revenue would more than offset the rather slight loss of farmland. We have heard no compelling arguments against the proposed expansion. The Yokuts Group of the Sierra Club strongly encourages the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to proceed with plans to expand the San Joaquin National Wildlife Refuge, and to do so without delay. And we ask other organizations and public agencies to support you in this very worthy goal.

Vernal Pools Trip

Here's an invitation to see some flowers and vernal pools. The Great Valley Museum has organized a FIELD TRIP TO JEPSON PRAIRIE. This is Saturday March 30 7:30 am to 4 pm. A docent will lead as the group explores the clay-pan vernal pools and native bunch grass prairie. Cost: $20 Great Valley Museum members and $25 non members. Call ( 575-6196) or come into the museum, 1100 Stoddard Ave, Modesto, CA, to register.

Valley Habitat in an electronic format We are making slow progress towards offering the Valley Habitat in an electronic format. Please bear with us as we give members the opportunity to "optin" to receive monthly links to our beautiful color version of the Habitat online at our website. Send an e-mail to this address to opt-in: Listserv@lists.sierraclub.org. In the body of the message type SUBSCRIBE MOTHERLODEYOKUTS-NEWS first name last name. For a look at our website use the following link: http://motherlode.sierraclub.org/yokuts/Yokuts/ Home.html

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Yokuts Group of the Sierra Club

Sierra Club Membership Enrollment Form
Yes, I want to be a member of the Sierra Club! Yes, I want to give a gift membership! ______________________________________________________________________

Yokuts Sierra Club joins Meetup

The Yokuts Sierra Club group, along with the Delta Sierra and Tuolumne Groups have formed a StocktonModesto-Sonora Meetup group that includes Sierra Club outings and events. Its easy and free to join this Meetup, just go to the link below and sign up. Its not necessary to be a Sierra Club member to join. Once you sign up, you will automatically be sent announcements of new and upcoming Meetup events. Join the fun and get active in the Sierra Club. http://www.meetup.com/StocktonModesto-Sonora-Sierra-Club/

NEW MEMBER NAME(S)

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TELEPHONE (optional)

EMAIL (optional) Chair

From time to time, we make our mailing list available to other worthy organizations. If you prefer your name not be included, please check here.

Yokuts Group of the Sierra Club Management Committee

Anita Young 529-2300 (ayyoungbooks2@gmail.com) Steve Tomlinson (Steve.tomlinson97@gmail.com) Maryann Hight (mhight@csustan.edu) 417-9114

MEMBERSHIP CATEGORIES (check one) INDIVIDUAL JOINT

Special offer $15 Regular $39 Supporting $75 Contributing $150 Life $1000 Senior $25 Student $25 Limited Income $25 $49 $100 $175 $1250 $35 $35 $35

Link to the Yokuts website

Treasurer Secretary Programs

Yokuts Group F94QN09051 Conservation Membership Hospitality

Alexandra Hoffmann (415) 755-3092 (ahoffmann216@gmail.com) Brad Barker 526-5281 (braddbarker@gmail.com) Kathy Clarke 575-2174 (kathyclarke@prodigy.net) Candy Klaschus (cklaschus@gmail.com) Dorothy Griggs (dorothygriggs@att.net) Randall Brown (rbrown@csustan.edu) Nancy Jewett (njewett@sbcglobal.net) Kathy Weise (kweise@ssica.com) Milt Trieweiler (magictrain@aol.com) Leonard Choate Jason Tyree (jason.tyree@gmail.com) 632-5473 549-9155 632-5994 664-9422 545-5948 664-1181 524-3659

Contributions, gifts and dues to the Sierra Club are not tax-deductible; they support our effective, citizen-based advocacy and lobbying efforts. Your dues include $7.50 for a subscription to SIERRA magazine and $1 for your Chapter newsletter.

PAYMENT METHOD: (check one) CHECK VISA MASTERCARD AMEX

Publicity Outings Newsletter Mailing Population Fundraising Website

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CARD NUMBER EXPIRATION DATE _____________________________________________________________________ SIGNATURE GIFT MEMBERSHIP: A gift card will be sent for your use. Enter your name and address below and the name and address of the gift recipient above. _____________________________________________________________________ YOUR NAME(S) _____________________________________________________________________ ADDRESS ______________________________________________________________________ CITY STATE ZIP ______________________________________________________________________ TELEPHONE (optional) EMAIL (optional) Enclose payment information and mail to: P.O. Box 421041, Palm Coast, FL 32142-1041

Check out our Website: http://motherlode.sierraclub.org/yokuts To send stories to the Habitat, e-mail: njewett@sbcglobal.net

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Yokuts Group Mother Lode Chapter Sierra Club P.O. Box 855 Modesto, CA 95353

Non-Profit Organization U.S. Postage PAID Modesto, CA Permit No. 139

CURRENT RESIDENT OR

You can bring recyclables to our Sierra Club meetings

These are the things that Raymond Nichols will recycle for you, if you will bring them to the Yokuts monthly programs: (Look for the receptacles. They look like cut-off Gallon Milk Containers.) Household Batteries, including coin-types, CFL's (Compact Fluorescent Bulb's), Old Eyeglasses, Old Cell-Telephones, Magazines, Books. The hazardous things will be dropped off at the Morgan Road Recycle Center, whenever Ray is in that area and they are open, which is only 9AM - 1PM on Fridays and Saturdays. You cannot put these things in the trash. It is I-L-L-E-G-A-L, and by yourself you probably wont use enough to warrant a drive to the Recycle Center. Old Eyeglasses will be given to The Lions Club for distribution to those who need them. Old Cell-Telephones are converted to Telephone Calling Cards for overseas military personnel. Magazines and books are distributed to local area house-bound Veterans, by The American Legion, and also to The Vet Center. When the new Veterans Administration Center opens in early 2013 they will also get some.

The Valley Habitat

http://motherlode.sierraclub.org/yokuts

February 2013
http://stanislausbirds.org/