After living in the San Francisco Bay Area for the past 40 years, I moved to Sacramento last summer. There were many adjustments I had to make, not the least of which was no longer having the ocean and bay just 10 minutes from home. But despite now being surrounded by agricultural land, I've found that many of my favorite shorebirds and other avian friends abound here, thanks to the Yolo Wildlife Area.
The Yolo Wildlife Area is a 16,000 acre wetland conservation area that is off I-80 between the cities of Davis and Sacramento. Home to approximately 200 bird species, it's one of the nation's largest public/private restoration projects. It was dedicated in November of 1997 by President Bill Clinton and it's managed by the California Department of Fish & Game. Thanks, Bill!
American Avocets
The Yolo Wildlife Area consists of permanent wetlands, seasonal wetlands, and riparian areas that support a whole host of wildlife. According to the Yolo Basin Foundation, "Permanent wetland habitat provides resting, and feeding habitat for ducks, geese, rails, and songbirds; and foraging habitat for wading birds such as herons, egrets, pelicans and ibis."
Greater Yellowlegs
Pied-billed Grebe
The Foundation also notes that the "seasonal wetlands change with the seasons and are often much more shallow than permanent wetlands. During the rainy months between winter and early spring, these wetlands are flooded. Over the dry months from late spring to late fall the water is drained and the ponds become mud flats. Water control is the key to any successful wetlands management program. These wetlands are vital feeding and resting areas for thousands of migratory waterfowl and shorebirds that have been wintering in the Central Valley for centuries. When the water is drawn down in the spring, the seasonal wetland plant seeds."
Rice is an abundant crop in the wetlands. If you saw the Bird Olympics post I did last Sunday, you saw photos of Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, a Great Blue Heron and dozens of White-faced Ibises lined up between the fields, shown below. As Dawn Chorus regular tgypsy explained, they've lined up along this low berm because the rice crop is now too mature for them to land within it, but they can find food along its edges.
Some weeks before those photos were taken when the rice was being planted, I happened to be out photographing Great Egrets when a rice-planting airplane flew back and forth across the field so close over my head I nearly could touch it. It was a little scary coming right at me. Note the rice seeds dropping in the last photo:
I think the pilot got a kick out of flying so close to my head. And yes, I was pelted with rice seeds.
The riparian area of the Yolo Wildlife Area, again according to the Foundation's source material, "is important for nesting and foraging for many species of birds, including wading birds, passerines (songbirds) and raptors such as the threatened Swainson’s hawk. Riparian corridors form important pathways for migratory birds such as warblers, and other neo-tropical migrant birds which depend upon relatively unbroken lanes of riparian vegetation for food and cover during migration."
Here's a good look at a Swainson's Hawk, which I had never seen before moving to the Sacramento area.
Some more of the frequent species you'll see at the Yolo Bypass include:
Long-billed Dowitchers
Snowy Egret
Great Blue Heron
Wintering ducks of every kind, including Northern Shovelers and Northern Pintails
Black-necked Stilts
Killdeer
Great Egret
White-tailed Kite
Caspian Tern
And I could go on -- Northern Harriers, Red-winged Blackbirds, Wilson's Snipe, Red-tailed Hawks, Black-crowned Night Herons, Yellow-headed Blackbirds, Tree Swallows, American Coots, Western Kingbirds, American Bitterns, Black Phoebes, Marsh Wrens, Western Meadowlarks, and on and on. You get the idea.
So the next time you find yourself on I-80 headed for Sacramento or North Shore or Reno, consider adding in enough time to stop for a visit at the Yolo Wildlife Area. It's very accessible, is open year-round from sunrise to sunset (except Christmas Day) and it has an auto tour loop about 4 miles long.
As much as I miss the Bay Area, I've found that I don't lack seeing most of my favorites birds, thanks to the Yolo Wildlife Area. It's definitely worth a trip.