FOSH and Sacramento Audubon usually offer a field trip to see Swainson's Hawks nests on the last Sunday in June. The trip in 2010 included 23 participants, with lots of support from Audubon leader Mark Martucci, FOSH board member Frank Gray, FOSH Legal Counsel Jim Pachl, and Friends of the River Bank activists Robert and Lyvonne' Sewell and Jane Taylor. We saw Swainson's Hawk chicks at different maturation stages, some wing stretching and a little branching. We also saw a happy sea lion in the American River, kestrels, kites, kingbirds and more. A Swainson's Hawk tried fishing from a rock perch in the American River as we watched from the opposite bank.

FOSH Legal Counsel Jim Pachl briefed birders about the threat to West Sacramento levee habitat from the Army Corp of Engineers. Birders on Sacramento site of the River watched two chicks and an adult on the Yolo side.

Audubon Trip leader Mark Martucci points birders at Sutter Landing Park, a part of the

American River Parkway right in the Central City of Sacramento.

Robert Sewell briefs the group on the natural attributes of the Sutter Landing site where he has been

observing Swainson's Hawk nesting for several years. Robert and friends formed Friends of the River Bank to steward this important inner city nature oasis and educate neighbors about the wildlife.