The Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society Education Committee is sponsoring field trips led by Bob Power. Call 408-252-3740 to register. Visit their web site at www.scvas.org/index.php?page=text&id=class
• on August 2 Sat. field workshop near Davis ($40 nonmember)
• on August 7 in Cupertino, and field trip on August 8, Fri, near Davis ($60 for nonmembers);
• on August 16 Sat. field workshop near Davis ($40)
Audubon Society/FOSH Trip Completed
Sunday, June 29, 8 am
To be notified of next year's trip, join our Yahoo discussion group at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/swainsonshawk/
Trip Report. June 29 at 8 am 16
folks joined Audubon Society leader Mark Matucci and Friends of the Swainson’s
Hawk president Jude Lamare in a visit to three local Swainson’s Hawk nest
sites. Lots of fun and good views of both adults and nestlings.
Our visit to the Port nest showed a failed nest site where adults were
still hanging around. The adults had built a second nest on the south side of
the port entrance and it appeared that the female was spending her time hanging
around there. [See Gallery page for link to pictures.] The old nest site
where we had seen her sitting last was abandoned. It remains incredible
that a pair is nesting here where there is constant traffic and noise, including
the fire station across the street.
On to the O Street nest. One chick in the nest on the West Sac
side of the Sacramento River viewed from the O Street observation area on the
Sacramento side promenade. The chick flapped and jumped and even branched for
us. This nest site also exposed to a lot of firework activity at the River
Cats stadium nearby.
The Sutters Landing/Trestle nest is harder to find, harder to see, but
we got good views of two chicks. It is on the American River Parkway east of
Sutter Landing Park and within site of the train trestle. One is doing very
well, clearly dominant, feeding and flapping, while the sibling sits quietly
nearby. The adult dropped food at the nest and took off. We speculated
that it may be very tough feeding chicks this year with dry conditions.
We are told by biologists that this is a poor year for nesting. During
our scouting of six nest sites, we found only two successful ones.
Hoping for better next year.
Jude Lamare
President
Friends of Swainson's Hawk
915 L Street, C-425
Sacramento, Ca. 95814
916-447-4956
Home