A Scarred and Beaten Ecosystem Persists: The Native Species of the Great Valley

I live in an extraordinary place! In my last post on the Great Valley I was discussing our use and abuse of our most precious resource, one of the richest soils on the planet. Some 95% of the original ecosystem has been manipulated by humans to achieve the highest biomass production possible. Our burgeoning population has to eat after all, and the amount of arable lands is declining worldwide, not expanding. I also posted a number of photographs that intimated what the Great Valley might have looked like prior to 200 or so years ago when European colonists began twisting the landscape to their desires. The valley must have been a fascinating sight in all seasons!

Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum). For more pictures of these beautiful birds, check out my post at Geotripper's California Birds.

Since arriving home after nearly two weeks of extensive travels, I finally had a chance to get out and check my walking routes, around the pasture near my home, and out by the "mini-wilderness" on the west campus of Modesto Junior College. We also stole a moment from our errands today and watched the sun set at the Beckwith unit of the San Joaquin National Wildlife Refuge, which has a viewing platform just eight miles west of town. There had been a lot of changes in the two weeks as a number of migrant species had arrived, including especially the Cedar Waxwings (above).

Nuttall's Woodpecker (Picoides nuttallii), a California endemic species.

Walking through my normal haunts, I was struck once more with a realization about the scarred and embattled ecosystem I live in. There are survivors of the apocalypse still living among us. Like a war zone, there are vast areas of destruction, and little enclaves where the native species still hang on. Sometimes it is in stretches of woodland along rivers where the ground was too uneven to plow. In other instances, the alien invaders happened to plant ornamental trees that produce just enough berries or fruits that the natives can thrive. In a few precious localities, the alien invaders set aside larger environments from abandoned farmlands (partly so they could hunt the natives species, but that's the Faustian bargain that had to be made). In any case, the walks and observations this week for some reason included no Pigeons, Starlings, or House Sparrows, all of whom are opportunistic alien species. The birds I saw were the native species that had found a way to survive in this new alien world. There was a Nuttall's Woodpecker, a California endemic (when one includes a portion of Baja California, anyway). It was hunting for insects on fenceposts instead of trees.

Yellow-billed Magpie (Pica nuttalli):  More on this California endemic can be seen in this post.

There was a small flock of Yellow-billed Magpies in the pasture. These striking birds are a wholly Californian endemic species, found only in our Great Valley. They were almost wiped out by the West Nile virus, but they are slowly making a comeback.

Western Bluebird (Sialia mexicana)

I see the Western Bluebirds on occasion throughout the winter and spring. I think they migrate up into the Sierra Nevada during the summer. 

Western Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma californica)

The Western Scrub Jay is a perennial visitor to the feeders in my backyard. They've done well in relation to agricultural development, especially with nut trees, as can be seen above. They'll often make noise on our roof as they peck at pecans (and a number have taken root in our yard after pecans being left behind by the jays)

Oak Titmouse (Baeolophus inornatus) on a west campus oak tree.

Another more-or-less California endemic is the Oak Titmouse (Baeolophus inornatus). It ranges a little into Baja California and Oregon. The acre or so of oak trees in the "mini-wilderness" provides them a bit of valley habitat in our area.

Sooty Fox Sparrow (Passerella iliaca unalaschcensis)

Finally, there is a Sooty Fox Sparrow (Passerella iliaca unalaschcensis) that I discovered Tuesday on the west campus of my school. I'm new at this birding business and so was not used to searching the leaf litter for what I always thought were House Sparrows. The Sooty is one of four subspecies of Fox Sparrows. The number and variety of American sparrows is incredible, and is a startling picture of ongoing evolution in action.

It's inspiring to find that some hint or echo of the Great Valley's natural heritage still survives here and there, especially when it is a short walking distance from home or work. More than anywhere else, though, the glory of the ancient days still lives on in the federal bird refuges that line our valley like a string of pearls. Last night we saw a sky filled with migratory birds, thousands of them, who still have a winter home on part of the valley floor (see the video at the top of the post). These are places that should be protected and cherished, and not criticized because they take up some of the water in these hard drought years. Although I understand farmer resentment in such situations, the total water devoted to wildlife survival is no doubt a small percentage of the total utilized, and I'd rather see a healthy population of native birds over an additional field of cabbage or corn.

Geotripper is for the Birds: Life persists in the midst of horrific drought

It was on my morning stroll that I realized that Dry Creek was flowing. The creek has its headwaters in the Sierra Nevada foothills, and drains a region about thirty miles long before joining up with the Tuolumne River in downtown Modesto. It might seem extraordinary to be impressed by such a thing, but Dry Creek in recent decades tends to flow all year, from winter and spring rain runoff, and from irrigation overflow during the rest of the year. We had about two-thirds of an inch of rain yesterday, and in this drought year, that was finally enough to stop just infiltrating into the ground in the headwaters and begin flowing down the channel. In the twenty-five years I've been here, I've never seen such dry conditions. The rain is welcome, giving a last bit of moisture to fuel the growth of vegetation before the long dry season sets in. But it does little to alleviate the drought; we'd need something on the order of a foot of rain in the Great Valley and many feet of snow in the mountains in the next few weeks to fill the reservoirs.

As many of my readers know, I got a new camera a few months ago, and the powerful zoom lens has allowed me to explore a world that has been largely hidden to me until now: birds. Living in the Great Valley is wonderful for the access it provides to the incredible geological wonders of the Sierra Nevada, the Coast Ranges and the Cascades, but during the winter months when most field studies aren't happening the valley can seem a boring place. But not for the birds; for the birds, the valley is life itself. Millions of migratory birds winter on the valley floor, primarily in the federal and state bird refuges that have been established up and down the San Joaquin and Sacramento Valley floors. Over the last few months we have been frequenting some of the wildlife refuges, and the variety and number of bird species has been stunning to me (the neophyte birder). But the lingering drought is going to have an effect on their populations.

In some ways, the most surprising aspect of the bird-watching has been the variety of species I've found in my local neighborhood.  I documented some of them back in January in this post, but I have seen some more as the rain has finally come, and a few migrants have arrived back in the valley for the spring and summer. Here is a selection of the birds I have seen in the last week or two.

Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii)

The nicest discovery from this morning was a pair of Cooper's Hawks near Dry Creek (they could also have been Sharp-shinned Hawks, a closely related species; I invite corrections!). Even with the zoom lens, the raptors have been surprisingly shy about getting photographed. The hawks this morning were paying more attention to each other.

Western Bluebird (Sialia mexicana)

I saw quite a few Western Bluebirds during January and February, but I thought they had migrated higher up into the mountains, having not seen any for weeks. But here was one that was hanging out in the cow pasture a few blocks from my house. I love his colors.

Lesser Goldfinch (Carduelis psaltria)

There has been no lack of Lesser Goldfinches around my house. They are one of the most common visitors at our birdfeeders. This morning was the first time I've caught them foraging in the wild (the wild in this case being the grass along the highway north of my little farm town). The flowers in the background are Fiddlenecks and Purple Vetch.

Black Phoebes (Sayornis nigricans)

I love the little flycatchers in our area called the Black Phoebe. They are a western species, found commonly only in California, Arizona, and New Mexico, and many points south as far as Argentina. The Great Valley seems to be the northernmost end of their range. I'd never noticed them in the past, but I've seen dozens of them in the last three months.

Western Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma californica)

It's hard to miss the Western Scrub Jays around here. They're obnoxious and loud sometimes, and they're always chasing the other birds away from our feeders. On the other hand, they are one of the most colorful birds in our area. I always enjoy getting a close look at one.

Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica)

One the recent arrivals in our area have been the Barn Swallows. They winter in Central and South America and migrate into our region for the summer. I photographed one for the first time just a few days ago. I'm seeing flocks of them lately building nests under the bridges around our irrigation canals.

Nuttall's Woodpecker (Picoides nuttallii)

I was very surprised to find a species unique to California living in my neighborhood. I thought "rare" endemics are hard to find. The Nuttall's Woodpecker hangs out in oak woodlands of California and nowhere else. I've now seen them several times in the walnut trees next to the cow pasture (and on telephone poles).

Great-tailed Grackle males (Quiscalus mexicanus)

The Great-tailed Grackles just recently arrived on the CSU Stanislaus campus. They arrived raucously, with one of the loudest calls I've heard during my bird travels of late.The males are dark black (above), while the females are brown (and much smaller).

Great-tailed Grackle females (Quiscalus mexicanus)

Yellowlegs Sandpiper (Tringas species); I don't know if it is the Greater or the Lesser.

I found the Yellowlegs Sandpiper in the slowly filling irrigation canal a few blocks from my house. They winter in our area before heading north into Alaska and Canada.

Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata)

I've briefly seen the Yellow-rumped Warbler flitting about in the grass on my campus, and even  chasing insects on my back porch one morning, but I walked out of my classroom on the third floor of our new Science Community Center the other day, and there was this little one right there in front of me. He politely waited until I had taken a few pictures before flying off.

Yellow-billed Magpie (Pica nuttalli), a Central Valley original

The Yellow-billed Magpie is endemic to the Central Valley. I see them all the time, and they are beauties. They are also in grave danger. The West Nile Virus reached our region in 2004, and the Yellow-billed Magpies were particularly vulnerable to the infection, with something like a 95% fatality rate. The population dropped by half in two years when the infection began. According to some web sources, they are rebounding somewhat from the disaster. I hope so; they are one of the prettiest of our local species.

So why all these birds on my geology site? Well, mainly because it's my blog, and I write about whatever interests me at the moment. But in the larger picture, the native species of a region are shaped by the geological forces acting on that area. These birds are adapted to the Mediterranean climate of the Great Valley and the riparian areas (rivers) and grasslands found within. They have survived hundreds of droughts in the past, and presumably are equipped to survive those of the present and the future. They have persisted through the vast floods which sometimes turn our valley into a vast lake. They are products of the geological forces shaping our valley just as surely as the rocks and sediment beneath our feet. And like so many of the wonderful geological sites in our state, they are interesting and often beautiful.

Birds of My Neighborhood: Geotripper Explores the Home Base on National Bird Day

Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum)

I'm told that today is National Bird Day (thanks, Randall), which was convenient to today's post since I was already collecting pictures of birds from my last two days of neighborhood exploration. It was meant to be an addition to my post several days ago describing the surprising diversity of birds in my home town, despite the winter chill. The Great Valley of California turns out to be quite the refuge for winter survival of a great many avian species. We are far enough south to avoid the frigid chill of arctic storms, and most of our storms are gentle compared to the blizzards experienced in other parts of the country (with the occasional exception, of course).

Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum)

But really, birds in a geology blog? What connection could there possibly be with the study of rocks, minerals, and fossils? Oh, yeah, fossils. Birds have been an important part of the web of life on this planet for more than 100 million years, and were the last of the major families of terrestrial creatures to emerge. They are literally the last dinosaurs, but as such they are particularly successful and diverse dinosaurs, and most certainly not a failing evolutionary dead end. And they apparently almost displaced mammals as the apex predators in the terrestrial environment several tens of millions of years ago.

American Robin (Turdus migratorius)

After the "regular" dinosaurs met their demise at the end of the Cretaceous Period (possibly as a result of an asteroid impact), the subset of feathered avian dinosaurs were some of the survivors that expanded and evolved to fill a world with many empty environmental niches. Mammals were quickly evolving to fill those same niches, and for a while there were some gigantic land birds that were the top predators of their time. Eventually their places were taken by large mammals and crocodile-type reptiles, but the birds mostly took to the air and became one of the most diverse vertebrate animal groups in the world today.

Yes, you "mock" me now, but imagine me being 10 feet tall. That would change your tone in a hurry...

Today, birds are an integral part of any terrestrial ecosystem, and their relative health is a barometer for all life on our planet. There is a great joy in observing the incredible diversity of these fascinating creatures, but the diversity and future survival of these animals is threatened from habitat destruction and hunting. That's probably more true in the Great Valley of California than for about any other place on the planet.

Western Bluebird (Sialia mexicana)

The Central Valley (the term is interchangeable with Great Valley) is one of the world's great savanna-grassland-riparian habitats and was once a paradise for numerous bird species and other animals. The vast wetlands were historically a critical stop on the migratory flyway for hundreds of species. Unfortunately for the birds, the rich soils and ample water supply from Sierra Nevada rivers have meant that most of the valley has been co-opted by humans for agricultural development. Only 5% of the original habitat still exists. This has meant huge changes in the ecosystem, with many species that have disappeared, and others that have prospered. 

Oak Titmouse (Baeolophus inornatus)

Humans added all kinds of mayhem by introducing new bird species for spurious and stupid reasons. One of the worst: a man in the 1890s who resolved to introduce to the New World all the birds mentioned in the works of Shakespeare. He arranged for the release of several hundred European Starlings in Central Park. They have since spread across the continent like a plague, displacing dozens if not hundreds of species of native songbirds. Other birds arrived as pets which subsequently escaped (flocks of parrots live in the LA Basin, for instance).

Black Phoebe (Sayornis nigricans). Identification thanks to Callan Bentley (Mountain Beltway) and his friend Seth.

Despite the horrific pressure brought to bear on the native species of California, there are many bird varieties still to be seen in the Great Valley. I have become aware of this delightful fact over the last few weeks as I explored my own local neighborhood with a new camera with a nice optical zoom. We've always had a feeder in the backyard, which caused me to think that the only local birds were goldfinches, house finches, scrub jays, and mockingbirds. A new habit of walking around the nearby cow pasture has revealed a real menagerie of beautiful and interesting species.

Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma californica)

So today's post (and my post from several days ago) is a celebration of National Bird Day, with fifteen species that I was able to photograph in just two days of strolling around my neighborhood. Some I've seen before, and many I have never noticed. I never would have guessed that two, and maybe three species of woodpecker live on my block!

Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos)

Some of the birds are skittish and shy, and others look at you and don't give a rat's posterior that you are standing there photographing them. And then there are the crows and ravens. You look at them and you can see them thinking and hear them talking about you...they are said to be the smartest of all birds, and I pretty much accept that way of thinking.

Nuttall's Woodpecker (Picoides nuttallii)

And never forget: these little fellows are dinosaurs. Only they're smarter...

The Birds of My Neighborhood: Geotripper Explores the Home Base

These pictures will be familiar to my Facebook friends who have been subjected to several weeks of wintertime explorations of my neighborhood looking for our local bird species. I've always liked birds, but I've lacked a camera with sufficient zoom to capture them easily, and I am pretty bad at remembering names and species. I've been surprised at how many different species can be seen during short walks around the block and through the nearby cow pasture (although I shouldn't be; we live in prime wintertime bird habitat).

The first, and one of my favorite recent pictures, is a Western Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma californica) making a meal out of a pecan. The scrub jays are obnoxious and raucous, and at constant war with our cat in the backyard, but they are also a bright splash of color, and are one of my favorites.

The Snowy Egret (Egretta thula) is a fairly common wetlands inhabitant in our area. They are one of the most graceful birds I see on a regular basis, standing very still will getting ready to stab at fish or amphibians in shallow water (like they did when they got the goldfish in my pond...).

I keep a feeder in the backyard, and it attracts three or four varieties of finches, including the House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus), the Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis), and the Lesser Goldfinch (Carduelis psaltria). They like their sunflower and nyjer seeds and they are quite vocal in their complaints when I let the feeders go too low.

I thought the gray bird in the picture below was a mockingbird from a distance, but some of my facebook experts suggest that it is a Western Kingbird (Tyrannus verticalis). I am open to being corrected in this identification.

True to the season, here are two doves, but they aren't turtle doves. I was told (and agree) that these are Eurasian Collared Doves (Streptopelia decaocto). It is an relatively recent invasive species that I have constantly mistaken for Mourning Doves.

On a brief foray along the Tuolumne River near La Grange we found an American Kestrel (Falco sparverius) watching for a meal from a telephone pole.

For ten years I've been trying to catch a photo of a Yellow-billed Magpie (Pica nuttalli), a species unique to California (it is a cousin to the Black-billed Magpie found in much of the rest of the country). They have been very shy when I come around with a camera, but one hung around for a moment before flying away the other day. They've been decimated by the West Nile Virus.

I am familiar with the story of how European Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) arrived in America to become a pest (it was a Shakespeare lover of all people), but I had never noticed them around my neighborhood until I started walking a few weeks ago.

The Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus) is a widespread species found all over the Americas, but it holds kind of a special place in our valley. We chose it to be part of our banners and symbols for the new Science Community Center at Modesto Junior College. As if to play the part, a Killdeer set up a nest on the vacant lot north of our building that will eventually become our Outdoor Nature Laboratory. I often hear them when I walk around the campus.

 There must have been a dozen of them running about the cow pasture a few blocks from my house.

The biggest surprise in my recent walks was the drumming of a woodpecker. I've never noticed any near my house, but walking under a telephone I heard one pecking away.

A bit of research suggested that it might be a Nuttall's Woodpecker (Picoides nuttallii). It's the second kind I've seen in the region so far (the other is the Acorn Woodpecker, farther up in the mountains).

The small bird wandering in the grassland appears to me to be an American Pipit (Anthus rubescens), but I await your confirmation. They hide well, so I've never noticed them before.

The other of many pleasant surprises has been the spotting of some Western Bluebirds (Sialia mexicana) in the trees around the cow pasture. I don't think they've visited our bird feeders.

The pictures I took the other day show a brightly colored male (above), and a slightly more drab female (below). I'd like to see more of them!

I've enjoyed paying more attention to our local bird life, and look forward to adding more of them during my travels. Once again, have a wonderful Christmas and restful holiday!