The waters that closed the Yolo Bypass Nature Area two weeks ago finally dissipated, leaving only traces that any flooding had ever happened. Most of the ponds are dry meadows.
Yolo in May is a far different place than it is in December. During the winter, it teems with hundreds of migrant birds spending their time on flooded rice fields in the mild winter weather of California. The rice paddies in May are nothing but dirt, tilled and ready for planting. Most of the birds have left with just a few permanent residents in the area.
The Daily Bucket is a nature refuge. We amicably discuss animals, weather, climate, soil, plants, waters and note life’s patterns.
We invite you to note what you are seeing around you in your own part of the world, and to share your observations in the comments below.
Each note is a record that we can refer to in the future as we try to understand the phenological patterns that are quietly unwinding around us. To have the Daily Bucket in your Activity Stream, visit Backyard Science’s profile page and click on Follow.
I wandered over earlier this week to see who stayed behind. There were a few birds hanging around the remnants of the ponds. All were a distance. Our year-round birds include the snowy and great egrets, great blue heron, killdeer, mallards, red-winged blackbirds, mourning doves and ring-necked pheasants.
In January, dozens of Pintails, Shovelors, and Cinnamon Teals rested in a flooded rice field at the Yolo Bypass.
A Snowy Egret in a small pond.
A Great Egret in flight.
A Great Blue Heron flies over the area.
A Killdeer kept turning his back towards me.
One of several Mallard pairs hanging around a rapidly shrinking waterhole.
Dozens of Red-Winged Blackbirds flew all over the area.
The doves could be seen along the edges of the dirt access route. This one few into a nearby tree as I drove by.
Ring-Necked Pheasant runs in a dried pond.
I saw a few Sparrows. I spied a a White-Crowned Sparrow hen and a few English House Sparrows, non-native year-round residents but no Song or Savannah Sparrows.
House Sparrows fleeing the strange humans.
Looks like a White-Crowned Sparrow hen.
A couple of Canada Geese waddle past a small flock of western sandpipers.
A Solitary Sandpiper and an American Avocet forage in one of the shrinking ponds.
The coots have all left and so did the Black-Necked Stilts. But there is still enough life to enjoy visiting the refuge.
Eagle update: The two remaining eaglets are going strong and feathering out. Parents are leaving them for longer lengths of time.
Hanging out waiting for Momma and Papa to come back with food. Photo taken Monday May 6.
The 3rd baby, named Diecinueve (19), is being fostered at a raptor rehab center near Lake Tahoe that has a male Bald Eagle. He is the 19th chick to be hatched by the eagle pair since they started nesting in this tree. The nest cam group (FOLFAN) posted a photo on Facebook showing the baby doing well with his new foster dad.
This has been one crazy spring weatherwise. We went from 58 degrees with lots of rain and hail last Saturday to a hot dry sunny 90 degrees this weekend.
What’s up in your neck of the woods?
