Bird on a Wire: Latest news from Audubon California

In this Issue: World Wetlands Day | Love Your Wetlands Day | Sonoma Creek | Rice Farmers | San Diego Coastal Wetlands | Top 4 Ways | Bombay Beach

 

World Wetlands Day | Love Wetlands Day | Sonoma Creek | Rice Farmers | San Diego Coastal Wetlands | Top 4 Ways | Bombay Beach

Happy World Wetlands Day Dear KAREN, On World Wetlands Day, we celebrate wetlands across California. What is a wetland, you ask? It's a coastal or inland landscape that is saturated with water, such as a marsh or swamp. Wetlands are powerhouses for conservation and climate. They provide habitat for wildlife, flood protection for communities, carbon sequestration for climate, and pollution filtration for clean water. Across California, tens of millions of migratory birds depend on the region's wetlands as a rest stop along their journeys through dry landscapes, including Sandhill Cranes, Wood Ducks, and American Avocets.  It's sadly true that we have lost 90 percent of California's natural wetlands. Thankfully, wetlands rebound when we put conservation into action. Discover how wetlands are on the rise in the San Francisco Bay, San Diego Bay, Central Valley, and Salton Sea. Sincerely, Sarah Rose Executive Director

Black-necked Stilt. Photo: Robert Blanchard/Audubon Photography Awards

Bird of the Month: American Avocet Around lake shores and tidal flats, especially in the wide-open spaces of the west, elegant American Avocets wade in the shallows.  Learn More American Avocet. Photo: Kirk Benson/Audubon Photography Awards Native Plant: San Diego Sedge (Carex Spissa) Perennial, grass-like sedge that grows along creek channels. Very dramatic specimen plant for a conventional garden or wet native garden. Learn More Carex Spissa. Photo: Daderot/Wikipedia Creative Commons

Love Your Wetlands Day Join the UC Natural Reserve System and the San Diego Audubon Society for Love Your Wetlands Day on Feb. 5th! This is a once-a-year opportunity to explore the normally off-limits Kendall-Frost Marsh Reserve in Mission Bay and learn about the special role of coastal wetlands. Activities are family-friendly and include guided walking tours, live animal presentations, booths from environmental organizations, and habitat restoration! Register (free)

Love Your Wetlands Day, Mission Bay, 2020 Photo: Craig Chaddock/San Diego Audubon

How We Revived 400-Acres of Wetlands at Sonoma Creek Sea level rise and severe storm events will hit the San Francisco Bay area. That is why we created marsh mounds at Sonoma Creek to create elevated areas that stay above water in the most extreme of king tides or storms. With more than 1.5 miles of channels now dug through the marsh, it floods and drains properly with the tide. Sonoma Creek marsh is now a "climate stronghold", a safe place for Ridgway's Rails, Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse, and fish to survive.   Read more

Audubon California's Paige Fernandez surveys plant growth with Meg Marriott of the San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge Photo: Haymar Lim

How Central Valley's Rice Farmers Are Protecting Bird Habitat Did you know that flooded rice fields have become surrogate wetlands for migratory birds in the Central Valley? Khara Strum, conservation manager at Audubon California explains in a Fox 40 TV interview, "[I]t's the ingenuity of the rice farmers that led us to this point and the birds started using that. It's providing economic benefits. It's providing environmental benefits. It's providing community benefits and recreational benefits, all of those things." Watch Interview

Snowy Egret. Photo: Kevin Rutherford/Audubon Photography Awards

Audubon Awarded Grant to Restore San Diego County Coastal Wetlands Audubon California, together with the Buena Vista and San Diego Audubon Societies, received a $500,000 grant from The Dorrance Family Foundation towards the restoration of San Diego's Mission Bay Estuary and rare habitat adjacent to the Buena Vista Lagoon in North San Diego County. We will work with members of Indigenous and local community groups to restore two lagoons that support waterfowl and shorebirds migrating along the Pacific Flyway.  Read more

Buena Vista Wetlands Reserve Photo: Andrew Mauro/Buena Vista Audubon Society

Top 4 Ways to Get Water to Places Birds Need Most In 2022, Audubon California is prioritizing four water policy strategies to bolster birds' resilience through this drought. This includes investing in and protecting wetlands, restoring habitat at the Salton Sea, increasing water supplies to the Klamath National Wildlife Refuge, and implementing the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) for millions of migratory shorebirds and waterfowl. Read more

Western Grebe. Photo: Ann Kramer/Audubon Photography Awards

Bombay Beach Wetland at Salton Sea The Salton Sea as a whole is important for more than 300 species of resident and migratory birds. There are roughly 6,000 acres of newly formed wetlands that have emerged around the Salton Sea. They are a product of agricultural outflows or from natural seeps from springs. These saline wetlands and brackish pond habitats support species including the Yuma Ridgway's Rail, American Avocet, Northern Pintail, and possibly the Desert Pupfish. Watch video to learn more in English or Spanish.

Bombay Beach Video

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