Guest blog post: Enjoying Winter Wildlife

By Julius (Jim) Groeser

I am an active Audubon Society member and consider myself a hardcore environmentalist.

I was surprised to learn years ago about the role rice farmers have in providing a home for the wildlife that I enjoy so much. My Audubon Chapter in Grass Valley learned a lot from two presentations from the California Rice Commission, which brought into focus the ways rice growers work with the environmental community to make the rice fields a giant wildlife preserve during the winter months.

I enjoy touring the rural areas of Northern California. My favorite birding is through the rice fields. The big birds are there and are so magnificent to see! Our Central Valley is a world-class environment for swans, geese, ibis, egrets and much more. And anyone can drive for hours on the roads through the rice-growing areas with binoculars and scopes as the migratory birds present a wonderful spectacle, feeding, flying in the well-known V formation and sometimes exploding off the water in huge, chaotic masses. People of all ages are interested in the size of the birds, the large numbers in the air at one time and the almost indescribable sound of thousands of swans and geese all talking at once.

I don’t want to forget about the raptors too. The Central Valley has the most wintering raptors per square mile of any region in the United States. Our surveys find four to five raptors per mile driven, mostly Red-tailed Hawks. It’s a perfect view of nature just a few miles from town.

The Sacramento Valley rice country is also a perfect classroom for children of all ages to enjoy and learn about farming and wildlife.

One of my favorite spots for birding is northeast of the town of Hallwood, just outside of Marysville in Yuba County. Woodruff is a good road to see wildlife aplenty in the wintertime.