New Sean Doherty Blog- Impressive Nature

It's now May and I'm just now opening up the last few fields for the first time. I should have my first fields planted in three or four days and we’re on our way to the finish line, albeit late as usual- the lateness being courtesy of April showers. Now we just need a good warm and dry spell so we can get this year’s crop off to a good start, and if someone wants to throw in May flowers that would be fine too.

I always enjoy working the fields for the first time. Most of the wildlife around our fields aren't expecting us when we show up, and we always catch them off guard. I'm very fortunate that I get to enjoy all of this first hand. It's certainly one of the highlights of my work.

Here is a short and very incomplete list of what I've seen around my fields this spring:Black tail deer, skunks, raccoons, possums, coyotes, squirrels, cotton tail and jack rabbits, otters, muskrats, and a beaver. Pheasants, various breeds of ducks and geese, turkeys, mud hens, cranes, herons, great horned owls, other kinds of owls, falcons, buzzards, hawks, just a lot of birds of prey! I’ve also seen pelicans, dunlins and many other shorebirds, killdeer, red and yellow winged blackbirds, swallows, and so many more that will remain nameless. (Mostly, because I do not know their actual names.)

What I'm getting at is, it's just a lot of fun being in rice country in the springtime. By the way, this list above is by no means complete. I didn't even get started on all the different kinds of snakes and reptiles I've seen.

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Sean Doherty is a 3rd generation rice farmer living out his dream, being a rice farmer in Dunnigan.

He farms in Yolo, Colusa, and Sutter Counties with his wife Melissa, and three kids, Hannah, Gus, and Mary. He enjoys being in the fields, watching the seasons, and sharing it with his family.

Read more about Sean in Rice Farming magazine