Greater Yellowlegs along the Tuolumne River

Non-birding types of people (i.e. "normal folks") are often not aware that some of the best birding localities to be found in arid regions are...water treatment plants. Many such places expect, and even encourage birding, and birders get a chance to see dozens of species of shorebirds. The reason is pretty clear: the water treatment plants provide a secure source of water despite the dry conditions. It sounds gross perhaps, but by the time the water is in those ponds, it's already in a relatively clean state.

The best treatment plants for birding are those for larger towns, and that kind of leaves me out most of the time. My town is pretty small, so the treatment plant is small as well, and is situated next to the Tuolumne River, so it's not the only water source. I don't tend to see a great many birds there, but several shorebirds call it home. I saw several of them a few weeks ago, some Great Yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca).

The Yellowlegs (Greater and Lesser) can be seen at one time or another across the entire American continent, north and south. They tend to winter in the south, and breed in the muskeg of Canada, which makes them hard to study...the muskeg swamps and their bugs are a great place for the birds, but miserable and impassable to humans.

Lesser Yellowlegs in the California Prairielands near Willms Road

We had a rather productive trip to the prairielands east of our little village at the foot of the Sierra Nevada Mother Lode. In addition to the Tricolored Blackbirds, the Burrowing Owl, the Western Meadowlark, the Horned Larks, Pied-billed Grebes, and a variety of Hawks were out and about. As we explored some of the vernal pools we saw a lone bird on one of the ephemeral creeks, and realized we could add a Yellowlegs to our tally for the day.

I'm the first to admit that I'm not very good at shorebird identification. There are two species of Yellowlegs, the Greater and Lesser. Part of the difference is the size, but a single bird gives no scale. The Greater is supposed to have a longer beak that is very slightly upturned, but I don't see that in these pictures, so I'm calling it a Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes). As always I am open to gentle correction!

It is the most beautiful time of the year out on our prairie. The flowers are starting to show in some of the vernal pools, and there is greenery everywhere. All of the creeks are flowing, and it's a good time for the animals and plants after five years of drought. I'm looking forward to a few more weeks of color on the hillsides!

Greatest and Least (Yellowlegs and Sandpipers) along the Tuolumne

It sounds all wrong, but water treatment plants are good places for bird watching. The treatment plant at Waterford is hard to miss because it is on the Tuolumne River, and right in the middle of the Tuolumne Parkway Trail. The trail climbs to the top of the bluff to circumvent it. The thing is, the purpose of treating the water is to clean it, and the open water attracts birds. Local birders conduct trips to the treatment plants for Modesto and Ceres because of the dozens of species to be found there. It's simply not as bad as it sounds!

The Waterford treatment plant is smaller, and thus I don't see as many birds there (they have other choices in the area, like the Tuolumne River itself, and a number of dredging ponds), but there are some. For the last few weeks there has been a small group of Greater Yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca). They are very similar to Lesser Yellowlegs, especially to my untrained eye, but the bills of the Greater are longer than the skull, and that seems to be the case here (as always, I am open to correction!).

There were three or four smaller birds flocking with the Yellowlegs, and I first thought they were juveniles, but I think they are actually Least Sandpipers (Calidris minutill). I am far less confident about the species choice though, as I've come to understand that the sandpipers can be very hard to tell apart, especially in fuzzy pictures.