Category: General Interest
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Black Phoebe – Sayornis nigricans
A medium-sized flycatcher with a sooty-black back and head with a white belly. Typically seen singly or in pairs, usually sitting conspicuously on a low perch often near water. The Black Phoebe can frequently be seen pumping its tail up and down. View from the Valley The Black Phoebe is…
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When One Least Leads to Another
The Discovery It was 6:30 am and I found myself, once again, at the southern part of the San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge, west of Modesto. The previous morning I had started a run of point counts as a part of the Least Bell’s Vireo monitoring program with the…
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A Visit from the Gray-mantled Gull of Kamchatka
In French, it is known as the Gray-mantled Gull, Goéland à manteau ardoisé. In Spanish, it is the Kamchatka Gull, Gaviota de Kamchatka. In English, we call it the Slaty-backed Gull. For those of us living in California’s San Joaquin Valley, we call it the “Extremely Rare Gull”. So rare in…
Reflections of the Natural World 