Conservancy field personnel are seeing a lot of Swainson’s Hawk activity already this year. On a Conservancy alfalfa field in the North Basin Reserve Area, we’ve photo’d a number of “dark morphs” (see photo of a single Swainson’s Hawk with this post). …

Attached with this post is notification and reference to an article brief published in Herpetological Review 44(1), 2013 regarding movement of a Giant Garter Snake in the Natomas Basin (see “Thamnophis Gigas (Giant Gartersnake) Movement”). What is note …

It’s always a pleasure to have a group of Audubon Society folks help the Conservancy with bird counts. This year, the group was smaller than normal, but the weather conditions were not conducive to a pleasant outing for birders. The issue was the wind. …

Rarely do we see Giant Garter Snakes this time of year. “Hibernating” is the word usually used to describe them these days. But it is in the upper 70s today temperature-wise, and surprise of all surprises, today I saw a beautiful specimen of this NBHCP …

The photo associated with this post shows one of the Conservancy’s most productive Swainson’s hawk foraging properties. Usually, it is in alfalfa, one of the favored crops for the hawks. But after years in alfalfa production, the soil on this tract nee …

People are amazed when we tell them of the things that occasionally happen on Conservancy property. Some are astonished by what we tell them. Rarely, we get photos of some of the craziness, and in this instance, we have several photos, one of which is …