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September 16, 2014

Lucky ducks and birds may find ‘pop-up' wetlands in dry Calif.

  • Conservationists are temporarily renting 14,000 acres from rice farmers and flooding them just long enough to give the migrating birds a spot for rest and food.
    • By ELLEN KNICKMEYER
    Associated Press

    YUBA CITY, Calif. — For the swirling flock of migrating shorebirds banking to a landing in California's Central Valley, a recently flooded rice field is providing a new kind of triage station during a drought that's drastically reducing places where they can rest on their long journeys.

    The new arrivals to the field — hundreds of them — are dowichers, says conservationist Greg Gulot, standing on a dirt berm and focusing his binoculars to identify a wading bird that is one of the first to fly south in an annual migration that brings 350 species to California's Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys.


     
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