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november 2017
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SPOTLIGHT
Danville Mayor Renee Morgan explores the Central San reuse room.
Local Residents Ensure 20-Year Environmental Program Success Central Contra Costa County residents will be pleased to know that their diligent disposal of paints, batteries, florescent lightbulbs, motor oil, pesticides and cleaners have led to a 20-year success story. Central San, a central County based wastewater agency is celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the Household
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Residents in the San Ramon Valley are used to seeing wild turkeys running in the fields and even across busy streets. These turkeys were roaming around a San Ramon hillside. They look like turkeys…but don’t think you can put one of these on your Thanksgiving table!
The Sandhill Cranes are on their way by James Hale
One of our most elegant and conspicuous winter visitors to the refuges and farmlands in the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys–the state’s great Central Valley–is the tall, migratory Greater Sandhill Crane (Grus canadensis tabida). Its loud trumpetlike call is audible over long distances. While conducting research in the high Sierra at 7,400 feet on several occasions, I heard thousands of Sandhill Cranes calling as they migrated from their summer breeding grounds on their way to their wintering habitat. They were barely visible thousands of feet above the Sierra crest in expansive, V-shaped flocks. The pale, silver gray adults with a bare, red crown stand almost 5 feet tall. Their wings span almost 7 feet. Adults may weigh more than 15 pounds. The adult plumage often becomes stained rusty from iron oxides in the water. Immature birds have reddish -brown plumage and lack the red
crown. Sexes look alike. A bustle of shaggy feathers hangs over the rump of standing birds. In flight, with slow downbeat wing strokes and quick upstrokes, the neck and legs are fully extended. Six subspecies have been recognized in recent times. The Sandhill Crane has one of the oldest and longest fossil histories of any bird still found today. A 10 million year old crane fossil from Nebraska may be a prehistoric relative or the direct ancestor. The oldest definitive Sandhill Crane fossil is 2.5 million years old, over one and a half times older than the earliest remains of most living species of birds. A single, life size Native American Martis culture sandhill crane petroglyph in the Sierra on a granite boulder may be thousands of years old and the only one identified to date.
Sandhill Cranes are social birds that are usually encountered in pairs or family groups through the year and during the breeding season. During migration and winter, large flocks of non-related birds gather to forage and roost together. Sometimes thousands congregate at these sites. Sandhill Cranes are mainly herbivorous as they forage for seeds and other plant material in shallow wetlands and various upland habitat. Cultivated grains such as corn, rice, wheat, and sorghum support large numbers of cranes in the Great Valley and Sacramento San Joaquin delta during winter. Berries, small mammals, insects, snails, reptiles and amphibians supplement their diet. Sandhill Cranes mate for life and reinforce their pair bond with an elaborate courtship dance and display. The pair raise one brood
This month’s Special Sections:
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Senior Living
pages 8-9
per year. The female lays one to three (usually two) eggs from early April to late May. Both sexes build the nest using plant material in marshes, bogs, swales or on occasion in upland habitat. Both parents incubate the eggs for 29 See CRANE page 4