Field Trip Leader: Mackenzie Hollender, sacaudubonyoungbirders@gmail.com
Supervisor: Kevin Hollender

This is a Young Birders Club field trip. Participation is limited to members of the Sacramento Valley Young Birders Club. Register via Slack to join the Sacramento Valley Young Birders Club on this trip. Please go to www.sacramentoaudubon.org/young-birders-club to become a member.  

When one thinks of a birding hotspot, a water treatment plant is unlikely to be what they think of, but water treatment plants can host a wide variety of bird species, and even provide critical habitat to shorebirds and waterfowl. The Woodland Water Treatment Plant hosts an extraordinary variety of waterfowl and shorebirds year round; almost all of the ducks and sandpipers you can find in winter in the natural wetlands, you can see at the treatment plant during the rest of the year. Along with this, the Woodland Water Treatment Plant hosts an impressive list of birds that are unusual or less common to the valley, including Black Tern, Bonaparte's Gull, Clark's Grebe, Yellow-headed Blackbird, Burrowing Owl, Wilson's and Red-necked Phalarope, Redhead, even Least Bittern, and so much more! This odd location has been a stopover location for many incredibly rare birds, including Sabine's Gull, Wood Sandpiper, Snowy Plover, Common Tern, Red Knot, and more. October is a great time to catch the last rare shorebirds of fall migration before they leave- last year there were Pacific Golden-Plover and Ruff here in October. We will be birding the two ponds on the main road and the grassland portion between them. 

Pectoral Sandpiper © Chris Conard