Young Ancient Murrelets

RROS’s Youth Adventure

It all started when…

A few years ago, I received a request from an adult student at Petaluma Adult School to allow her 14-year-old daughter to join the class. This is how I met mother and daughter Beverly and Danielle Dube. All the other class members and I fell in love with 14-year-old Danielle immediately. Her love of birds and her expressive drawings of birds impressed us all.

This inspired me to start a birding club for youth. So, I went on a search for young people with birding interests. It didn’t take me long to find Mario Balitbit, birding with his dad and Rob O’Donnell at Bodega Bay. I ran the idea by him, and I couldn’t get a more enthusiastic response. Bill Doyle recommended Luke Campbell, who regularly came to RROS field trips, notebook in hand, writing down all observations with his grandfather, Glenn.

So, on September, 2014, we had our first youth group birding field trip at the Laguna de Santa Rosa Trail. I was a member of the Point Blue Bird-a-thon Committee at the time. I decided that Point Blue needed more youth teams and I invited Mike Parmeter to co-lead this youth team. I wanted to connect the birding generations. I also drafted Nicole Bardon to help out as she does a fantastic job through the environmental education program at Pepperwood Preserve.

We did our first Bird-a-thon as the Sonoma County Youth Team on October 25, 2014. We had 3 youths – Mario, Luke and Danielle and several adults. We had a blast that day. We saw 121 species, and raised about $500 for Point Blue Conservation Science. We were all beaming at the end of the day. One of the highlights of the day was finding Gabriel Tarantino on Bodega Head, birding with his family friend Scott Sorby. The instant we met, I wanted to just throw Gabe in the car and have him join us the rest of the day. I got his contact information instead.

On our next field trip, we added Will Anderson (recommended by Sonoma County naturalist Dave Barry) to the group. We went to Bodega Bay. While we were on Bodega Head, we all observed Ancient Murrelets. It was a life bird for all of the youth members. As we were having lunch that day, we brainstormed different names to call ourselves. Names like "Sonoma County Youth Birders" and "Passerine Penetrators" were tossed around. Then, we all settled on "Young Ancient Murrelets". It was perfect. And "YAMS" was born.

Not long after, we added Lucas Stephenson. I met Mark (Lucas’ dad) and Lucas at Ellis Creek one day while I was teaching an adult birding class. Lucas was timid at first, but curiosity overpowered his shyness and he was soon asking dozens of questions about birds, and he just had to be invited into the group.

Since then, we have added Morganna, Beatrice, Aiden, Junco, and our newest members Nolan and Clayton.

Of course, the downside of forming a youth group is that youth don’t stay "youth" forever. It’s hard to let go of YAMS members as they grow out of our group. But I am so proud of each one of them. Stay tuned in the future to meet our YAMS individually.

Lisa Hug
YAMS Coordinator

Join YAMS by emailing Liz Lewis at elewis227@gmail.com or Lisa Hug at lisahug@sonic.net. Open to 8-18 year olds.

What Have the YAMS Been up to?

YAMs Trip to Ellis Creek

On a late March visit to Ellis Creek, a modest group of YAMs members met in the parking lot, welcomed by the darting Tree Swallows and incessant blackbird song. After picking up some Bushtits, Western Bluebirds, and Canada Geese, we began the walk around the ponds, first checking the eucalyptus trees for previously seen White-tailed Kites. The shallow, seasonal pond was filled with Long-billed Dowitchers preening and Green-winged Teals dabbling about the reeds.

We then took the perimeter trail around the main ponds, getting fantastic views of an American Bittern, hunched over its perch in the dried reeds, as well as a Say’s Phoebe, Common Yellowthroat, and silvery male Northern Harrier. As we neared the far line of eucalyptus trees, activity from the rookery caught our attention. We watched for several minutes as Great Blue Herons and Double-crested Cormorants awkwardly navigated the tight spaces between branches, nests, and birds. Our attention on the rookery was drawn away by the spotting of two Swainson’s Hawks, lazily circling over the fields accompanied by a vulture. Looping back around, we stopped to watch the Tree Swallow and Western Bluebird activity around some nestboxes.

We had just enough time to head over to Shollenberger and walk the levee out front of Point Blue. After scanning through the more distant pan of gulls and shorebirds, among them Black-bellied Plovers, Western Gulls, and Long-billed Curlews, we lucked out and saw the fascinating mating dance of an American Avocet pair. We then ate lunch in front of the Point Blue offices and looked over our checklists. We had a total of 8 breeding confirmations, a satisfying end to our morning!

-Aubrey Parnay, YAMs Field Columnist

Upcoming YAMs Events

 5/2 Geysers Road  7am-2:30pm (Meeting Location TBD)

Geysers Road runs along the little Sulphur Creek and up into the Mayacamas mountains where we have opportunities to see or hear Mountain Quail, White-throated Swift, Blue gray Gnatcatcher, and California Thrasher and much more. This is a full-day trip. Bring layered clothing, lunch, snacks, water and of course binoculars and field guide. 

 6/1 Pine Mountain Rd, Fairfax 7am – 2:30 pm (meet at Caltrans Lakeville Park and Ride at 7am)

We will hike up Pine Mountain Rd looking for Bell’s Sparrow, White-throated Swift, Western Wood Pewee, Cliff Swallow, and Chipping Sparrow

This is a full-day trip. Bring layered clothing, lunch, snacks, water and of course binoculars and field guide