Bird Count 2008 at Dollarhide
by the St. Supéry Staff

Every year during the two weeks surrounding Christmas thousands of birdwatchers scatter across the USA to count birds on the annual Audubon Society Christmas counts. Abiding by a strict set of rules the idea is to count as accurately as possible the number of species and number of individuals of each species within a specific area. This information is then sent on to Audubon with the hope that it will be of value in determining trends in the population of American birds. (Some of us think these counts are just an excuse for bored birders to get out of the house in the dead winter of late December.)

There are counts all over the San Francisco Bay Area, one of which includes, every year on January 1st, our Dollarhide Ranch. Dollarhide, at an altitude of about 1000 feet, with its significant hillsides, open fields, riparian corridors, open oak woodland, and seven reservoirs, offers a remarkable variety of habitat for wintering birds.

We always see a distinguished selection of waterfowl, many land birds—robins, meadowlarks, sparrows, juncos, nuthatches, towhees, woodpeckers, yellow-rumped warblers—and raptors: there are red-tailed hawks, kestrels, white-tailed kites and, if we're reasonably lucky, maybe a ferruginous hawk or merlin or peregrine or two. If we're very lucky, a golden eagle and/or one of the wintering Lake Berryessa bald eagles.

And this year, just as we were heading for home, an osprey flew by, heading for its home—carrying a Dollarhide fish.

If you'd like to see St. Supery's Dollarhide Ranch (estate vineyard, bird oasis and all-around divine place to be), please call the winery to learn about our tour options: Cooky Logan 1-800-231-9116.