Saturday, August 11th - 8 a.m. - 4 p.m.

The Kern River Valley - "Hummingbird Viewing Capital of California"

Join the Friends of the Kern River Preserve, US Postal Service, Bob Steele Photography, and many others to celebrate the annual migration of hummingbirds.

See Rufous Hummingbird, Allen's Hummingbird, Anna's Hummingbird, Black-chinned Hummingbird, Costa's Hummingbird, and Calliope Hummingbirds.

Check the hummingbird festival webpage for scheduled activities. Contact krpfriends@audubon.org for information.

News on the Fly

Bird News

Ted Beedy recorded a new species for the South Fork Valley on May 23rd. He saw a male Blackpoll Warbler in the South Fork Wildlife Area.

Bird Feeding Program 

With over one thousand dollars spent on bird seed each year, your donations are needed more than ever. More volunteer bird feeders and donations to the bird feeding program are needed. Visit the James Station in South Lake and donate to account #18 the Kern River Preserve bird feeding program. The money placed into this account keeps our volunteers from having to take money out of pocket when purchasing seed.

Contact Birdie Foster if you can spare an hour or two once a week to help feed the birds.

Birders from around the world visit the Preserve

You expect to hear people chatting in different languages at our National Parks, but our little preserve is a world destination too! Since the beginning of the year, we have greeted nature lover's from Europe, South America, North America, Asia, and Australia. In year's past we have seen visitors from Africa as well. It is nice to know that others are learning about what we have known all along... the South Fork of the Kern River is an amazing place to see an amazingly diverse collection of wildlife and plants.

Recap Bird and Butterfly Counts

Bob Barnes organized 4 butterfly counts and a rapid assessment bird count this year.

The four butterfly counts have a similar protocol to Christmas Bird Count and are called South Fork Kern River, South Sequoia, North Fork Kern River, and Giant Sequoia National Monument Butterfly Counts. A total of 74 different species were seen this year which is amazing considering the severe drought.

Bob also organized the fifth South Fork Kern River Rapid Assessment bird count. Click here for the full story.

Southern Pacific Pond Turtle Project update

The turtle team finished building the turtle enclosure and ponds in June. Since finishing that, the team has been busy capturing turtles, measuring and weighing them and checking for gravid females. Darrell Barnes is now incubating 6 eggs and hatching is expected sometime in September.

Thanks to Darrell Barnes, Bill Foster, Birdie Foster, Jake Heflin, Gordon Hancock, Chris Hancock, Jeff King, Dave Kurdeka, Marya Miller, Alison Sheehey, Bob Showers and Reed Tollefson for help with various aspects of the project.

http://kern.audubon.org/turtles.htm