One of the great ironies of bird-watching is that sometimes man-made facilities provide the best opportunity for viewing (could it be because many of the best natural areas are gone?). And not just any man-made facility…I speak specifically of that most odious of areas: the sewage treatment plant. In the Chico area the Chico Oxidation Ponds a.k.a. Wastewater Pollution Control Plant is no exception – the bird viewing is often some of the most productive in our area.
Altacal Audubon Society maintains a ‘hide’ or wildlife viewing blind at the corner of the largest pond. This blind has been off-limits for the past two years however as major remodeling of the facilities is underway. One of the benefits of this remodel is a wildlife friendly redesign of the ponds, with grading done to create differing water depths favored by a variety of water oriented birds, ‘loafing islands’ for predator resistant resting areas and native shrub and tree planting to benefit species that depend on certain vegetation types.
Depending on time of year, the ponds are some of the best places in the Chico area to see Canvasbacks, tri-colored blackbirds, American bitterns and a number of shorebird species such as sandpipers, dowitchers and phalaropes. A number of the counties rare bird records come from this site, including: ruddy turnstone, sanderling semi-palmated sandpiper, red phalarope, Franklin’s gull and Sabine’s gull.
A visit to the periphery of the facilities yesterday afternoon provided ‘first-of-season’ glimpses of singing blue grosbeaks, as well as wonderful scope views of cinnamon teal and red-heads.
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