Connecting People with Birds

Our mission is to share the fun of birding, promote conservation and scientific understanding of wild birds and their habitats, and offer engaging, science-based education emphasizing the communities of Napa and Solano counties.
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Welcome to Napa Solano Audubon Society!

Bird of the Week – Swallow-tailed Gull
Found at Bodega Head by Scott Morrical on December 13th
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Upcoming Field Trips – All Members, Family & Friends of NSAS are Welcome to Join!

Field Trip Announcements: Beware our Field Trip eBlasts may end up in your Spam Folder!

Monthly Field Trip to the American River Parkway with Larry Kent – Saturday, January 18, 2025 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

The William B Pond Recreation Area is situated along the American River.  It includes a diverse landscape with oak woodlands, riparian thickets, grasslands, ponds and flowing water which are wonderful for overwintering birds. We will be walking to and along the river on mostly flat ground. After birding the William B. Pond Recreation Area, we will visit other areas along the parkway. Along the river we hope to see a variety of ducks and geese including Greater White-fronted and Canada Geese, Gadwall, Mallard, American Wigeon, Bufflehead, Common Goldeneye, and Common Merganser, Spotted Sandpiper, Killdeer, Pied-billed Grebes Snowy & Great Egrets, Great Blue Herons, California, Ring-billed and Herring Gulls. Woodland and riparian species may include  Acorn, Nuttall’s, Hairy, Downy and Northern Flicker Woodpeckers, Cooper’s and Sharp-shinned Hawks, and a variety of passerines including Titmice, Nuthatches, Kinglets, Hermit Thrush, Bewick’s and Hose Wrens, Fox, Savannah, Song, Lincoln’s and White-throated Sparrows.

Monthly Field Trip to the Sacramento Valley Wildlife Refuges with Wendy Cole & Mark Stephenson – Saturday/Sunday February 22nd & 23rd, 2025

Our next field trip will be to a number of our incredible National and State Wildlife Refuges that dot the Sacramento Valley. We will begin at Colusa NWR and then head onto the Sacramento NWR. (Our route may vary based on recent eBird checklists and a pre-trip exploration.) All of the Sanctuaries host a wide variety of Ducks and Geese. We should have excellent views of Cinnamon, Green-winged and Blue-winged Teal, Northern Shovelers, American and Eurasian Wigeon, Northern Pintails, Canvasback, Redhead, Ring-necked and Ruddy Ducks as well as White- fronted, Snow, and Ross’s Geese. Along the way we should be able to locate flocks of Long-billed Curlews, Dunlin, Least and other migrating shorebirds, as well as White-faced Ibis, Sandhill Cranes and Tundra Swans. Raptors will also be on our agenda with Red-tailed, Merlins, Coopers, Sharp-shinned and Bald Eagles expected along with possible Rough-legged Hawks and Short-eared Owls. Other passerines and rarities will also be on our radar.

For those wishing to make this a 2-day event we will stay over in the vicinity of Willows/ Williams and head onto the CA Fish & Wildlife Gray Lodge Sanctuary near Gridley on Sunday. There will be many flooded fields along the way where we hope to view Tundra Swans, Ducks and Geese at close range. Stay tuned for more information and registration details in our Field Trip eBlast.

Winged Migration Festival Saturday/Sunday February 1st & 2nd

The Winged Migration Festival will offer a lineup of bird walks, hikes, presentations and kids craft activities to inspire curiosity and appreciation for the incredible journey of migratory birds, including a live raptor presentation and the chance to meet and learn about bats! We are hoping to inspire the next generation of Birders and Stewards of our Natural Environments.The Winged Migration Festival will host numerous Field Trips, Presentations, Activities, Art and Food. Presentations, Tabling and Food Venues will be located at Building 34 Nimitz Ave. Mare Island, Vallejo CA

To learn more, and for a schedule of all events visit our Website at: Winged Migration Festival!

NSAS Presents: Colombia Birding with John Sterling Thursday, February 13th at 7:00 p.m. at the Benicia Public Library

About the Program: Colombia is one of the top birding destinations with over 1,900 species. John will give an overview of many of the top locations and rare and endemic birds from his recent tours.  From Caribbean coast to pacific rainforest lowlands to the three ranges of the Andes and valleys in between and the Orinoco lowlands bordering Venezuela, he will illustrate the huge diversity with his photographs of fancy and exotic birds.

About the Presenter: John has been a hard core birder in California since he was shown a Pileated Woodpecker in 5th grade camp in 1971.  He is a professional ornithologist and has worked for the Smithsonian Institution, US Forest Service research stations, HT Harvey & Associates, Arizona and Oregon state universities among other organizations since 1981.  John has traveled extensively throughout California learning about local bird distribution and is an authority on that state’s avifauna. In 2015 he set the California’s new big year record with 501 species and has many big day records as well.  He has traveled internationally as a guide and ornithologist for many institutions including projects as a Smithsonian ornithologist to Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, The Philippines, Sumatra, Canada and Russia.

Act Now! Funding to Maintain the Farallon Islands’ National Wildlife Refuge Research is at Risk!

Greetings Napa Solano Audubon Members, Family and Friends: We are extremely concerned to learn that the year-long funding for critical scientific research on the Farallon Islands National Wildlife Refuge is expected to be significantly reduced by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department budget cuts in 2025. The Farallon Islands are an incredibly rich ecosystem for Sea Birds and Marine Mammals and a critical habitat for their breeding and survival. The research and data collection, that has been ongoing for more than 50 years by Point Blue Conservation Science, has been instrumental in a number of crucial legislative policies and habitat interventions that have helped preserve this ecosystem and its wildlife. As a result, we are providing you with a Letter of Support Template.  We encourage you to customize it to your liking, sign and email it to all of the key Congressional Representatives and associated Department Leaders listed in our Fall Digital newsletter. The rationale for these particular recipients, is to encourage Congress to support the USFWS and National Wildlife Refuge System at appropriate levels to achieve the Refuge System’s Mission.

To get a Template Letter as well as eMail Addresses of the Congressional Representatives and Department Leaders to Lobby for continued funding for the Farallons Research, download our Fall Digital Newsletter by clicking on the Newsletter Button at the top of this page

Searching for Volunteers

We are looking for volunteers to help support our beginning bird walks that take place in our local parks. Please consider helping out with this rewarding activity. We are also looking for supporters to assist us with Education Programs in our Schools, Tabling for Community Events such as Earth Day and in a number of Citizen Science activities from Monitoring Bluebird Boxes to Christmas Bird Counts. If you are interested in serving in any of these areas in any capacity, please click on the volunteer opportunities link below or contact Mark Stephenson at  for more details.