Saturday morning dawned with a thin band of rain and fog going through the Sacramento area and apparently, this discouraged some families from showing up. Thankfully, the weather cleared by the time the families arrived.

Cliff Hawley, Lynne Tweten, Dan Williams, Craig DeMartini and Larry Hickey took two teams out who were able to find 50 species. Everyone’s favorite bird was a cooperative Merlin perched for long enough that everyone was able to look through the scopes and see this beautiful falcon. Children always enjoy the turkeys and they did not disappoint with more than 20 seen by the teams. Deer, especially a stag with large antlers were also fun for the kids to see.

There were so many raffle gifts that all children were able to pick three gifts from the tables – this, of course, is always a hit. After the raffle, Rachael Cowan, the Volunteer Coordinator for Effie Yeaw, brought out Orion, a Swainson’s Hawk who can fly but sadly, is so imprinted on humans we would not be safe, so now he will be cared for permanently by Nature Center staff. He was very calm, and everyone was incredibly impressed with how beautiful he was.

All in all, the children, their families and the SAS leaders all had a grand time!