BY BARRY EBERLING DAILY REPUBLIC FAIRFIELD — Tom Clough maintains the 24 wood duck boxes mounted on posts near the ponds and waterways of the California Farms duck club deep in Suisun Marsh, hoping to one day see a sight he’s been waiting to see. Wood ducks nest in the boxes. When the eggs hatch, the mother wood duck gets on the ground below the box and calls to the ducklings, Clough said. The ducklings jump several feet to the ground with outstretched wings and the family disappears into the tules. Clough has been a member of the duck club for seven years. Perhaps this will be the spring that he sees the ducklings jump. “That would be wonderful,” he said with a smile. But Clough seems content to miss the big jump, too. He seems content merely to be helping out one of the more colorful types of ducks that make their home in the marsh. “They’re gorgeous,” he said. The male wood duck has green, purple and blue, iridescent feath- ers, in addition to black and white, and has red eyes. The female, though an inconspicuous brown, has a purple gleam to her feathers. Wood ducks nest in tree cavities. But only 10 percent of California’s riparian forests near waterways re- main, according to the California Waterfowl Association. The association has since 1991 encouraged people to set up wood duck boxes near creeks, ditches, sloughs and ponds to serve as homes for the birds in lieu of trees. This program has more than 400 volunteers and hatches more than 30,000 ducklings each year, boost- ing a population that, while not See Habitat, Page A6 A PLACE TO NEST Mike Greener/Daily Republic Tom Clough, of the Cal Farms Duck Club, finds a nest full of wood duck eggs during his morning walk around the property inspecting pre-built wood duck boxes. Because of the lack of wooded habitat for the wood ducks in the Suisun Marsh, the club has built numerous boxes to encourage the species to nest. Habitat gets boost Duck Club encourages egg laying with boxes endangered, has at times since 1900 experienced huge dips. At least seven property owners on Suisun Marsh are taking part in the pro- gram. California Farms last year had 40 ducklings hatch in its boxes. “They’re a lot of fun,” Clough said. “We don’t shoot them. We raise them for fun and to watch them grow.” Spotting a wood duck can take some doing, though. Clough watches for them in the early morning and late evening. “Wood ducks are very secretive,” Clough said. “You don’t see them very often.” A short distance from California Farms down a dirt road -- actually, a rut- ted road with frequent, deep mud puddles follow- ing storms -- is the Grizzly duck club. Rich Tesene and his wife Diane live there in a 1913 ranch house left over from the days when people still farmed Suisun Marsh. About 15 years ago, Tesene got some 40 wood duck eggs, incubated them and hatched them. He too has wood duck boxes. But no wood ducks can be seen through the windows of his house amid the tules and ponds of the Grizzly club on this drizzly morning in March. “Right now, they’re probably out there,” Tesene said. “They’re out of sight.” Yet the Tesenes have photographed the wood ducks plenty of times. They have a large, wooden feed- er in front of their house. One photograph shows the feeder completely ob- scured by a couple dozen wood ducks vying for the feed. Another photograph shows about 20 wood ducks crowded on top of a tele- phone pole. Diane Tesene was able to get a photo of the secre- tive duck in full flight heading right toward her camera. She accomplished this by using a duck blind. Ask Clough or Rich Tesene about the lure of the wood ducks and they come forth with no easy an- swers nor do they spout rhapsodies. Yet their ac- tions demonstrate their at- tachment to the ducks, in- cluding the enthusiasm with which they share their knowledge. Clough lives in Concord and is semi-retired. He and his wife Christine come to California Farms every few weeks in the spring to walk the perimeter of the property, look for wildlife and check on the wood duck boxes. The 40 or so wood ducks hatched last year at Cali- fornia Farms was less than half the numbers that hatched in previous years. “It wasn’t predators,” Clough said. “They just weren’t here like they were in year’s past.” But 2011 is a new year. Spring is here, the wood ducks have returned to Su- isun Marsh and the color- ful bird is once again find- ing homes in the boxes in- stalled by those who care about them. Reach Barry Eberling at 425-4646, ext. 232, or beberling@ dailyrepublic.net. Habitat: Marsh advocates help wood ducks From Page One
Transcript
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON —President Barack Oba-ma’s decision to use un-manned Predator dronesin Libya widened whathad become very limitedU.S. participation in theair war, but the aircraftcredited with taking outterrorist leaders in west-ern Pakistan probably
Sending just two re-motely piloted Predators,each with two Hellfiremissiles designed topierce armor, over Libya24 hours a day is far froma game-changing additionto an air campaign that
BY IAN THOMPSONDAILY REPUBLIC
FAIRFIELD — JanicePerez directed her son En-rique to drop his line intothe water next to the CivicCenter pond bridge Satur-day morning, saying itseemed the fish were bit-ing there.
Sure enough, the 8-year-
old soon had caught twobass.
“He just loves fishing,and he has been lookingforward to this day forweeks,” Perez said.
The Perez family wasone of a couple hundredpeople who lined the CivicCenter pond as part of theKid’s Day of Fishing andthe Earth Day celebration
put on by the City of Fair-field. The event happenedeight days after Earth Day.
“It has been a greatevent. There are a lot ofhappy kids here today,”said Mike Johns, presidentof Kid’s Day of Fishing.
He estimated about 320children 16 years old andunder showed up for theevent, which is hosted by
the Fairfield Kiwanis Club.The first 200 received afree fishing pole, tackle,bait and a T-shirt.
The Lazy Q Fish Ranchfrom Dixon primed thepump for the fishing derbyon Wednesday by stockingthe Fairfield Civic Centerpond with about 500 catfish
BY BARRY EBERLINGDAILY REPUBLIC
FAIRFIELD — Tom Cloughmaintains the 24 wood duck boxesmounted on posts near the pondsand waterways of the CaliforniaFarms duck club deep in SuisunMarsh, hoping to one day see a sighthe’s been waiting to see.
Wood ducks nest in the boxes.When the eggs hatch,
the mother woodduck gets on theground below thebox and calls tothe ducklings,
Clough said. Theducklings jump several feet to theground with outstretched wings andthe family disappears into the tules.
Clough has been a member of theduck club for seven years. Perhapsthis will be the spring that he seesthe ducklings jump.
“That would be wonderful,” hesaid with a smile.
But Clough seems content tomiss the big jump, too. He seemscontent merely to be helping outone of the more colorful types ofducks that make their home in themarsh.
“They’re gorgeous,” he said.The male wood duck has green,
purple and blue, iridescent feath-ers, in addition to black and white,and has red eyes. The female,though an inconspicuous brown,has a purple gleam to her feathers.
Wood ducks nest in tree cavities.But only 10 percent of California’sriparian forests near waterways re-main, according to the California
Waterfowl Association.The association has since 1991
encouraged people to set up woodduck boxes near creeks, ditches,sloughs and ponds to serve ashomes for the birds in lieu of trees.
This program has more than 400volunteers and hatches more than30,000 ducklings each year, boost-ing a population that, while not
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ROME — Thousands ofyoung people have flood-ed an ancient Roman fieldfor an all-night prayer vig-il honoring Pope JohnPaul II on the eve of hisbeatification, remember-ing his teachings, travelsand his own suffering.
Pilgrims waving flagsfrom Poland, Spain, Ger-many and Brazil on Satur-day filled the Circus Max-imus, which twinkled withthe light of thousands ofcandles as choirs fromJohn Paul’s native Poland,the Philippines and Italysang. They listened as aFrench nun who sufferedfrom Parkinson’s recount-ed how she was cured af-ter praying to John Paul,who also battled the samedisease.
The Vatican has de-creed that Sister Marie Si-mone-Pierre’s inexplica-ble healing was the mira-cle needed to beatify JohnPaul, a process that willreach its culmination to-day during a Mass in St.
Peter’s Square celebratedby Pope Benedict XVI.
Benedict put John Paulon the fast-track for possi-ble sainthood when he dis-pensed with the tradition-al five-year waiting periodand allowed the beatifica-tion process to beginweeks after his April 2,2005 death. Benedict wasresponding to chants of“Santo Subito” or “Saint-hood Immediately” whicherupted during JohnPaul’s funeral.
On Saturday night, a“Santo Subito” bannerwas emblazoned on theside of the Circus Max-imus field, and film ofJohn Paul’s final momentsand his funeral remindedthose gathered of the tear-ful days many had wit-nessed six years earlier,when St. Peter’s over-flowed with some 3 mil-lion people paying theirlast respects to the pope.
“He died a saint,” Car-dinal Stanislaw Dziwisz,John Paul’s longtime
TRIPOLI, Libya —Libyan leader MoammarGadhafi escaped a NATOmissile strike in Tripoli onSaturday, but his youngestson and three grandchil-dren under the age of 12were killed, a governmentspokesman said.
The strike, which came
hours after Gadhafi calledfor a cease-fire and negoti-ations in what rebels calleda publicity stunt, markedan escalation of interna-tional efforts to prevent theLibyan regime from re-gaining momentum.
Rebels honked hornsand chanted “Allahu
A PLACE TO NEST
Mike Greener/Daily Republic
Tom Clough, of the Cal Farms Duck Club, finds a nest full of wood duckeggs during his morning walk around the property inspecting pre-builtwood duck boxes. Because of the lack of wooded habitat for the woodducks in the Suisun Marsh, the club has built numerous boxes toencourage the species to nest.
Pope to beatifylate John Paul;vigil held prior
Robinson Kuntz/Daily Republic
Fishermen dip their bait into the water at the Civic CenterPond Saturday during the Earth Day fishing derby.
Event celebrates Mother Earth
The Associated Press
A Polish choir sings in front of a photo of the late PopeJohn Paul II in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican Saturday.
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and bass for Saturday’sKid’s Day of Fishing.
A dozen organizationsranging from the SierraClub and the UC DavisMaster Gardeners pro-gram to the Fairfield FireDepartment and PacificGas & Electric’s energyconservation programwere in attendance.
The Solano CountyMosquito Abatement Dis-trict brought some of of itsmosquito fish with it toshow residents how theycould “fight the bite” andput a crimp in the mosqui-to population in an envi-ronmentally friendly way.
The Solar UniverseNetwork was handing outinformation about solarenergy while signing peo-ple up to get an assess-ment of their homes to seeif solar panels could be in-stalled there.
Jane Bogman of theSierra Club was showingpeople how they couldmake compost tea, whichBogman stated “is better
than Miracle Gro.”All the tea involved
was filling about a third ofa container with compost,then filling the rest withwater and then simply let-ting it ferment. The re-sults are then poured in agarden.
“The longer it fer-ments, the better it gets,”Bogman said while show-ing a sample to a passer-by.
Bogman called theevent very important “be-cause it’s an affirmationthat we are paying atten-tion to our planet.
“Karen Cloutier of Su-isun City was one of thosewho came to the EarthDay fair to find out moreinformation about how tobe more environmentallyaware.
“I am here because Iam really interested in re-cycling and sustainabili-ty,” Cloutier said.
endangered, has at timessince 1900 experiencedhuge dips.
At least seven propertyowners on Suisun Marshare taking part in the pro-gram. California Farmslast year had 40 ducklingshatch in its boxes.
“They’re a lot of fun,”Clough said. “We don’tshoot them. We raise themfor fun and to watch themgrow.”
Spotting a wood duckcan take some doing,though. Clough watches forthem in the early morningand late evening.
“Wood ducks are verysecretive,” Clough said.“You don’t see them veryoften.”
A short distance fromCalifornia Farms down adirt road -- actually, a rut-ted road with frequent,
deep mud puddles follow-ing storms -- is the Grizzlyduck club. Rich Teseneand his wife Diane livethere in a 1913 ranch houseleft over from the dayswhen people still farmedSuisun Marsh. About 15 years ago, Tesene gotsome 40 wood duck eggs,incubated them andhatched them.
He too has wood duckboxes. But no wood duckscan be seen through thewindows of his house amidthe tules and ponds of theGrizzly club on this drizzlymorning in March.
“Right now, they’reprobably out there,”Tesene said. “They’re outof sight.”
Yet the Tesenes havephotographed the woodducks plenty of times. Theyhave a large, wooden feed-er in front of their house.
One photograph shows thefeeder completely ob-scured by a couple dozenwood ducks vying for thefeed. Another photographshows about 20 wood duckscrowded on top of a tele-phone pole.
Diane Tesene was ableto get a photo of the secre-tive duck in full flightheading right toward hercamera. She accomplishedthis by using a duck blind.
Ask Clough or RichTesene about the lure ofthe wood ducks and theycome forth with no easy an-swers nor do they spoutrhapsodies. Yet their ac-tions demonstrate their at-tachment to the ducks, in-cluding the enthusiasmwith which they share theirknowledge.
Clough lives in Concordand is semi-retired. He andhis wife Christine come to
California Farms everyfew weeks in the spring towalk the perimeter of theproperty, look for wildlifeand check on the woodduck boxes.
The 40 or so wood duckshatched last year at Cali-fornia Farms was less thanhalf the numbers thathatched in previous years.
“It wasn’t predators,”Clough said. “They justweren’t here like they werein year’s past.”
But 2011 is a new year.Spring is here, the woodducks have returned to Su-isun Marsh and the color-ful bird is once again find-ing homes in the boxes in-stalled by those who careabout them.
Habitat: Marsh advocates help wood ducksFrom Page One
Akbar” or “God is great”while speeding through thewestern city of Misrata,which Gadhafi’s forceshave besieged and subject-ed to random shelling fortwo months, killing hun-dreds. Fireworks were setoff in front of the centralHikma hospital, causing abrief panic that the lightwould draw fire from Gad-hafi’s forces.
The attack struck thehouse of Gadhafi’s youngestson, Seif al-Arab, when theLibyan leader and his wifewere inside. White Housespokesman Shin Inouye de-clined to comment on thedevelopments in Libya, re-ferring questions to NATO.
The alliance acknowl-edged that it had struck a“command and controlbuilding in the Bab al-Az-izya neighborhood” Satur-day evening, but it could notconfirm the death of Gad-hafi’s son and insisted all itstargets are military in na-ture and linked to Gadhafi’ssystematic attacks on thepopulation.
The commander of theNATO operation, CanadianLt. Gen. Charles Bouchard,said he was aware of uncon-firmed reports that someGadhafi family membersmay have been killed and
he regretted “all loss of life,specially the innocent civil-ians being harmed as a re-sult of the ongoing conflict.”
Seif al-Arab Gadhafi, 29,was the youngest son ofGadhafi and brother of thebetter known Seif al-IslamGadhafi, who had beentouted as a reformist beforethe uprising began in mid-February. The youngerGadhafi had spent much ofhis time in Germany in re-cent years.
Gadhafi’s children hadbeen increasingly engagedin covering up scandals fitfor a “Libyan soap opera,”including negative publici-ty from extravagant dis-plays of wealth such as amillion-dollar private con-
cert by pop diva Beyonce,according to a batch ofdiplomatic cables releasedby the secret-spilling Wik-iLeaks website.
But Seif al-Arab re-mained largely in the shad-ows, although he had a pen-chant for fast cars and par-tying when outside Libya.
Moammar Gadhafi andhis wife were in the Tripolihouse of his 29-year-old sonwhen it was hit by at leastone bomb dropped from aNATO warplane, accordingto Libyan spokesmanMoussa Ibrahim.
“The leader himself is ingood health,” Ibrahim said.“He was not harmed. Thewife is also in good health.”
Ibrahim would not give
the names of the three chil-dren killed, except to saythey were nieces andnephews of Seif al-Araband that they were youngerthan 12. He said they arenot releasing the names yetto protect the privacy ofthe family.
He said the compoundthat was hit was in theGarghour neighborhood.
“It seems there was in-telligence that was leaked.They knew about some-thing. They expected himfor some reason. But thetarget was very clear, very,very clear. And the neigh-borhood, yes of course, be-cause the leader family hasa place there, you could ex-pect of course it would beguarded, but it is a normalneighborhood. NormalLibyans live there,” hesaid.
NATO warplanes havebeen carrying outairstrikes in Libya for thepast month as part of aU.N. mandate to protectLibyan civilians. Satur-day’s strike marked thefirst time Gadhafi’s familywas being targeted direct-ly.
Armed rebels have beenbattling Gadhafi loyalistsfor more than two monthsin an attempt to oustLibya’s ruler of nearly 42 years.
Gadhafi: Libyan leader escapes NATO strikeFrom Page One
features an array of high-flying French, British andother European jets bomb-ing Libyan ground targetsand enforcing a no-flyzone.
The small scale of thisPredator deployment sug-gests that drones, while ef-fective, have a downside.The weapon has become adetested symbol of U.S.military might in Pakistan,where their use is toleratedby the U.S.-backed govern-ment but widely criticizedby Pakistanis. AfghanPresident Hamid Karzaisometimes has decried theuse of U.S. drones, whichhe blames for civiliandeaths.
Their use in Libya is re-ally only a half-step backinto the fight. Bigger U.S.bombers and other fire-power remain idle.
Stephen Biddle, a mili-tary analyst at the Councilon Foreign Relations, saidthe reasons are as muchdiplomatic as military.
“A big part of what’s go-ing on is our British andFrench allies want to getout of what looks to be astalemate that they nowown, so they are busy pres-suring us to escalate, andwe don’t want to escalate,”he said. “One of the thingsthe Predators do is theygive you something that al-lows you to say to theBritish and the French,‘We’re doing more,’ butdoesn’t get us a lot morecommitted.”
Biddle called the addi-tion of two Predators a“marginal” gain for NATO
that won’t give the alliancethe upper hand or stopGadhafi’s attacks on civil-ians.
“But it helps solve theimmediate issue of re-sponding to pressure fromallies,“ Biddle said.
Britain and France wereamong the first to push forinternational military in-tervention in Libya. TheObama administration lat-er was persuaded to goalong.
Using the Predator at allin Libya shows how airpower has evolved in re-cent years.
Piloted aircraft such asthe F-15 Strike Eagle andthe B-52 bomber that longhave been the backbone ofthe Air Force carry morepowerful and larger num-bers of bombs and mis-siles. But the Predator hasthe advantage of flexibleresponse to hard-to-tracktargets, including vehicleswhose occupants can beidentified on a Predator’scamera.
Marine Gen. JamesCartwright, the vice chair-man of the Joint Chiefs ofStaff, told reporters lastweek that the Predatorcan, for example, strike avehicle parked near an am-munition depot with suchprecision that there is lessrisk of the ammunition ex-ploding and creating unin-tended casualties.
“So it brings some capa-bilities to the NATO com-mander that they didn’thave before,” Cartwrightsaid.
After a Pentagon meet-ing Tuesday with DefenseSecretary Robert Gates
and Adm. Mike Mullen, theJoint Chiefs chairman,British Defense MinisterLiam Fox thanked the ad-ministration for providingarmed Predators. Fox saidat a news conference withGates that drones had in-creased NATO’s ability tostrike with precision in ur-ban areas and with lessrisk of civilian casualties.
“There is little doubtacross the alliance that thiskey contribution hasproven to be immense val-ue protecting civilians inMisrata,” Fox said. Misratais the rebel-city in the Gad-hafi stronghold of westernLibya that has come undersiege by his forces for twomonths.
The first Predator strikein Libya was Apr. 23, andas of Friday they had madea total of six attacks, main-ly against surface-to-airmissile systems, accordingto the Pentagon.
The Predator drone isequipped with camerasthat feed live video toground commanders andothers as it hovers over atarget.
When the Predator isconfigured for attack, twoHellfire anti-tank missilesare strapped to the drone.It is operated remotely byan Air Force a pilot andcamera operator workingat consoles at an air base inNevada. The absence of apilot in the cockpit elimi-nates the human risk, andthe pilot’s access to livevideo transmissions meanshe or she can fire missilesat targets that appear sud-denly.
At the outset of the air
campaign in Libya onMarch 19, the U.S. took thelead role. It launcheddozens of long-range Tom-ahawk cruise missiles fromNavy ships and sub-marines in the Mediter-ranean. Air Force planes,including B-2 bombers fly-ing round trip from theirbase in Missouri, partici-pated in airstrikes aimedlargely at disabling Libya’sair defenses radars andmissiles.
But Obama said fromthe start that the U.S.would quickly transition toa back-seat role. It was onApril 4, two days later thanscheduled, when NATO as-sumed full command of theair campaign and the U.S.stopped flying offensivestrike missions.
The U.S. continued in asupport role with aerial re-fueling missions andplanes used for surveil-lance and to interceptLibyan communications. Ithas continued to fly elec-tronic warfare planes thatjam Libyan radars and onseveral occasions have at-tacked air defense sites.
When Gates announcedlast Thursday that Preda-tors, which had been flyingunarmed surveillance mis-sions over Libya, were be-ing outfitted with missilesto join in NATO airstrikesagainst pro-regime forces,he denied this amounted to“mission creep,” the grad-ual enlarging of the goalsof American military in-volvement.
Gates said the Predatorsadd “a very limited capa-bility.”
Predator: Drones controversial in PakistanFrom Page One
secretary, told the crowd.The vigil was to last all
night, a so-called “whitenight” of prayer to be con-tinued in eight churcheskept open in the city cen-ter before barricadesaround St. Peter’s Squareopen to pilgrims at 5:30 a.m. for the 10 a.m.beatification Mass.
The beatification istaking place despite asteady drumbeat of criti-cism about the record-fastspeed with which JohnPaul is being honored,and continued outrageabout the clerical abusescandal: Many of thecrimes and cover-ups ofpriests who raped chil-dren occurred on JohnPaul’s 27-year watch.
“I hope he didn’t knowabout the pedophiles,”said Sister Maria LuisaGarcia, a Spanish nun at-tending the vigil. “If hedid, it was an error. Butno one is perfect, onlyGod.”
At the very least, shesaid, the church hadlearned as a result of thescandal, “that a person’sdignity, especially achild’s, is more importantthan the church’s image.”
Video montagesshown during the vigilshowed various scenes ofJohn Paul’s lengthy pon-tificate, his teachingsabout marriage and jus-tice. One of the firstshown was of his finalEaster, when he was un-able to speak from hisstudio window, too hob-bled by Parkinson’s, andonly managed a weakblessing of the crowd.
Sister Marie, theFrench nun, said that atthe time she couldn’t bearto watch John Paul’s con-dition worsen because sheknew his slow declinewould be her fate.
“In him, I was remind-ed of what I was livingthrough,” she told thecrowd. “But I always ad-mired his humility, hisstrength, his courage.”
Beatify: John Paul IIFrom Page One
The Associated Press file
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi waves to supporters ashe arrives to speak in Tripoli, Libya, in March.
