Winter 2017 Gull is available
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Winter 2017 Gull is available

ByGGBA

Special Centennial issue of The Gull

The new edition of The Gull newsletter for Winter 2017 is now available — a special 20-page issue celebrating the Centennial of our founding in 1917!

Read it for stories and images from 100 years of protecting Bay Area birds. Learn about our successful campaigns to prevent oil spills, create Audubon Canyon Ranch, and preserve Mono Lake, and meet past GGBA heroes such as Elsie Roemer, Paul Covel, and Junea Kelly.

Also get the scoop on our traveling Centennial museum exhibit, which will be on display at five public venues throughout 2017! We hope you’ll celebrate this landmark year with us at the exhibit or at one of our other events throughout the year.

Of course this issue of The Gull also includes GGBA news updates and the calendar for our Speaker Series in January, February and March!

Click here to read it: TheGull_Winter2017.

P.S. If you’re a GGBA member who gets the Gull online by email but would like a print copy of this special edition, contact our office at ggas@goldengatebirdalliance.org. We’ll be happy to mail you one.

 

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New video! Kids promote a clean and healthy Bay

New video! Kids promote a clean and healthy Bay

ByGGBA

We’re delighted to share our new video, Doing Our Part: Kids and a Healthy Bay.

This 17-minute video features young conservation leaders from Golden Gate Bird Alliance sharing some of their favorite places and creatures along the San Francisco Bay shoreline, and their ideas for how we can all keep the Bay’s habitats clean and healthy.

Attention educators: This is a great resource to include in a curriculum on San Francisco Bay wildlife and habitats, local ecology and watersheds, and clean water.

Consider pairing the video with some time in the field, spotting Bay wildlife and helping restore the shoreline! Participants of all ages are welcome at our ongoing volunteer habitat restoration events. See goldengatebirdalliance.org/volunteer for an upcoming restoration event and date convenient to you.

Many thanks to the Alameda County Clean Water Program for funding this video.…

Become a volunteer docent!

Become a volunteer docent!

ByGGBA

Do you love wildlife? Do you love Bay Area nature? Share your passion with others as a volunteer docent with Golden Gate Bird Alliance. We’re seeking volunteers to be Burrowing Owl docents and Birding the Bay Trail docents, and will hold annual trainings for each of these roles in September.

Birding the Bay Trail Docents:

Docents help people spot birds along the Bay Trail

Share the birds along the Bay Trail with residents and visitors. You do NOT need to be an expert birder — just able to identify one or two common shorebirds or ducks.

Teams of two docents go out to pre-selected sites along the beautiful Bay Trail in Richmond and share spotting scope views of the various ducks and shorebirds that make the Bay Area their winter home each year.  Training and materials are provided.  Volunteers are asked to spend two hours once or twice a month from October through March.  This year’s training is on Thursday, September 28, from  6 to 8 p.m.  at the Golden Gate Bird Alliance office in Berkeley.  If you’re interested in attending the training, please RSVP to Noreen Weeden at 510-301-0570 or volunteer@goldengatebirdalliance.org.

Burrowing Owl Docents 

Burrowing Owl in November 2014 by Miya Lucas

Help us continue a tradition of public education and protection for our local Burrowing Owls, when they return to Cesar Chavez Park in Berkeley for the winter. Experience the joy as people see their first owl through a spotting scope or binoculars.

 This fall the Golden Gate Bird Alliance will be training additional docents to talk with the public about this locally endangered species and to help document information about these owls. Volunteers should be able to spend one to two hours per visit, at least two times a month, from October through March.

Training will take place on Saturday, September 23, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Shorebird Nature Center in Berkeley. Interested? RSVP to Noreen Weeden at 510-301-0570 orvolunteer@goldengateaudubon.org.

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Osprey nest cam news

Osprey nest cam news

ByGGBA

Thank you to everyone who has been following our Osprey nest cam on the Richmond shoreline! We had sad news on Saturday, July 9. Whirley, the older chick, was not able to survive the injuries sustained before s/he was fished out of the Bay last week.  We are reprinting excerpts from WildCare’s letter to the Osprey cam community below.

Meanwhile, Rivet — Whirley’s younger and more cautious sibling — has started taking short flights with lots of parental supervision and is doing well. If you don’t see Rivet or the parent Ospreys on the cam for a few minutes, don’t worry! They are probably flying, perching, or resting nearby. Check the “Around the nest” camera — one or more of the family is often perched on the crane’s beams near the nest.

Thank you so much to everyone who tried to help Whirley — WildCare, of course, but also the Dutra barge crew who fished the bird out of the Bay, our Osprey volunteers, and all the well wishers whose hearts were with Whirley. It is a rare privilege to have such an intimate view of a family of wild creatures, but with that privilege comes all the risk and pain of a wild life.

At Golden Gate Bird Alliance, we are committed to giving Bay Area wildlife the best possible shot at long, healthy lives and survival as species. Ospreys and other birds will always face natural threats such as diving accidents and predators, but we can minimize the risks added by humans such as trash, pollution, building collisions, and destruction of habitat.

Want to help make the Bay Area a better habitat for Rivet and other wild birds? Come to one of our habitat restoration events. Join one of our conservation committees. Or tell your friends about simple steps such as recycling their fishing line and properly disposing of trash and household chemicals.

Letter from WildCare

Dear friends:

It is with a heavy heart that we share with you the news that Whirley did not make it. The CT scan confirmed the multiple fractures that we had feared on x-rays and also clearly revealed even more structural and muscular damage beyond those. The severities of her injuries are consistent with a high velocity impact which could’ve been with a structure of some kind but due to the absence of external wounds, it is also a fair hypothesis that these were sustained from a water impact during a fishing attempt.…

Celebrate autumn with a birding class

Celebrate autumn with a birding class

ByGGBA

Are you curious about the birds in your backyard or neighborhood park? Do you know a little bit about birds but want to learn more? Or are you an experienced birder who wants to take your enjoyment and knowledge to a whole new level?

Whatever your experience level or interest… we’ve got a birding class for you this fall!

In addition to our usual line-up of excellent and convenient East Bay classes, we’re delighted to offer a Beginning Birding class in San Francisco for the first time in several years.

Birding class at MLK Shoreline in Oakland / Photo by Ilana DeBare

Choose from the following classes:

Beginning Birdwatching (meets next to Ashby BART in Berkeley)

Wild Birds of the Bay Area (for beginning and intermediate birders, meets at Fort Mason in San Francisco)

Appreciating Birds: Journaling and Field Sketching

Raptor ID in a Day (meets in Marin Headlands)

Birds of the Bay Area

Avian Treasure Hunt: Fall Migration

Birding By Ear

Registration opens for some of these classes on August 9, and for the rest of them on August 16. For dates, details, and registration links, see our Classes web page.

Our instructors are expert birders who share their passion in a welcoming, accessible manner.  Expand your understanding of the wildlife all around us… explore beautiful natural areas… meet new friends… and make autumn 2017 a season you’ll remember.…

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