Please join friends of Bei Brown on Tuesday July 30 to dedicate a memorial bench in her honor at Jewel Lake in Tilden Park.
Bei was a passionate birder, GGBA member, and volunteer in our Burrowing Owl docent program.
To attend the memorial gathering, meet at the Tilden Park Nature Center (next to the Little Farm) at 10 a.m. For information, please contact Yvette at teachmemac1@me.com.…
Join us on Sunday morning June 30th for our second PB&J Birders walk for kids and families!
This easy walk around Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park will allow little birders and their parents/guardians to look for cormorants, mallards, juncos, robins, Canada Geese, and Great Blue Herons and more! The walk is on mostly level ground along a developed and paved pathway. Most of the walk is wheelchair accessible.
Bring snacks and binoculars/scopes if you have them. PB&J Birders will bring extra binoculars, birding books, coloring projects/pages and crayons, cameras, and of course peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to share! (Please let us know if you or your kids have allergies.)
PB&J Birders walks are led by a dad (Tom) and his two daughters (Maire and Emma, one of whom designed the PB&J Birders logo). PB&J Birders events are free and open to the public.
Meet at 10 a.m. at the Stow Lake parking lot near the boathouse: http://www.stowlakeboathouse.com/index.php?page=contact.
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When you look out your window, why are you so much more likely to see a robin or a sparrow than a Kirtland’s Warbler or a California Condor? Why are some creatures commonplace and others extremely rare? Come hear Eric Dinerstein address this question and others in San Francisco on Thursday evening June 20, as part of Golden Gate Bird Alliance’s monthly Speaker Series.
Author of the new book “Kingdom of Rarities,” Eric Dinerstein is the lead scientist and vice president for conservation science at the World Wildlife Fund. His specialty areas include tropical mammals, large mammal biology, biogeography, bats, rhinos, seed dispersal, and community ecology.
Date: Thursday June 20 Time: 7 pm refreshments, 7:30 program Place: First Unitarian Universalist Church & Center, 1187 Franklin Street ( at Geary) San Francisco Cost: Free for GGBA members, $5 for others. For more information, see https://goldengatebirdalliance.org/education/speaker-series/ or email nweeden@goldengatebirdalliance.org. …
Sign up now for an unforgettable, only-in-the-Bay-Area experience — the annual Return of the Terns bus tour!
Each year, a colony of endangered California Least Terns returns to nest on the tarmac of the old Alameda naval air base. The areas is off limits to the public except for one day — Return of the Terns, when you can take a biologist-led bus tour around the edges of the breeding area. This year it’s on Saturday June 15. See terns sheltering and feeding their chicks, and learn about the challenges these tiny birds face!
Register in advance, because spaces on the three bus tours will fill up quickly. Click here for the flyer with full information.…
Golden Gate Bird Alliance has joined a lawsuit aimed at halting the death of migratory Cliff Swallows in netting installed by CalTrans at a highway bridge construction site in Petaluma.
Together with Native Songbird Care and Conservation, the Center for Biological Diversity and other conservation groups, GGBA filed suit on May 17 against the California Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration over the deadly netting.
Wildlife advocates had repeatedly been asking CalTrans and its construction contractor to remove the netting and replace it with less lethal alternatives, to no avail.
“These swallows migrate 6,000 miles each year, only to return to their nesting sites here in Northern California and face a brutal death in the CalTrans nets,” said GGBA Executive Director Mike Lynes. “The worst part is that these deaths are completely unnecessary. There are other, non-lethal ways to keep birds from nesting on bridges at construction sites.”
GGBA first wrote about the deadly swallow netting in our blog on April 17th, encouraging members to write or call CalTrans. Since then, the swallow death toll has risen from the dozens to over 100.
Following is the press release about the lawsuit:
Lawsuit Against Highway Agencies Targets Deaths of Migratory Swallows
Deadly Netting in Petaluma Has Killed, Injured More than 100 Swallows
SAN FRANCISCO – Conservation and animal protection groups filed a lawsuit Friday against the California Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration for causing and allowing the deaths of migratory cliff swallows nesting under bridges at a highway widening project in Petaluma, Calif. The agencies refuse to remove deadly netting installed at bridge overpasses as part of a Caltrans highway widening project along Highway 101 in the Marin-Sonoma Narrows. The netting has killed and injured more than 100 swallows in a one-month period.
“Incompetence and indifference by Caltrans is killing swallows that have just travelled 6,000 miles to return to a traditional nesting site, which the agency should have known about,” said Jeff Miller, a conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity. “Caltrans continues to say the problem is fixed, but the netting is ineffective and deadly. There are better ways to discourage birds from nesting at a construction site.”
Swallows in netting / Photo by Scott Manchester, Santa Rosa Press Democrat
The entrapment and killing of swallows violates the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and National Environmental Policy Act.…
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Our Mission
To inspire people to protect Bay Area birds and our shared natural environment.
Our Vision
A world where birds, wildlife, and all people flourish together.
The Golden Gate Bird Alliance is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization. Our federal tax ID number is 94-6086896
Contact Us
Golden Gate Bird Alliance
2150 Allston Way Suite 210
Berkeley, California 94704