Birding around the Bay Area without a Car: Derek Heins’ Big Green Year

By Jeni Schmedding

At the beginning of 2025, it wasn’t on Derek Heins’ bingo card to bike over 3,000 miles and accumulate 138,000 miles in elevation to go birding – but that is exactly what he did. 

Derek Heins is the current Treasurer for Golden Gate Bird Alliance’s Board of Directors. While his interest in birds ignited in first grade, it was not until he participated on a field trip to Grizzly Island in 1988 that this interest re-ignited. Since then Derek has traveled around the world in pursuit of spotting new bird species, observing 4,517 species since 1963. Based in the Bay Area, he typically takes his bike to different spots to look for birds. However, this past year he decided to challenge himself and have a big green year. 

For Derek, a big green year consisted of cycling and using public transportation to get to different birding locations. He made other attempts in the past but his friend encouraged him to record it this time. So, he made a new eBird account to keep track of every species found carbon-free and recorded his mileage on Strava. Once he started, he found a thrill in planning and figuring out how to get to each location, instead of just jumping in the car.

Throughout this past year, Derek gained much more than birds for checklists and miles for Strava; he found joy in the journey. In addition to the exercise he got by cycling frequently, he found himself interacting with people much more often than if he had been driving. While there was a clear trade-off between time spent in transit and time spent birding he didn’t feel the same pressure to get to a location as fast as possible to spot a special bird species before it flew away. Although he did enjoy his journey, it was also challenging and every trip presented its own strenuous tasks.

“On June 30 this year, I decided to bike to the summit (Mt. Diablo) which I typically do every year, but now with the ‘green’ biking I couldn’t just put my bike in the car and drive over to the base of the mountain.”

That morning Derek left early, riding downhill three miles to the Rockridge BART station before taking BART to downtown Walnut Creek. From there, he biked around 10 miles to the base of the mountain, taking South Gate Road up, stopping here and there for birds. 

“The main target was Bell’s Sparrow, which I found by taking a short hike near the summit,” Derek shared. “On that walk I also spotted a Lawrence’s Goldfinch which is always a treat to see.”  

Almost all the birding Derek did that day happened while climbing uphill, as going slow helped keep the noise down enough to make ID’ing birds by sound much easier. 

“I felt fairly strong biking up, though the last few hundred yards at about a twenty percent grade was brutal,” Derek recalled.  

By the end of the day Derek totaled 51 miles of biking and 4,724 of vertical climbing all to keep with his goal of conducting a “big green year”. 

Interested in doing your own big green year?

BART is a great resource for getting to most urban parks and green spaces to spot birds in the Bay. Once Derek got off BART, he used his bike to stray away from these urban areas and get out into more natural spaces. If you don’t own a bike then buses and electric scooters are a fantastic way to get around. 

The inspiration to do a big green year came from Dorian Anderson and his book, 

“Birding Under the Influence: Cycling Across America in Search of Birds and Recovery”. Dorian cycled 17,830 miles in 28 states and spotted 618 bird species in one year, while also raising $50,000 for bird conservation. Derek didn’t take this journey to multiple states like Dorian did, but he still accumulated 3,000 miles, 138,000 feet in elevation (five times climbing Everest this year), and 282 species from biking around just the Bay Area. Derek uses his journey to inspire and remind others in the region that birding is more than possible without a car.

“The great thing about biking and birding is that the birding part helps take your mind off all the hard work ahead,” Derek concluded.  “When just biking you look up to the summit and can’t stop thinking how far and high it is.  But when birding, my mind is always trying to identify anything I hear and see. It also is a great excuse for getting passed by other bikers (I’m looking for a bird!!!)’.”

Jeni Schmedding serves as GGBA’s Digital Communications Assistant. A passionate Environmental Studies professional with 3+ years of experience in education, naturalist work, and communications, Schmedding is dedicated to fostering environmental awareness and stewardship, while connecting communities to both ocean and land conservation efforts.