• 7 Last Minute Gifts for “the Bird-Obsessed”

    By Ryan Nakano

    Not all of us are early birds, especially when it comes to finding the perfect gift for our loved ones during the holiday season. It’s been a busy time for so many of us, hence the timing of this blog. That said, I’ve put together a quick gift guide for the “bird obsessed” people in your life! Even if these gifts don’t make it “in time”, we all know time is simply a construct and your friends and family will enjoy these bird-themed gifts no matter the date and occasion.

    1. Alan Krakauer’s Birds of the Bay Area Desk Calendar $25

      One of our year-round Golden Gate Bird Alliance residents is none other than the incredible birder, biologist and wildlife photographer Alan Krakauer. We’ve been using Alan’s bird photos for years and years because he’s just that good. But don’t take our word for it, you can snag one of the few remaining 2024 Birds of the Bay Area Calendars from Alan’s Etsy page just in time to track the new year. That means you’ll be able to add at least one new species to your list as each month passes! 

    1. Bird Friendly Chocolate and Coffee  $13-40

    While these are truly two separate bird-friendly items of indulgence, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to list these as a combo (who doesn’t love balancing a little bitter with their sweet?). Still, let’s break these two down so you really know what you’re in for, starting with the chocolate.

     Our very own board member Sharol Nelson-Embry has not only been instrumental in bird conservation efforts in Alameda and chairing our Annual Birdathon Fundraiser, but she’s also spoiled us year after year with some of the best chocolate I’ve ever had. It just so happens, this chocolate is bird-friendly! What makes it bird-friendly? Sharol explains how farming and harvest techniques friendly to native birds is what makes this chocolate truly sweet in her blog here! 

    Okay, on to coffee! For all you earlybirds trying to go owling at unreasonable hours, I have to believe the day starts with coffee. And if that’s the case, make the best part of waking up bird-friendly coffee in your cup! This shade-grown organic coffee by Birds&Beans is the only coffee we drink in the office, making it essentially a daily ritual and it’s surely fueling the writing of this very blog post. Whether you get it straight from the source or you want to join our coffee-club, you won’t be disappointed! …

  • Birding by EV: Reluctantly Joining the Car Culture

    By Whitney Grover

    Living in San Francisco without a car was easy. I could do everything I needed to do by bicycle, bus, or on foot. Everything that is, except the only thing that really mattered: birding. 

    I have mad respect for birders who don’t blink an eye at hopping on the bike and setting off on a one-hour (one-way) ride across town, or adding 45 minutes to an already 30 minute bicycle commute for a pre-work session. Occasionally I’d muster up the spirit, but somewhere halfway up the hill leaving the Presidio I’d be questioning all my life choices. 

    I met some of my best birding friends by hitching rides, but you can only ask so many times before guilt starts getting you down. 

    Buses, forget it. Try being stuck on a packed 38-Geary, making all the stops, just imagining that rare warbler at Lands End taking off. Even if rarity chasing is not your thing most bus routes don’t operate early enough on weekends. 

    I truly enjoy patch birding but every now and then as you round that familiar corner of that familiar trail, listening to those familiar songs, you start dreaming of far-off exotic places like Mitchell Canyon and Coyote Hills. 

    I believe in a future where humans live densely and efficiently, concentrated in well-designed cities, and preserving vast landscapes for wild nature. Everyone can walk to an urban park in 10 minutes, or hop on a quiet, 24-7, carbon-free train to visit those wildlands. But the reality is, as it stands, our infrastructure is car-based. So I met the world where it is and purchased an electric vehicle. 

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    Charging my EV – Whitney Grover

    Road-Tripping

    Birding by EV in the Bay Area is easy. Chargers are abundant and staying within 100 miles of city limits gives me no range anxiety. As the years go by, more and more chargers are deployed and I run into fewer broken or busy stations. Road trips along major highways are no problem at all, following the I-5 from Washington to San Diego takes five minutes of pre-planning. Half a dozen apps exist to help with charge station mapping and trip planning. Every three hours or so I stop for a 45 minute charge, not bad. (And if you can make the investment, newer EV makes and models can charge at fast chargers in half the time). 

    When I meet folks who reject the idea of electric vehicles or think it’s just not viable I ask them to consider all the time their car sits.…

  • De-Pave Park in Alameda: A Win for the Birds

    By Sharol Nelson-Embry and Linda Carloni 

    Last night was a win for the birds as the Alameda City Council voted four-to-one in favor of offering the maximum amount of wildlife habitat at “a “De-Pave Park”, a planned nature park on a section of the former Naval Air Station, now called Alameda Point. At least seven speakers talked passionately and eloquently about how the removal of the existing structures was important in creating the largest habitat possible for birds and other wildlife, as well as a shoreline that will accommodate sea-level rise, sequester carbon, and provide a place for people to enjoy nature and the expansive views of San Francisco. 

    .kb-image58043_d05028-42 .kb-image-has-overlay:after{opacity:0.3;} Final De-Pave Park Vision Plan

    De-Pave Park has been in the works since 2014, when it was first proposed to remove the paving on a section of the old Naval Air Station (thus the name, “De-Pave”) and create a nature-oriented park with public access and intertidal connection. The process included extensive public outreach to people and businesses from throughout Alameda including; Friends of the Alameda Wildlife Reserve (FAWR) – the GGBA Conservation Committee for the City of Alameda – as well as our allies from the Sierra Club, Baykeeper, and Community Action for a Sustainable Alameda (CASA). During the process, the City, partnering with Literacy for Environmental Justice, received an $800,000 grant from the San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority (Measure AA funding). The grant funds a community stewardship program, completion of a master plan and 30% of the design plans. 

    The most recent planning phase gathered public input on the options of retaining one of the structures and its support buildings, referred to as Building 25, with a large section of land around it protected by a levee (Option 1); or retaining Building 25 with a reduced section of land still protected by a levee (Option 2); or demolishing Building 25 and using the additional three acres to create a larger nature park (Option 3). FAWR, alongside its allies, has worked hard to support Option 3 with letters written by GGBA Executive Director, Glenn Phillips, our allies and our FAWR members. We’ve gone to multiple meetings and spoken to support the full nature park afforded by Option 3, and written articles for the local newspapers and online news outlet, the Alameda Post to educate Alameda residents about the importance of creating new wetlands for the birds. 

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  • Sequela: Nature Poems in Response to Climate Crisis

    by David Rice

    Art by Tex Buss

    Tanka is a lyrical poetic form written in Japan for the past twelve-hundred-plus years and by English-language poets for about a hundred years. It aims to crystallize emotional responses to specific perceptions and often includes a link-and-shift somewhere in its five lines. 

    dawn
    three coyotes watch me
    and a thrush sings
    could be the last century 
    — we can’t go back

    Adding prose allows the poet to expand the context of the short poem. I have written a tanka prose book, “Sequelae”, that looks at our responses to the climate crisis. Tex Buss’s painting is on the cover, and the book also includes nine of her bird paintings.

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    Room For Improvement

    If we were to change our climate course, who would steer? The wealthiest five-percent, who use thirty-five percent of the carbon, are on cruise control. Those who lack resources are just trying to stay on the road. Can those of us in the middle grab the wheel and turn us off the super-sized highway?

    a woodpecker hammers but
    that telephone pole
    is no longer a tree
    how do we drill
    beneath our daily routines?

    Lost Bird: Reward

    Mid-1950s, snow on the ground, and one morning a flock of Evening Grosbeaks in our backyard. The bird book promised warblers in spring. Back then, climate change was for geologists, extinction for dinosaurs.

    the global thermometer
    cardinal red
    we’re goldfinch
    so pleased with our song
    we can’t stop

    Money, fittest of all survivors, always flies. The oil barons could leave some in the ground, but depending on alpha predators to nurture their prey for the common good is a bad bet. Still, I’ve got to put my chips down . . . on green.

    old jigsaw puzzle
    a robin hidden
    in a leafed-out oak
    I must keep looking
    for the lost piece  

    The book also contains four prose birding pieces. 

    I can close my eyes and see the Short-eared Owl perched on the standing four-foot, broken-off tree trunk in the middle of the meadow as twilight fades to night. Then it’s another year, and I see the full-moon-lit meadow, where magic is afoot and anything is possible.

    I’ve spent six months here, over a forty-year period, backpack camping at Snag Lake. These trips were Golden Gate Audubon Society birding trips I co-led with Robin Pulich. The tiny lodgepole pines have advanced on the meadow from the forest, and then have died when a heavy snow-melt year submerged the meadow in two feet of water.…