By Ilana DeBare
Golden Gate Bird Alliance joined International Bird Rescue on Saturday to release four of the juvenile Black-crowned Night-Herons that had been displaced and injured in a downtown Oakland tree trimming incident that drew national attention.
Five young herons had been rescued by volunteers in May when the U.S, Postal Service hired tree trimmers to prune trees filled with heron and egret nests — a violation of the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, as well as state laws protecting birds.
After weeks of care, including treatment of one bird for a fractured mandible, four of the five herons were healthy and mature enough for release into the wild. GGBA Executive Director Cindy Margulis — who had done heron releases with IBR before as a volunteer there — identified a site in the New Marsh section of Martin Luther King Jr. Shoreline Park.
GGBA also recruited some young birders — including two from our Eco-Oakland program, which provides hands-on nature education in the Oakland public schools — to open the crates for the birds.
News media, volunteers, and wildlife lovers watch the release / Photo by Rick Lewis
More than two dozen volunteers, bird photographers and news reporters gathered at the release site. The mood was upbeat and excited. We spend so much of our time on long, complex battles over threats like habitat loss and wind turbines that it was exhilarating to watch the simple return of young birds to a welcoming habitat.
And New Marsh was a particularly appropriate site. Not only is it prime foraging habitat for herons, but its continued existence is due to a successful battle waged by GGBA and our allies in the 1980s and 90s. The Port of Oakland had been trying to develop that area; we sued, and as part of the settlement, won the preservation of 73 acres of marsh. Today GGBA volunteers continue to restore habitat at MLK Shoreline, and our Eco-Oakland program uses the park as an outdoor classroom.
IBR and GGBA staff carried the blue transport crates into the fenced-off New Marsh area. The news media formed a semicircle at a safe distance. The kids opened the crates.
GGBA Executive Director Cindy Margulis helps the youngest birder / Photo by Rick Lewis
Lazuli Lune & other young birders prepare to release the herons / Photo by Doug Mosher
Yassira Murphy, a young birder from Oakland Technical High School, releases a heron / Photo by Rick Lewis
One bird leaped out and flew immediately over our heads to roost in some trees.…

By Ilana DeBare
Whew! Now that Birdathon 2014 is all wrapped up, we can take a deep breath and look around and and realize that… everyone was a winner.
The 180 people who went on great field trips. The 650 people who felt proud to sponsor a friend or donate. The 100 people who attended the Birdathon Awards Celebration on May 18 and enjoyed Rockwall wines, Linden Street beer, and terrific jazz by the Skyline High School jazztet.
And of course, the biggest winners were the beneficiaries of the money raised during Birdathon… including the kids in our Eco-Education classes, the wildlife that find food and refuge at our habitat restoration sites, and the birds whose lives are saved through conservation work like our Lights Out for Birds campaign.
Birdathon 2014 participants and supporters raised over $56,000 for all these programs — blasting past our goal of $50,000!
But still, I bet you’re thinking, Come on, Ilana, who were the PRIZE winners?
Birdathon Awards Celebration. Photo by Lee Karney.
So here’s a summary of the top birders, top fundraisers, and other honorees of Birdathon 2014:

Birding Awards

 

Best Bird

Bruce Mast and his Big Day team, for spotting a Black Vulture in Sonoma County

 

Best Bird winner Bruce Mast with Celebration attendees Juliet Cox, Denise Wight and Dave Quady. Photo by Ilana DeBare.

 

Most species in 24 hours

1st place – Bruce Mast’s team in Sonoma County, with 172 species.

2nd place – Glen Tepke and the Dippers in Alameda County, with 132 species.

3rd place – Ivan Samuels’ Miwok birding team in Bolinas, with 120 species

 

Most species in six hours

1st place – Glen Tepke and the Dippers in Oakland, with 117 species.

2nd place – Bruce Mast’s team in Sonoma County, with 87 species.

3rd place – Chris & Gary Bard’s trip in Alameda, with 77 species.

Chris Bard accepts her Birdathon award. Photo by Lee Karney.

Fundraising Awards

1st place – Bonnie Ng and Paul Kramer, who raised $2480. (The prize is two nights at a luxurious Bolinas vacation home.)
Bonnie Ng receives the award for top fundraiser from Ilana DeBare, while GGBA Board President Laura Gobbi looks on. Photo by Lee Karney
2nd place – Chris and Gary Bard, who raised $2340. (The prize is two nights at Costanoa Resort and Lodge.)
3rd place – Bob Lewis, who raised $2000. (The prize is two nights at Sierra Hot Springs resort.)…

By Holly Bern
I’d be thrilled to announce that a healthy condor had made its way into the East Bay, but, alas, it is a sick bird that has come to the Oakland Zoo to be treated for lead poisoning.
On May 1, the Oakland Zoo received its first California Condor as part of the Condor Recovery Program, in partnership with the Ventana Wildlife Society, Los Angeles Zoo, San Diego Zoo, and Pinnacles National Park.  Until now, condors from the Central California area that became ill had to travel to the Los Angeles Zoo to receive treatment. The Oakland Zoo is several hours closer, and for sick birds that difference could be crucial.
For several years, the zoo has been acquiring special permits to handle and treat the endangered birds.  They have built an enclosure and treatment center that can house as many as 6 to 8 birds. The facility is not a part of the main zoo and is not open to the public.  Because the birds are wild and the goal is to re-release them, it is important to keep them from having too much human contact and exposure.  Zoo veterinarians have made many trips down to the L.A. Zoo to learn the special techniques that are required to treat these birds.
Condor rehabilitation at the Oakland Zoo / Photo by Oakland Zoo
Although captive breeding has succeeded at increasing their numbers since they nearly went extinct, California Condors struggle to survive as they are released back into the wild.  What began in 1987 as a group of 27 condors has grown to a population of over 400 birds with more than half of those individuals now in the wild.
Wild condors now fly freely in California, Utah, Arizona, and Baja California.  Mortality due to lead poisoning is thought to be the chief obstacle to their recovery.  As scavengers, condors occasionally feed on carcasses that have been shot with lead ammunition.  Lead ammunition has been banned within condor habitat since 2008, but compliance is not 100 percent and it takes only a small piece of lead to severely poison a bird.  The birds can also range hundreds of miles and may fly beyond the reaches of the ammunition restrictions. Governor Jerry Brown signed legislation last year that will ban lead ammunition throughout all of California, but this will not go into full effect until 2019.
Condors are highly social birds whose feeding and other activities are based on a hierarchy of dominance.  …

By April Rose Sommer
Cliff swallows love a good overpass.  Unfortunately, last spring Caltrans construction to widen Highway 101 in Petaluma ran afoul of two colonial Cliff Swallow breeding sites. Caltrans contractors installed netting that was aimed at discouraging swallows from building nests there, but instead trapped and killed over 100 birds. When the agency refused to remove the netting, Golden Gate Bird Alliance joined a coalition of other conservation groups in filing a lawsuit.
Several month ago, the stakeholders reached a settlement that included the installation of less deadly exclusionary measures.  Last week, GGBA joined its fellow plaintiffs and Caltrans representative to tour the sites, view the exclusionary measures, and check up on the swallows.
Instead of the lethal netting, Caltrans has installed a barrier material called Bird Slide directly over the concrete faces of the bridge and overpass.  The exclusionary mechanism is simple – the installed materials are slick, and the swallows are unable to get mud to stick to the surface.
Petaluma highway construction – with white and beige exclusionary material on right, and area left clear with nests on left /Photo by April Rose Sommer
Broader view of the site. Again, the white exclusionary material is on the right and the area left clear for nests is on the left. / Photo by April Rose Sommer
Cliff Swallow nests are built drop by drop, with a typical nest containing 900 to 1,400 bits of hardened mud.  Mud is collected by both male and females at ponds, puddles, ditches, and other sites up to 1/2 mile away from the nest.  Mud gathering and nest construction are social activities; even unmated swallows will start nests! Most colony sites are close to a water and mud source and open fields or pastures for foraging.  In this case, the nearby Petaluma Wetlands provide ample mud for nesting, and the Petaluma River provides a desired water source.
In natural habitats, Cliff Swallows live up to their name, building their nests on cliff faces and overhangs.  But urban habitats provide a range of attractive nesting places, including buildings, bridges, and overpasses.  The swallows especially favor 90-degree angles such as the supports on the Petaluma Bridge and nearby Lakeview overpass, both part of the highway widening.  A corner nest requires less mud, thus decreasing the time needed to build.
Cliff Swallow gathering material for a nest / Photo by Bob Lewis
But all the mud, water and right angle in the world can’t help if there’s no good place to deposit the mud drops!…

Editor’s Note: Several years ago, Ivan Samuels started wondering what it would be like to do a Big Day in the style of California’s original inhabitants — no binoculars, scope, car, bike, flashlight, phone, playback equipment etc. This April was his fourth annual “Miwok-style” trip to raise money for GGBA’ Birdathon. Here is his report!
By Ivan Samuels
It was fun to daydream about where to do a Native American-style count when I first came up with the concept in 2011.  I soon settled on the area in and around the Bolinas Lagoon in Marin County due to the diversity of habitats within walking distance and the lagoon itself, which can easily be birded by kayak.  As this area was frequented by the Miwok Indians, I decided to call the team “Miwok-style.”  That year I did the count alone, setting a route that remains little changed today.  The route incorporated lush riparian, old-growth Douglas Fir, mixed conifer-hardwood, and oak woodland amongst the upland habitats.  The afternoon was then devoted to kayaking the lagoon, birding the town of Bolinas (the most altered of habitats visited) and finally scanning the rocky shore and ocean off of Duxbury Reef. 
Ivan Samuels
Repeating this route, the team added fellow San Francisco birder Brian Turner in 2012, and in 2013 and 2014 we added Peter Pyle.  In addition to being a professional ornithologist, Peter is a long-time Bolinas resident, thus bringing to the team a wealth of local knowledge about where particular species have been frequenting.  He also showed us the best route through the very shallow lagoon, and indeed our big-day list went from 105 species in 2012 to 124 in 2013!
We considered that record hard to beat when a Spotted Owl woke the team in the pre-dawn hours of April 14, 2014.  We would add a Great Horned Owl before first light, and then embark on an intense birding-by-ear hike, taking advantage of a robust spring chorus.  Our eyes played little role at this stage, although scraping in leaf litter did turn out to be the only Fox Sparrow of the day.
On the shore of the lagoon we finally felt our limitations, straining and squinting to ID distant ducks and gulls.  But most of these would be nailed down later by kayak.  A female Hooded Merganser that had spent the winter at the mouth of Pine Gulch Creek put in a fly-by, and perhaps our best bird of the day, a Green Heron, was spotted by Peter as it settled on a snag.…