By Marissa Ortega-Welch

Gathered in the cafeteria of their school at eight a.m. on a school day morning in June, the three third grade classes of Esperanza Elementary repeat after me, matching their hand motions to mine in a sort of a dance that they know well:

“Rain … Creek … Bay …. Ocean.”

“Can you do it faster?” I challenge them. “On the count of three…”

They barely wait for me to count: “Rain, creek, bay, ocean!”

During their year of Eco-Education programs with Golden Gate Bird Alliance, this chant has become a mantra for these Oakland third graders. They’ve learned that the rain fills the creeks, which empty into San Francisco Bay and then out to the ocean. They’ve visited creek and bay shoreline habitats on field trips to Knowland Park and Arrowhead Marsh. They’ve also learned through an interactive physical watershed model that I bring to their classroom that the storm drains in their city streets are connected to this system too and when trash enters the storm drain, it’s heading for the bay and ocean as well.

But many of these students, as well as the students in our Richmond and San Francisco programs, have never actually been to the ocean. That’s why we’re gathered here so early in the morning, along with about twenty parent chaperones and a handful of our dedicated Golden Gate Bird Alliance Eco-Ed volunteers.

Call us crazy, but we’re taking sixty third graders to the beach.

These beach field trips have always been a capstone for GGBA’ year-long Eco-Education program. Some of our schools go as a family field trip on a weekend – a wonderful opportunity both for families to spend time together in nature and for us as educators to reach beyond just our elementary school students. Other schools opt to visit the beach as a weekday school field trip so that all the students are able to attend, regardless of whether their parent can accompany them.

After a brief safety talk at the school with the students and parents, we board the three buses GGBA has chartered for Esperanza Elementary and begin the hour-long drive to Muir Beach in Marin. The students squeal in delight as we cross the bay from Richmond and see the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance.

We arrive at the beach in time for low tide. I always like to circle the students around the first rock we see and point out how from a distance it just looks like a rock but, as we come closer, we see it is actually covered with living organisms — barnacles, mussels, and snails.…

By Noreen Weeden
Ten representatives from Audubon Society chapters and National Audubon staff came together in St. Paul, MN earlier this month to share ideas and strategies for protecting birds from building collisions.
I was excited to be part of this group, representing Golden Gate Bird Alliance and the Pacific Flyway. GGBA has been in the forefront on this issue, successfully pushing for Bird-Safe Building Standards in San Francisco and Oakland and mounting a Lights Out for Birds educational campaign during migration season.
Other chapters have been working on bird-building safety too. But until this summit, there had been no coordinated initiative on this across the massive Audubon network.
That changed with the Bird Safe Buildings Summit, funded by a Toyota TogetherGreen grant that let us spend three days sharing information and challenges and crafting a common vision statement.
The group included representatives from the Atlantic, Mississippi, Central, and Pacific Flyways – the migration-based divisions that National Audubon uses to focus its work. We first gathered outdoors at dinner in downtown St. Paul, a city along the Mississippi River. American Robins were singing in the park across the street and a bit later Chimney Swifts flew overhead. The next day, we lunched on an island in the Mississippi where we watched Cliff Swallows nesting under the bridge. On an evening riverboat ride, we had the opportunity to see an Osprey nesting on a platform provided by the local power company as well as several Bald Eagles that nested nearby.
This is not to imply we were sitting around birding the whole time! But it shows the challenges faced by birds in cities like St. Paul – where prime river or coastal migration routes run into walls of glass-paneled skyscrapers.
The Mississippi migration route, where adjacent buildings create a collision risk / Photo by Noreen Weeden
Glass-walled buildings like this one in St. Paul are deadly to birds, which don’t perceive the glass / Photo by Noreen Weeden
Clear glass skyways like this one in St. Paul are another hazard for birds / Photo by Noreen Weeden
Faced with migratory bird-building collisions, Audubon Minnesota has established a bird monitoring route through the downtown area. We followed the route, which volunteers walk daily during migration season to collect birds that have been injured or killed in building collisions. This kind of monitoring provides data that can be used to educate building owners and tenants, and track the success of preventive measures.…

Editor’s note: Make your voice heard! Email state legislators today about protecting the Mokelumne River. There is an important hearing on Monday June 23.
By Andrea Cassidy
The Mokelumne River in the central Sierra Nevada may seem far from the Bay Area, but we have a vital connection: It’s the source for much of our drinking water through the East Bay Municipal Utility District.
Friends of the River and the Foothill Conservancy have been working to protect the Mokelumne River for 24 years. They had hoped to have it designated as a wild and scenic river under the Federal Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, enacted under President Lyndon Johnson. However, their congressman Tom McClintock (R-Elk Grove) does not support the federal program to protect rivers. Thus, one year ago, the organizations changed direction and decided to seek protection of the Mokelumne under the California Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. While the California Act is not as protective as the federal act, it would prevent new and larger dams from being installed on the Mokelumne River.
Since the state representatives in the Foothill area are not supportive of the conservation efforts, the local sponsors sought support from State Senator Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley) whose district consumes 90 percent of the water obtained from the Mokelumne River. Hancock introduced Senate Bill 1199 in February. It passed in the Senate and is being heard by the Assembly Natural Resources Committee next Monday, June 23. If it gets out of committee, it will go before the full Assembly. It would designate 37 miles of the Mokelumne River as a California Wild and Scenic River. The proposed stretch runs from Salt Springs Dam to the Pardee Resevoir.
North Fork of the Mokelumne / Courtesy of Foothill Conservancy
North Fork of the Mokelumne
The protection is being sought because the Mokelumne River is already oversubscribed and further dams could destroy the important riparian habitat, home to Yellow Warblers, Black Phoebes, Bullocks Orioles, and Western Tanagers. Dippers live along the river and the area is also home to Cave, Barn and Cliff Swallows. Northern Goshawks and Spotted Owls live in the forested river section upstream. The river is also home to amphibians and fish. There is potential for restoring salmon to the river above the Pardee Dam, and protecting the 37 mile section of the river would assist in the salmon restoration project.
Western Tanager / Photo by Bob Lewis
Birds aren’t the only ones who benefit from protecting the Mokelumne!…

By Richard Bangert

In early June a pair of returning Ospreys looked ready for the day in their newly made nest atop a parking lot light pole at Alameda Point, but they had no chicks to attend to.  The pair’s first nest this season — on a nearby ship — had been removed while they were building it. Their second attempt faced interference from another Osprey. By June, hopes for fledglings this year had faded.

An ad hoc group of Osprey watchers is now hoping a dedicated Osprey platform can be erected at Alameda Point in a spot where competing interests and annoyances of daily commotion don’t intrude into the reproductive efforts of the Ospreys.

In early March, the Osprey pair began building their first nest this year where they had nested last year — on a kingpost high atop the maritime ship Admiral Callaghan. The ship’s owner, the Maritime Administration (MARAD), had removed last year’s nest. This year MARAD moved quickly to stop the nest building to avoid potential delay from relocating a nest if the ship were ordered into service.

Male osprey bringing nesting material to light pole near maritime ships at Alameda Point with female looking on. Photo by Richard Bangert

“The Maritime Administration worked closely with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife on dismantling the nest and installing deterrence devices on March 19 prior to any eggs being laid,” said Alameda resident Harvey Wilson, who has been monitoring the Ospreys at Alameda Point.

Crew removing osprey nesting material from kingpost on Admiral Callaghan maritime ship at Alameda Point, March 2014. Photo by Harvey Wilson.

But that removal didn’t end the Ospreys’ interest in the ship, at least not for the male Osprey. He soon started bringing sticks to a lower-level hoisting post on the ship. The female, on the other hand, took a liking to a light pole in the parking lot next to the wharf.

After weeks of back-and-forth episodes of mating and nest building at both sites, the female won, and nest building started ramping up on the light pole. At one point, it appeared that the female was hunkering down in the nest, a sign that eggs had been laid and incubation had started. But soon another female Osprey appeared, trying to lure the male from his duties and disturbing the composure of the female.

Female osprey bringing nesting material to nest on parking lot light pole near maritime ships at Alameda Point – May 2014.…