By Patricia Greene

People who live outside of San Francisco are often unaware of the existence of this small open space preserve in the middle of San Francisco.

Mount Sutro is the northernmost forested peak of the San Francisco Central Highlands that continue south through Twin Peaks and Mount Davidson, all with summits in the 900-foot range. The south-east saddle between Mount Sutro and Twin Peaks sports the big red and white TV tower that is sometimes the only thing visible above the summer fog. The north slope of Mount Sutro is home to the Parnassus Campus of the UCSF Medical School–and 61 acres surrounding the summit contains Mount Sutro Open Space Preserve. Together with the contiguous San Francisco Interior Greenbelt, this parcel represents the largest remaining fragment of a massive forest planted beginning in 1886 by Adolf Sutro.

Today, blue gum eucalyptus trees of differing ages cover most of the preserve, along with scattered cypress and pine trees. Fog caught by the canopy drips into the forest, and in places sword ferns and moss line the trails, which remain muddy long after the last rain.

SF central highlands: The righthand forested peak is Mt. Sutro, while the left peak is Mt. Davidson. / Photo by Patricia Greene Rotary Meadow with (clockwise) Pink Currant, Barberry, Lupine/sage, Allen’s Hummingbird, Ceanothus, and Wild Strawberry. Photos by Patricia Greene except for hummingbird by Bob Lewis.

In several places, the middle canopy contains Blackwood Acacia and Red Elderberry. Some areas also contain flowering plums that produce ethereal blooms in the spring as the branches reach for light. Most of the understory is dense Himalayan Blackberry and Cape and English ivy that has climbed many of the trees.

The southern slope was heavily thinned in 1935 and the summit was clearcut in the 1950s to accommodate a NIKE radar site. The summit has now been restored to a native plant meadow created using volunteer labor and a grant from the Rotary Club. Sometimes walking on the adjacent Twin Peaks can be harsh, windy and cold, while walking on Mt. Sutro is sheltered and peaceful.

The forest has always had a few well-traveled trails, but recently a network of well-graded trails has been built or improved by the volunteer hard labor of the Sutro Stewards  and community volunteers under the direction of Craig Dawson. One of the exciting surprises of trail building was that when a few trees were felled and the Himalayan Blackberry and Ivy were cleared for construction, beautiful, long-dormant native plants sprang to life along the trails in several places.…

By Carol and Steve Lombardi

Our Birdathon visit to the California Academy of Sciences bird collection last Thursday coincided with their monthly Nightlife program, so our descent to the basement was accompanied by booming dance music. Jack Dumbacher, Curator of Collections for the Academy (official title: Chairman and Curator, Department of Ornithology and Mammalogy) was our enthusiastic guide. After a short PowerPoint introduction detailing the sources, types, and uses of the collection, he asked what we’d like see.

“Galapagos Finches!”

“Parrots!”

“Ivory-billed Woodpeckers!”

Jack obliged with a comprehensive tour of the huge and venerable trove — started in 1852 and now numbering thousands of specimens — safely stored in the Academy’s reinforced state-of-the-art steel cabinets.

Jack Dumbacher and Birdathon participants at the California Academy of Sciences / Photo by Carol Lombardi Specimens of now-extinct Ivory-billed Woodpeckers / Photo by Steve Lombardi

Much more than a simple inventory, Jack’s presentation touched on the history of multiple specimens, from the few survivors of the Academy’s pre-1906 collection to his personal, painful discovery of a poisonous bird species in New Guinea. We got our first (and likely only) glimpse of male and female Ivory-billed Woodpeckers and up-close looks at the brilliant plumages of various Birds of Paradise. He talked us through the several drawers showing beak adaptations of Galapagos Finches, then let us marvel at the colors (and lethal beaks) in the parrot specimens.

Even though we couldn’t add these fabulous birds to our life lists, it was a fascinating evening thanks to Jack, who serves on the Golden Gate Bird Alliance board, and to the GGBA Birdathon.

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Want to join the Birdathon fun? There are still spaces available on a number of field trips, throughout April, including one that Carol and Steve Lombardi will co-lead to Mines Road and Del Valle Park on Sunday April 13. For information, see our Birdathon Field Trips page. We are now halfway towards our Birdathon goal of raising $50,000 to support GGBA’ conservation and environmental education activities — help us raise the other half!

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Editor’s Note: Berkeleyside, the online news site serving the city of Berkeley, recently asked us about the increase in crows there. Here’s the article we wrote for them.
By Ilana DeBare
“Why are there so many darn crows in Berkeley these days?”
We get that question a lot at Golden Gate Bird Alliance, and the Berkeleyside editors get it too.
It’s not just Berkeley. Crows are on the increase throughout the Bay Area, as are their larger and deeper-voiced cousins, ravens.
Back in the 1980s, Golden Gate Bird Alliance members typically found between 30 and 90 American Crows each year in our Oakland Christmas Bird Count, which includes Berkeley. We typically found fewer than ten Common Ravens.
Since 2010, however, the count has turned up over 1,100 crows and 170 to 300 ravens each year.
A pair of crows on a telephone wire. Photo: Elaine Miller Bond
“Crows have gone from being very uncommon to common to abundant,” said Rusty Scalf,  a Golden Gate Bird Alliance birding instructor who lives in Berkeley. “Ravens used to be unheard of in the city, but now they’re all over the place.
If you’ve seen hundreds of crows flapping and cawing in a single tree — a murder of crows in fact — you might think that 1,100 crows is an understatement, and Berkeley is on the verge of being taken over à la Hitchcock by these bold, loud creatures. You might join the many bird lovers who accuse crows of driving down local songbird populations by stealing and eating their eggs.
But on both these counts, crows get a bum rap. The real crow story is more complicated.
Crows are intensely social and intelligent birds that, like humans, maintain both a family life and a community life.
During breeding season – spring and summer – they spend time with their family, building a nest and raising young on a defined territory. Adult crows usually mate for life. Juvenile crows stick around for several years and help their parents feed the nestlings. (Don’t you wish your teenagers would do that?)
A raven: the larger, deeper voiced cousin of the crow, also on the increase locally. Photo: Elaine Miller Bond
In the winter, on the other hand, crows often come together for the night in huge colonies. Around sunset, they gather at a staging area such as a big tree, calling and flapping and chasing each other.…

By April Rose Sommer
Much to the relief of many Golden Gate Bird Alliance members, the Berkeley City Council voted Tuesday night to delay its pilot program to exterminate Cesar Chavez Park California ground squirrels.
The city had generated broad outcry earlier this year when it announced plans to trap and kill park squirrels as a means to address Regional Water Quality Control Board concerns that squirrel burrows could cause toxics underneath the park to leach into the bay.
But on Tuesday, the Council put the extermination plan on hold and directed the City Manager to report back in two months with a plan and a response to the many questions raised by citizens, councilmembers, and environmental and animal rights organizations, including Golden Gate Bird Alliance.
Councilmember Kriss Worthington led the efforts for a reconsideration of the extermination pilot program and Councilmember Linda Maio was careful to stress that the pilot program would not go forward until the council had revisited the issue.  Councilmember Maxwell Anderson waxed poetic about how the park used to be filled with raptors, the squirrels’ natural predators, and recommended that there be an effort to draw these birds back to the park, while Councilmember Gordon Wozniak complained that there are too many squirrels.
Burrowing Owl and ground squirrel at Cesar Chavez Park / Photo by Penelope Hillemann. http://penelopedia.blogspot.com/2013/02/berkeley-burrowing-owl-lifer-and-white.html
The squirrel extermination scheme was crafted as a response to concerns by the Regional Water Quality Control Board that squirrel burrows could be allowing toxics to leach into the Bay. Cesar Chavez Park is built on top of a landfill that was covered with layers of fill intended to “cap” the old dump’s solid and toxic waste.   Although the bay waters surrounding the park have not tested positive for any leached materials, the Board did direct the City to address the potential risk from squirrel burrows.
The Water Board was careful to distance itself from the City’s extermination plan, though — instead suggesting that enforcement of the no-feeding ordinance may be sufficient to address the large squirrel population. The Board recently issued a FAQ that clearly states “we are not ordering the City to kill the squirrels” and requested that the City supply further data on the burrows and methods of control.
Golden Gate Bird Alliance’s East Bay Conservation Committee researched the issue, submitted a comment letter to the Berkeley City Council, and spoke at Tuesday’s Council meeting .…