By Maureen Lahiff

This year, we’re celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Yosemite Grant and California State Parks with much festivity.  But  Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove were granted to the State of California in 1864 for “public use, resort, and recreation.”

What was the first area in the U.S. set aside specifically for wildlife? Oakland’s Lake Merritt!

In 1870, the Lake Merritt Wild Duck Refuge was created by the California State Legislature.

Today Lake Merritt looks much different than it did 150 years ago.  The wetlands that once surrounded it are gone. But it is still a wintering spot for thousands of migratory waterfowl and a year-round home to a great variety of resident birds.

Every other Saturday morning from March through early June, GGBA provides docents at Lake Merritt in partnership with S.F. Nature Education. We set up a spotting scope and information table near the artificial islands, along the path just east of the Rotary Nature Center. I love serving as a docent there. Ducks come in close to the walkway and offer us good looks and plenty of chances to see them interacting.  Gulls drop mussels on the path to crack their shells.  Black-crowned Night Herons sit motionless in the trees.  American White Pelicans sail by; in spring, we see the “breeding bumps” on their bills.

Eared Grebe in breeding plumage with a pipefish at Lake Merritt / Photo by Lee Aurich Docents in action / Photo by Liz Westbrook

The Double-Crested Cormorants are one of the highlights for me.  Forty to fifty pairs nest in trees on the islands.  This time of year, we can actually see their double crests of feathers, and the bare throat skin near their bills — their gular patches — are bright orange-yellow.  We saw a male displaying on a nest on March 8th, and several birds carrying sticks to refurbish nests for the current season on March 8th and 23rd.  The males and females look alike, and both contribute sticks to the nest building.

Cormorant bringing twigs to nest / Photo by Allen Hirsch, http://allenh.zenfolio.com/p274720386 Double-crested Cormorant at Lake Merritt / Photo by Allen Hirsch, http://allenh.zenfolio.com/p274720386

At the beginning of March, a lot of the wintering ducks were still there: many scaup (mostly Lesser Scaup), about a half dozen Canvasbacks, some Bufflehead, and Pie-billed Grebes.  On March 23, the Canvasbacks were gone and there were fewer scaup.…

By Pipi Ray Diamond

On the first day of spring, twenty third-grade students from Oakland Unified School District’s Korematsu Discovery Academy bravely head into the outdoors. They are accompanied by their teacher, several parents, one grandparent, volunteers, and their leaders — Anthony DeCicco and Marissa Ortega-Welch, who work with 700 low-income schoolchildren each year in Golden Gate Bird Alliance’s award-winning Eco-Education program.

Their destination is the Arroyo Viejo Creek, just outside the Oakland Zoo in Knowland Park. Seven years ago this portion of the creek was restored to provide better habitat for wildlife and increase human access. Many institutions collaborated to make it happen, including the California Coastal Conservancy, City of Oakland, Oakland Zoo and Urban Creeks Council. The restoration project also resulted in the perfect outdoor classroom.

This is the students’ second Eco-Ed field trip. In the fall, they visited Arrowhead Marsh where they went birding and planted wetland plants to support endangered Clapper Rails. Today they are here to explore the creek habitat – to see what lives here and understand how the creek is connected to the Bay.

Anthony DeCicco shows the kids how to plant / Photo by Pipi Ray Diamond

The class splits into two groups. Anthony takes one group over to an open area that needs more native plants. The students gather around as he orients them. Pointing to the creek, he asks “What is the name for this?”

One excited boy yells out “A sewer!”

Anthony looks surprised but waits for more answers.

Unfortunately, the boy’s answer is not as silly as it sounds. The day before, volunteers from Friends of Sausal Creek discovered a sewage spill in that nearby creek. City staff recommended that people stay out of Sausal Creek until further notice.

A lot of work goes into making sure that local creeks are safe places for an outdoor classroom. Seeing the kids crawling over the banks and touching the water, I remind myself not to take water quality for granted.

Anthony keeps the kids focused and engaged with lots of call and response.

“A fancy word for a creek is ‘riparian.’ Can you say it?”

The children chant back, “Riparian!”

Anthony explains today’s project: planting sagebrush. He asks, “How will this plant be helpful to animals? Like a rabbit or a bird?”

“They can hide,” one student says.

“Correct,” says Anthony. “The plants will provide shelter for animals to hide from predators.”…

By Ilana DeBare

Ten birding Bears! Four song-filled hours! Sixty-four species!

But alas, no victory.

The Berkeley birding team organized by Golden Gate Bird Alliance fell eleven species short of their cross-bay rivals on Sunday morning, in the first-ever Cal-versus-Stanford birding competition.

The Stanford team spotted 75 species to Berkeley’s 64.  Berkeley may have been undone not so much by the Cardinal as by the humble sparrow.

“We had a lot of sparrows,” said Rob Furrow, a Santa Clara Valley Audubon member who led the Stanford team. “White-throated Sparrows, Grasshopper Sparrows, Lark Sparrows, Savannah Sparrows.”

The Cal-Stanford competition was organized as part of Golden Gate Bird Alliance’s annual Birdathon fundraising month. On the Berkeley side, it attracted ten participants with a wide range of connections to the university and an equally wide range of birding experience.

Birding by the Campanile / Photo by Peter Maiden Tiffany Wong and Maureen Lahiff locate a bird / Photo by Peter Maiden

The Cal team included undergraduate and graduate students, alumni, faculty, and staff. One participant was a newcomer to birding who had to borrow a pair of binoculars. Others were veteran birders who had taken Golden Gate Bird Alliance’s Master Birder class and could recognize unseen birds by their song.

The count started at 7 a.m., when the crowds of visitors from Cal Day on Saturday were a distant memory. The campus was silent – except for layers upon layers of bird song.

“That singing is a robin, right?” called out Kathy Durkin just after 7, as she and other team members stepped quietly through the U.C. Botanical Garden. “And that song’s a House Finch… and there’s a Golden-crowned Sparrow!”

Chris Carmichael, Associate Director of the Garden, used his year-round experience there to guide the team to spots favored by particular species. Meanwhile, Maureen Lahiff, a lecturer at the School of Public Health, led participants across the central part of campus. Erica Rutherford and John Colbert took the helm for other sections of campus along Strawberry Canyon.

Birding in the Botanical Garden / Photo by Ilana DeBare Anna’s Humming bird on nest in the U.C. Botanical Garden / Photo by John Colbert

Among the day’s highlights: A Red-shouldered Hawk perched over Strawberry Creek. Two Anna’s Hummingbird nests. A White-tailed Kite over the Botanical Garden. A Great Blue Heron flying past the Campanile – a common bird along the shoreline, but not so common on campus.…

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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