On Thursday May 24, the San Francisco Planning Commission and Recreation and Parks Commission are scheduled to vote on plans to install artificial turf and powerful night lighting on the Beach Chalet soccer fields in western Golden Gate Park. Golden Gate Bird Alliance plans to be there and speak out in opposition. We asked Conservation Director Mike Lynes — who has spent hundreds of hours following this issue since 2009 — to explain why we are so concerned over the future of land that is “just a few soccer fields in a city park.”

———————————

The Beach Chalet Athletic Fields renovation project is one of the most difficult projects that Golden Gate Bird Alliance has grappled with in recent years.  The renovation project would replace up to 11 acres of natural grass and trees in the western end of Golden Gate Park with artificial turf and ten 60-foot light towers that will broadcast 150,000 watts of light into the historically dark part of the park.

Aside from concerns about the toxic nature of artificial turf, Golden Gate Bird Alliance is involved because the project will reduce the quality of the area for wildlife and for people who appreciate nature. The western end of Golden Gate Park has always been designed and managed to be more natural, an urban woodland with open meadows. Every major planning document — including the City’s General Plan and the Golden Gate Park Master Plan — mandates that the historic natural character of the western end of the park be preserved. The loss of the area is another big gash in the “death by a thousand cuts” faced by local bird and wildlife populations in San Francisco.

Beach Chalet now, with natural grass fields What Beach Chalet would look like with lights

Proponents of the project have characterized the controversy as a being about “birds vs kids.” But simplifying the conflict and demonizing your opponents doesn’t do anyone any good. In truth, Golden Gate Bird Alliance and other project opponents are only asking the City to develop an alternative that meets the needs of soccer players while also respecting the history, character and ecology of the park. So far, the City has refused to do so. Fields can be developed elsewhere, but there is no other place like the western end of the Golden Gate Park.

There is no doubt that local athletes need more fields and playing time, and that the Beach Chalet is sorely in need of renovation. …

By Bob Lewis

Eddie Bartley and I have been teaching a new class for Golden Gate Bird Alliance this month called Romance in the Air. It focuses on territories, courtship, song, raising families – as those relate to birds, of course!  Springtime is the perfect time to give this class, and our first field trip was spectacular.

We went to Hayward Shoreline, and since the class is sponsored by GGBA, gained permission to enter the normally closed East Bay Regional Park District lands inside the gates.  After passing numerous singing Savannah and Song Sparrows, we came to a channel choked with reeds where Marsh Wrens were building nests.

All this, of course, relates to our class subject matter – the song of the sparrows was aimed at defining and defending their territory and attracting mates, while the polygynous male wrens were busily building multiple nests.  These nests define a courtship area, and an interested female will inspect the male’s handiwork, and perhaps then mate and lay eggs in the nest of her choice.  More likely, though, she’ll select a new nest site and initiate nest building there.

Savannah Sparrow / Photo by Bob Lewis

Most exciting to me, though, was a flock of about 350 Red-necked Phalaropes, coming from their wintering grounds off the South American west coast.  All in breeding plumage, they were an elegant group to behold.  Phalaropes are polyandrous, with the female being more brightly plumaged.  She may mate with several males once they arrive at their northern Canadian or Alaskan breeding grounds, laying four eggs in each nest.  The male will then incubate the eggs and raise the young on his own.  The birds we watched were feeding rapidly, fueling their long flight north.  They wouldn’t stay long, and we were lucky to see them.

Female Red-necked Phalarope / Photo by Bob Lewis Male Red-necked Phalarope / Photo by Bob Lewis

 

Adding to the excitement were hundreds of raucous Forster’s Terns bringing courtship offerings of fish, a few endangered Least Terns with the same plan in mind, and four Black Skimmers occasionally coursing over the marsh.  On our Sunday walk to the same site (we do two walks to each field trip site – one on Saturday, one on Sunday) Eddie spotted over 20 Black Terns, a very delightful bird to see.

Romance is in the air!

————————-

Note: Although Bob and Eddie’s Romance in the Air class is underway and full, there are still spaces available in the class he will be co-leading with Rusty Scalf in June on Birds of the Sierra.…

By Ilana DeBare

High drama is happening amidst San Francisco’s high rises as four Peregrine Falcon fledglings learn to fly – and as intrepid human volunteers help them recover from potentially-deadly missteps.

The four chicks – two male, two female — hatched at the end of March in a nest on the 33^rd floor of the downtown PG&E building. By the beginning of May, they had gained their flight feathers and were ready to take wing.

But first flights – never easy anywhere – are particularly dangerous in a downtown of concrete canyons and glass walls.

“San Francisco is an incredibly difficult place for babies to fledge,” said Mary Malec, one of about 20 volunteers who are monitoring the falcons from street level and from a donated suite in a nearby office building with a view of the nest.  “There are so many buildings to run into. Some are glass, which birds can’t see. It’s easy for them to end up on the ground, where they can run into trucks and buses and all sorts of hazards.”

Amelia, one of the female falcons, who will be the last to fledge. Photo by Jim Dikel.

Within the past week, both of the young male falcons have had close calls:

Sutro’s Tower

Sutro, one of the males, flew to a nearby building last Thursday. When he tried to return to the nest site, he missed and tried to land on another building. But it had a smooth façade and his talons couldn’t find a grip: He dropped off and fell, flew, tried to land again, and ended up on an architectural pillar only 15 feet above the street.

“Baby Peregrines fly well – it’s landing that they don’t know how to do yet,” Malec commented.

Sutro would have had a tough time regaining the 33^rd floor  or comparable heights – where the parent falcons continue feeding the young ones — from such a low launch spot. So the fledge watch crew called Glenn Stewart, director of the Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group and a kind of fairy godfather to young Bay Area raptors. At 9:30 p.m., the volunteers managed to find a ladder and Glenn climbed the pillar, trapped Sutro in a rescue box, took him to a vet for an overnight check, and returned him to the PG&E nest ledge.

The Perils of Perry

Perry, the other male eyas (young falcon), had flown successfully a couple of times last week.…

By Ilana DeBare

Here in the Bay Area this spring, we’ve had the privilege of spying by video camera on two Peregrine Falcon nests in downtown San Francisco and San Jose. Incredible images of cute chicks and protective parents. Countless hours of productive work time lost to avian web watching!

So I got to wondering, How many other nest cams are there around the country? 

A lot, it turns out.

At the high-tech and well-organized end of the spectrum, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology operates several nest cams including one that is currently following a family of Great Blue Herons.

At the other end of the spectrum, there are countless private nest cams set up by individual bird lovers in their backyards. (Apparently you can buy nest cam equipment for as little as $90. But at that price, I wouldn’t count on Steven Spielberg  quality.)

Nest cams are a wholly new and personal way to relate to birds, made possible by the spread of broadband Internet and video streaming. The first video nest cam was created in 1998 by the midwest Raptor Resource Center to monitor a Peregrine Falcon nest in Iowa; today the center operates about 15 nest cams. Meanwhile, the folks at Cornell say that more than a million people have tuned in to watch their heron and Red-Tailed Hawk nest cams.

But nest cams are a transient medium. I tried to compile a list of good nest cams, and it’s tough. Fledglings grow up and leave the nest. Or disaster strikes and a nest is abandoned. A camera showing a busy nest in March may show an empty one by May.

That’s the flip side of all those cute chicks. We’re close at hand to watch the miracle of hatching and fledging, but we are also close at hand for death. Barely two weeks after an Allen’s Hummingbird nest cam in Orange County was profiled by Wired.com, all the eggs were eaten by a crow. And a midwest Bald Eagle nest cam site poignantly reported:

1st egg laid: 2/16/12

1st hatch: 3/25/12

Nest failed on 4/11/12
 Eaglets died of exposure following storm

So what’s the impact of all these nest cams? (Besides the lost work hours, of course.)

Cornell ornithologists say they’ve learned about some previously-undocumented heron courtship and nesting behaviors from their cam.

And that process of learning – as much as all the cuteness or drama – has the potential to deepen people’s ties to nature.…

By Phila Rogers

Though the terms “birdwatcher” or “birder” are often considered synonymous, don’t tell that to a birder.  A birder is apt to nurture a long bird list, and is willing to suffer inclement weather and travel distances to see that rare or possibly “life” bird.

The birdwatcher is frequently subject to snickers of amusement or even derision.  The prototype might be the “little old lady” wearing sensible shoes, seldom venturing beyond a local park, and most familiar with the birds that come and go from the garden feeders.

Natural history writer Joe Eaton, who sometimes refers to himself as a recovering birder (though he confessed to recently driving 75 miles to the Colusa National Wildlife Reserve to see a very rare Asian bird – the Falcated Duck), thinks of birders “as more compulsive, list-driven, probably younger and disproportionately male.” He concedes that more women are entering the ranks of birders.  Eaton points out that most American Birding Association members are “either birders or wannabe birders” and “may be willing to drive all night to the Salton Sea in search of a rare gull.”

Wikipedia — with something to say on almost every subject — says that the term “birdwatching” was first used in 1901 and that the verb “to bird” was recognized in 1918.  While the term birdwatching is widely understood, birding is not.  Some prefer the term “birding” because it includes recognizing birds by songs and calls.  But mostly it appears to be, according to Wikipedia, a matter of “scope, dedication, and intensity.”

And what am I?  By most reckonings I am a bird watcher.  I’m mostly content to watch the birds at my feeders with an occasional foray to Jewel Lake over the hill in nearby Tilden Park, or to one of the close-by botanic gardens where even if the birds are not active, there are always rewarding plants to look at.

But I am just as much or even more a bird listener, taking special pleasure in all bird vocalizations.  I often record in my notebook which bird I hear first upon arising.  These winter mornings it’s most likely to be a sharp flicker call or the soft round note of a Hermit Thrush.

Because I believe in writing about birds to enlarge and sustain my pleasure, I am also curious about the lives of birds. How are they being affected by climate change? Why are some species becoming more numerous, and others rarer?…