By Ilana DeBare

David Tomb’s two childhood loves were art and birds. As an adult, he’s brought them together — in a way that supports international bird conservation.

Tomb — a San Francisco painter and collage artist — currently has a show at the San Francisco Public Library focusing on endangered birds of the Philippines, including the majestic Philippine Eagle.

It’s part of an initiative to showcase endangered species in the Third World, and raise both money and awareness to help them survive. Together with several childhood friends, Tomb runs a small nonprofit called Jeepney Projects Worldwide that so far has used art to spotlight the Tufted Jay (Mexico) and Horned Guan (Mexico-Guatemala), as well as the Philippine Eagle.

“I’d always wanted to paint birds. As I started traveling more and getting out into the field, mostly Mexico, I thought, ‘What can I do to help?'” said Tomb.

Tufted Jays by David Tomb David Tomb working on a collage / Photo by Ilana DeBare

Boy Birder in Oakland and Marin

Tomb started birding as a boy in Oakland and then Marin County, where he fell under the spell of the late birding legend Rich Stallcup. He took part in his first Christmas Bird Count at age 11 in 1972.

“Rich was the M.C. compiling the numbers at the end of the night,” Tomb recalled, “and I thought, ‘That guy is really cool. I wish I could be like that when I grow up.’ It was the first time I remember thinking an adult was cool.”

Blue-crowned Motmot by David Tomb, in graphite, ink, colored pencil, gouache and water color wash

For the first twenty years of his career as an artist. Tomb focused on painting people. He aspired to paint birds, but couldn’t figure out how to forge the same personal connection he had when using live human models.  “I would look at photos of birds and think, ‘What am I going to do with that?'” he said.

Several years ago, he took the plunge. He decided to try using museum collections of bird skins as his models. But he didn’t want to simply create straightforward field guide-style images; he wanted to add something personal to the work.

So he evolved a style that combines realistic birds — painted at their actual size — with a more abstract background.

“I like the tension of the two,” he said, “the realistic-looking bird with the flat cut-out form.…

By Ilana DeBare

This is not a big dramatic story, just a little slice of daily life at Golden Gate Bird Alliance. But it shows the power of informal partnerships to help birds — in this case, Western Bluebirds.

Earlier this year, we received a call from an Eagle Scout, James Clifford, who had built a number of nest boxes and was looking for places to install them.

Unlike some other local Audubon chapters, GGBA does not own or operate its own land or wildlife center. So we rely on partnerships with other local land-owning organizations at times like this.

Our Eco-Education Director Anthony DeCicco knew East Bay Regional Park District ranger Jeff Bennett from years of taking Richmond schoolchildren on Eco-Ed field trips to Point Pinole. So Anthony asked Jeff if he needed more boxes at that park.

Jeff didn’t. But he put Anthony in touch with Georgette Howington of the California Bluebird Recovery Program.

And Georgette had a perfect site for James’ boxes — at Valle Vista Staging Area, a restricted-access watershed owned by East Bay MUD off of Canyon Road in Moraga.

Last week, James and a slew of friends/family poured concrete and installed five boxes, hauling all the materials into the site by wheelbarrow. It took them five cold, windy hours! Check out the photos.

Eagle Scout James Clifford (in plaid shirt) and friends / Photo by Georgette Howington Photo by Georgette Howington Photo by Georgette Howington

The Bluebird Recovery Program suggested mounting the boxes on metal poles rather than trees to reduce predation. According to Georgette Howington, the boxes can serve not just Western Bluebirds but Tree Swallows, chickadees, Titmice, Ash-throated Flycatchers, Violet-green Swallows, House Wrens, and on rare occasions nuthatches. Each box can support up to 5-6 nestlings per season.

“While most fledglings do not live to see their first year, one can see how important those numbers are in terms of salvaging and building a healthy population of birds,” Georgette  said.  “James’ contribution is significant because the boxes are so well-made they could last for 20 years or more…  Almost 90 percent of all the nest boxes installed in the right locations will be used during the nesting season and as roosting in winter.”

Again, this is not a big dramatic story. But five organizations — the Boy Scouts, GGBA, East Bay Regional Parks, EBMUD,  and the Bluebird Recovery Program — played a role in helping James Clifford help birds.…

By Marissa Ortega-Welch

J. Drew Lanham wrote an excellent piece in the latest Orion Magazine called “9 Rules for the Black Birdwatcher” that uses humor to draw attention to the lack of black birders and diversity in general in the birding world. There are more young birders than black birders, but twenty-something birders could use a few survival tips too. Here goes:

1. Don’t worry about being mistaken for another birder, since you will always be the only twenty-something birder on any bird walk. (However, no one will remember your name, no matter how many times they’ve met you, and they may actually think that you are lost and have joined their group by mistake, so just smile at them and flash your Eagle Optics.)

2. Be prepared to answer the following questions even as you rapidly approach your thirties: Are you in school? What are you studying? Did your parents bring you on this pelagic trip? Just be flattered that you consistently appear ten years younger in age than you are.

3. Always bird in a hoodie and jeans. (Unless you are young and black. Then see J. Drew Lanham’s “9 Rules for the Black Birdwatcher.”)  Do not adopt the fashion sense of the senior birders around you. No pocket vests or zip-off pants tucked into socks. You will look even weirder to your non-birder peers than you do now with those binoculars hanging around your neck.

Juvenile Western Gull / Photo by Bob Lewis

4. No matter how good a look you got at that Sabine’s Gull – and you got a great look – you will be questioned on your ID by birders who don’t know you. Try not to let it get to you.

5. You cannot claim fledgling birds as your mascot. You’re not that young. You could more closely identify with something like a third-year Western Gull. Is there a bird that is closer to middle age than teenage years and is constantly being asked by its dad when it is going to get a “real” career instead of just seasonal field work and part-time environmental education jobs? Yeah, that’s your totem bird.

6. If you bring your non-birding friends along on a bird walk, prepare them ahead of time not to laugh out loud when the birders talk about the “jizz” of the bushtit they just saw. Or let them laugh. Somebody needs to let these people know how they sound to the outside world.…

By Ilana DeBare

What do an art museum docent and a Golden Gate Bird Alliance birder have in common?

That may sound like the start of a bad joke, but it was the core of a very good afternoon on the Richmond shoreline last Friday.

About two dozen museum docents from around the country – in San Francisco for the National Docent Symposium – crossed the bridge to attend a presentation by GGBA’ birding docents.

GGBA volunteers Judith Dunham and Elizabeth Sojourner shared their experiences as Birding the Bay Trail docents. Lisa Eileen Hern chimed in about her role as a Burrowing Owl docent.

And GGBA Volunteer Coordinator Noreen Weeden organized the entire presentation – which was more than a year in the planning.

“We get a huge variety of people using this trail — fishermen, sailboarders, roller skaters, dog walkers,” Elizabeth told the visiting docents. “So we’re able to talk to a great diversity of people about the Bay’s equal diversity of wildlife.”

Docents gather on the Bay Trail for birding as part of the GGBA program

The docents arrived by van at Vincent Park along the Bay Trail in Richmond. With picnic tables and a stunning Bay view, it was the perfect spot to share lessons from GGBA’ outreach initiatives.

Judith Dunham speaks to National Docent Symposium participants

In our Birding the Bay Trail program – started in 2009 – pairs of docents are stationed with scopes and signs along the shoreline path.

In our Burrowing Owl program — started in 2010 — docents bring their scopes to Cesar Chavez Park in Berkeley, where as many as five of the diminutive owls spend the winter each year.

The goal of both programs is to engage passersby, pique their interest in the birds all around us, and perhaps inspire a deeper commitment to safeguarding the habitats of the Bay.

And do all this in (usually) under five minutes!

“I’ll show up early, look for some charismatic birds like a Long-billed Curlew, and smile and say, ‘Do you want to see a bird close up?’ ” Judith said. “They look through the scope and a bird that was just a brown clump now becomes incredibly detailed, and as we say in Berkeley, it blows their mind. Because you’re contacting them spontaneously, they often move on. But it’s an opportunity to impart a kernel of information.”

There are obvious differences between museum docenting and GGBA’ docent program: One involves fixed pieces of work, while the other involves unpredictable wildlife.…

Editor’s Note: The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is considering using rodenticides to eliminate non-native mice from the Farallon Islands. While Golden Gate Bird Alliance generally opposes the use of rodenticides, we are supporting the use in this case because it is the only way to protect the native species of the Farallones. This post is reprinted from the newsletter of Marin Audubon, which also supports the mouse eradication campaign.

In August, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released its draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) on eradicating introduced house mice on the South Farallon Islands. MAS supports eradication of the non-native house mice to restore the ecosystem of the Farallones. If action is not taken to rid the island of mice soon, all of the Ashy Storm-Petrels and probably Leach’s Storm-Petrels could be lost.

The Farallon Islands National Wildlife Refuge, 30 miles outside of the Golden Gate, is a seabird breeding habitat of worldwide significance. The Refuge comprises the largest nesting seabird colony in the contiguous U.S. outside of Alaska, including half of the Ashy Storm-Petrels in the world and the world’s largest breeding populations of Brandt’s Cormorants and Western Gulls. Removing non-native mice would restore the island’s ecosystem for native species. The primary beneficiaries would be Ashy and Leach’s Storm-Petrels.

Ashy Storm-Petrel and Farallon Islands / Courtesy of US FWS

House mice originated in Asia and were brought to the islands, along with cats and rabbits, via ships during egg gathering and during lighthouse and military operations in the early 1900s. The cats and rabbits were removed in the 1970s, leaving the house mice as the only non-native mammals. Mice are omnivorous. On the island they eat the Maritime goldfield (a plant), the endemic Farallon camel cricket, and the Farallon arboreal salamander, reducing the populations of these native species and further disrupting the island ecosystem. Scientists have also found evidence of mice preying on petrels (missing toes and legs).

Farallon arboreal salamander / Photo from Point Blue's Los Farallones blog

In spring on the South Farallones, house mice can reach plague-like densities of 490 mice per acre, among the highest found on any island in the world. Scientists have observed that it can appear as though the ground itself is moving.

Burrowing Owls are among 400 different land bird species recorded on the islands since 1968, when PRBO/Point Blue began to study birds on the islands. Most of the owls stop to rest and depart within a few days.…