By Pipi Ray Diamond

On a bright sunny day in mid-November, about 25 mostly-teenage Golden Gate Bird Alliance volunteers gather for three hours to dig holes, put in plants, water, and cover the bare ground with mulch.

Kisha Mitchell-Mellor, the leader of the restoration effort, explains that they are putting in native plants partly to block the view of large, ugly pieces of concrete at the water’s edge. The plants also serve as cover for sparrows, Marsh Wrens, and endangered birds like the California Clapper Rail. Mitchell-Mellor was a geography major in college but is self-taught on most of the native plants, which have colorful common names such as western goldenrod, lizard’s tail, and sticky monkey-flower.

It is a peaceful day at Arrowhead Marsh, part of Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline in Oakland. The pier that extends into the marsh has fallen into disrepair and is not accessible to the public, which makes it a popular spot for resting birds. Willets, Marbled Godwits, Snowy Egrets and one Great Egret are all sharing the pier with minimal squabbling when a Northern Harrier comes into view. The willets and godwits scatter while the egrets stand their ground. The raptor swoops low and does a tour of the entire marsh in less than a minute. After it is gone, the birds resettle on the pier. This everyday bird drama is easy to view from the trail.

Arrowhead Marsh pier with Fruitvale Bridge in the background / Photo by Pipi Ray Diamond

Golden Gate Bird Alliance has been organizing volunteers to restore habitat at MLK Shoreline for over a decade.  In 2012, over 164 people hoisted shovels, rakes and trash bags at monthly work days; in 2013, there so far have been more than 275 volunteers.

Some are individual GGBA members who understand the importance of habitat to healthy bird populations, while others are part of community groups that want to do something good for the local environment.  Today’s groups include Alameda’s Chinese Christian High School Leo Club and Fremont’s Irvington High School. Other organizational participants this year have included volunteers from Outdoor Afro, Safeway, PG&E, Girl Scouts, Ohio State University, the Sigma Phi Omega chapter at U.C. Berkeley, and many others.

Volunteer Martin Rochin watering native plants / Photo by Pipi Ray Diamond

One of today’s volunteers is Martin Rochin, an East Oakland resident and former intern with Golden Gate Bird Alliance.…

By Phila Rogers
After 61 years in my house on the hillside above Strawberry Canyon in Berkeley, living elsewhere seemed inconceivable.  The live oak I planted 50 years ago had become the roof over my roof.  It sheltered me and countless other creatures.  In its youth, a wintering Red-bellied Sapsucker had decorated its young limbs with bracelets of holes that remained, elongated, as the branchlets grew to substantial branches.
I knew the direction and possible meaning of every breeze.  I registered the moist arrival of the summer fog bank without looking outside.  When the Varied Thrush piped its eerie song, I knew that October had arrived, and when the wintering Hermit Thrush softly sang its summer song in April, I knew it was about to leave.
Can such intimate knowing ever be achieved in a new location with so few years remaining to me?
Santa Barbara should have felt familiar when I moved there in September, as it had been the home of my grandparents and parents.  The retirement home where I was to live is located near Oak Park along Mission Creek, two blocks from where my father grew up.
He told me stories about Mission Creek sometimes flooding after a winter storm, and how the pale owl who lived in the palm outside his bedroom winter frightened him.  When I visit the park now in November, the piles of bone-dry boulders look as if water never flowed there.
A bone-dry Mission Creek at Ocean Park / Photo by Phila Rogers
To try and establish a bond to this new place, I joined a bird walk at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden up in Mission Canyon.  Like the U.C. Botanical Garden in Berkeley, this garden is located in the upper reaches of a canyon near a stream’s headwater.
I was heartened (overjoyed actually) to discover White and Golden-crowned Sparrows both singing.  And as always, I enjoyed the bright colors of the Spotted Towhee.  In general the birds seemed more like the ones you would expect to see over the hill in Contra Costa County with noisy Acorn Woodpeckers storing their acorns in their “granaries.”
Acorn Woodpecker / Photo by Bob Lewis
Absent were the familiar Chestnut-backed Chickadees, Red-breasted Nuthatches, Fox Sparrows, and Brown Creepers.  You are just as apt to hear a Canyon Wren as a Bewick’s Wren, and much less likely to hear a Pacific Wren, which favors damper canyons.…

By Ilana DeBare
If you were reading this blog last fall, you may remember the photos we posted of the beautiful bird mural painted on our office door by the artist STEFEN.
Last spring, we moved to a new smaller office down the hall as a step to cut costs. The move went fine… but we left our beautiful door behind.
Many of you asked us, “Can’t the landlord move the door to your new office?”
And now he has!
Thank you to Walter Wright, our great landlord. We still need to move the images of the birds that trailed down the hall to our old door. The aim is to have that done in time for our Holiday Open House on Friday December 13th.

We’ll be honoring the photographers who contributed their work to our 2014 Birds of the SF Bay Area calendar. We’ll have drinks, snacks, and good cheer.
Mark the date and come on by. If you never saw our mural on the old door, now you can see it on the new one!
STEFEN painting the GGBA door in 2012 / Photo by Ilana DeBare
The door at our old office…

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.…