• Audubon — the man and the meaning

    By Ilana DeBare

    Who was John James Audubon? Why was the leading U.S. bird conservation organization named after him? Has his meaning as a figurehead changed?

    The National Audubon Society board of directors announced this month that, after a year of deliberation, it will not replace the “Audubon” part of its name. But the name debate continues: NAS staff issued a sharp denunciation of the board’s decision, three NAS board members resigned in protest, and a number of chapters such as Seattle, Portland, and Madison are still moving ahead with plans to change their own names.

    As the Golden Gate Bird Alliance board deliberates over our own response, it’s a good time to review what we know about John James Audubon—both the man and his meaning.

    John James Audubon was a complex character who was known to make up stories about himself. Sometimes it’s hard to know what’s fact and what’s self-serving myth. In addition, the lens through which many of us look at Audubon and his personal history has shifted over the past decade.

    Portrait of John James Audubon, 1826, by John Syme. White House collection.

    The man

    Let’s start with one of the most basic facts about someone—their birth. It’s undisputed that John James Audubon was born out of wedlock in 1785 to a French naval officer on the island that now is Haiti. But his mother? Most historians say she was a white French chambermaid who died shortly after childbirth, although a few sources claim she was an enslaved person of color. Audubon himself made up a third and entirely false story, claiming at one point that she was a “lady of Spanish extraction” from Louisiana who was killed in a slave uprising.

    Some conservationists have promoted the theory of Audubon having Black ancestry as a way to welcome people of color into the birding community. More recently, the question of his ancestry has been overshadowed by his history as a slave owner and his statements in support of enslavement.

    Audubon’s father raised him in France and sent him to Pennsylvania at age 18 to prevent his conscription into the Napoleonic wars. After marrying, he moved to Kentucky, which at the time was part of the country’s western frontier. He started a series of business ventures and failed at just as many. (At one point he went bankrupt and was jailed for debt.)

    Audubon was an expert woodsman—good at shooting, orienteering, and swimming.…

  • Bay Birding Challenge Returns on April 1st

    By Eric Schroeder

    Cal versus Stanford… A’s versus Giants… and now East Bay Birders versus San Francisco Birders!

    Yes, there’s a new tradition of regional rivalry in the Bay Area. On April 1st, birding teams representing S.F. (Stork Raven Mad) and the East Bay (East Bay Scrub Jays) will square off in the second annual Bay Birding Challenge to see who can find the most bird species in a day during Golden Gate Bird Alliance’s Birdathon fundraising season.

    Last year San Francisco eked out a narrow victory, 146 species to 141, after 13 hours of birding that started at 6:14 a.m. This year the teams have new leaders—Derek Heins for the East Bay and Keith Maley for S.F.—and new strategies.

    What will happen? Who will find the most birds? Which team will generate the most love (i.e. donations from supporters like you)? It’s anyone’s guess, but here’s our version of a tip sheet about the teams’ strategies and backgrounds.

    Last Year

    The 2022 Bay Birding Challenge was a study in contrasts. Team SF, led by Rachel Lawrence, ran like clockwork. In fact, the team designated roles for its members, including a timekeeper to get members back in their cars on schedule: the entire day was parsed into fifteen-minute segments. Team East Bay was more free-form. Led by Alex Henry, they planned their first stop—Mitchell Canyon on the backside of Mt. Diablo—hoping to cash in on spring migrants. (They did this, recording 46 species, including some hoped-for warblers, but it took three hours.) Beyond Mitchell Canyon, though, there was no plan. Strategy evolved as the day went on. But despite the vastly different styles, the race was close.

    Team East Bay (East Bay Scrub Jays) 2023

    Derek Heins, Team EB’s new leader, has a clear strategy for winning—”a very strict timeline.” (Does that sound like a page from the Team SF playbook?) Added to that, he plans to have a clearer template for the day, including “doing different forest areas early in the day.” Thus no trek out to Mt. Diablo but instead an early morning trip up Berkeley’s Vollmer Peak. 

    Derek Heins, the team captain of the East Bay Scrub Jays competing in the Bay Birding Challenge this year – photo provided by Derek Heins

    As one of the co-compilers of GGBA’s Richmond Christmas Bird Count and the current Treasurer for GGBA’s Board of Directors, Derek has the organizational skills to implement a carefully planned schedule.…

  • From new birder to Birdathon maven

    By Ilana DeBare

    Caitlyn Schuchhardt had dropped out of grad school in English Literature and was looking for community when, in 2019, she discovered the Feminist Bird Club in Madison, Wisconsin. 

    Birding brought wonder and joy into her life, and she loved the people she met through it. Schuchhardt started volunteering with Madison Audubon’s nest watch program, got a part-time job on the chapter’s staff, and then found full-time work coordinating the annual Great Wisconsin Birdathon. 

    She became a Birdathon maven. (Or should we say raven?) 

    Caitlyn Schuchhardt birding – Photo provided by Caitlyn Schuchhardt

    Like Golden Gate Bird Alliance’s Birdathon, which starts this month, the Great Wisconsin Birdathon is the main fundraiser for a local conservation group—in their case, the Natural Resources Foundation. Also like our Birdathon, the Wisconsin one encourages people to raise money from friends and family.  

    But the Wisconsin Birdathon was ahead of GGBA in one key way—under Schuchhardt’s leadership, they started using new software that allowed donors to make per-species pledges. The total raised by the Wisconsin Birdathon rose from about $90,000 in 2020 to $117,000 in 2022.

    Schuchhardt credits a lot of that increase to the Pledge It software they purchased, which Golden Gate Bird Alliance is using for the first time this year.

    The software allows you to choose a birding goal—say 30 species on a particular outing, or 100 species over a period of time—and have friends pledge a certain amount like 50 cents or $1 for each species found. At the end of Birdathon, the software automatically bills each donor’s credit card based on the number of species you found.

    “Our old fundraising platform was a nightmare,” Schuchhardt said. “Registering was hard, donating was hard, and collecting pledges was almost impossible. Pledge It makes the pledging process an absolute breeze, a smooth experience from start to finish.”

    Schuchhardt herself experienced a learning curve with fundraising. Like many people, she started out feeling shy and awkward about asking friends for money. In 2020, the first year that she took part in a Birdathon, she approached only her immediate family and raised about $150.

    But she had an “a-ha!” moment when a non-birder friend heard about her Birdathon participation after the fact and said, “Why didn’t you share that with me? I would have donated!”

    Orioles Fundraising Page Screen shot – Provided by Caitlyn Schuchhardt

    Schuchhardt realized that “everyone has been touched by birds in some way.”…

  • The Audubon Name Issue Heats Up

    By Ilana DeBare

    Over the past several years, Audubon members and leaders throughout the country have been taking a hard look at the name of our organization—in specific, our identification with John James Audubon.

    American Avocet painting by John James Audubon in “Birds of America”

    Audubon was a leading naturalist of the early 1800s. His artwork in Birds of North America introduced Europeans to the wildlife of this continent and helped generations of Americans learn about the birds around them. 

    But Audubon also owned and sold enslaved people. In fact, he financed some of his birding expeditions through the sale of Black people. He opposed the abolition of slavery at a time when there was a growing abolition movement. He robbed Native American graves to collect skulls for himself and his friends.

    So a growing number of Audubon chapters are deciding to change their names—feeling that the figurehead of John James Audubon doesn’t represent their values or their aspiration to be a welcoming home for all birders. 

    Seattle Audubon led the way in July 2022, launching an ambitious name-change process that included months of surveys, focus groups, branding consultation, and pro bono legal help. They plan to announce their new name in June. 

    Temporary logo Seattle chapter is using during its name changing process.

    Madison Audubon (Wisconsin) followed in Seattle’s steps with a unanimous board vote in December 2022 to drop the Audubon name and start a process to find a new name. 

    In mid-February, Chicago Audubon announced it would choose a new name within the year if National Audubon doesn’t do so first. And most recently, Portland Audubon (Oregon) announced on February 27 that it too is dropping the Audubon name.

    “John James Audubon’s name may mean ‘birds’ to some, but to others it means ignoring a legacy of systemic racism,” said Portland’s Executive Director Stuart Wells. “By changing our name, we get to more fully live our values as an organization committed to racial equity, and create a place where people from all communities can come together for nature.”

    Chapters such as Portland hope their decisions will push National Audubon to take action. National Audubon announced in 2022 that it would consider the name issue, and it was  expected to issue a decision soon, but as of March 1st, the National board had not yet announced a decision. 

    The spreading reevaluation of the Audubon name has several roots.…

  • One Step Closer to Bird Safe Buildings in Berkeley

    By Executive Director Glenn Phillips 

    On the evening of Wednesday March 1, after nearly three hours of testimony and lively discussion, the City of Berkeley’s Planning Commission unanimously referred the Bird Safe Berkeley Requirements ordinance to the City Council for their approval. Thank you to the 30+ members and friends who turned out to support the stronger version provided by Golden Gate Bird Alliance. The final ordinance, substantially based on that version, will be among the most effective bird-safe building ordinances in the country if approved in its current form by the City Council. 

    The referred ordinance calls ultimately for all buildings, including residential, to use 100% bird-safe glass for new and replacement glass occupying the first 100 feet of the building from the ground. A phase-in period over the coming three to five years, depending on the project type, will allow time for local suppliers to meet the demand for smaller projects and renovations in buildings with less than 30% glass coverage across every facade. After January 1, 2028, every piece of glass installed below 100 feet on all buildings must be bird-safe.

    The ordinance defines “bird-safe” in three ways. Material tested for bird-collision reduction and given a bird-threat factor below 30 in the American Bird Conservancy’s database of bird-safe materials qualifies, as well as any material with prescriptive standard markings spaced two inches apart so that the glass is made visible to birds (such materials are assumed to have a threat factor of 20 though many will be significantly lower.). By defining “bird-safe” by threat factors, new materials will automatically be acceptable as long as they meet the threat factor threshold. A final pathway to bird safety is to provide an exterior barrier such as screens or louvers. 

    We are grateful for the support and thoughtful comments from all members of the Planning Commission, and especially from commissioners Twu and Oatfield who served on the Bird Safe Berkeley Subcommittee. None of this would have happened without the ongoing persistence of Berkeley residents Erin Diehm and Kelly Hammargren, who have consistently shown up at Planning Commission meetings for more than five years to advocate for birds. Noreen Weeden’s leadership helped the Environment and Climate Action Commission draft the original request. A huge thank you to the entire Environment and Climate Action Commission who so eloquently made the case that Berkeley needed to address the issue. 

    This ordinance meets the American Bird Conservancy’s model ordinance standard.…