Blog Posts Archive - Page 21 of 138 - Golden Gate Bird Alliance

Outside the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden

Birding at the University of California Botanical Garden

By Chris Carmichael

With one of the richest plant collections in the United States, the University of California Botanical Garden (UCBG) offers birders in the Bay Area a range of unique birding opportunities. Located in Strawberry Canyon in the hills above the UC Berkeley campus, the UCBG plant collections are arranged in a biogeographical manner (California, Mexico and Central America, Australasia, etc.), with an emphasis on plants from Mediterranean climates of the world, including, prominently, the flora of California.

It’s interesting to see how our native birds adapt to the worldwide flora represented in the garden. Hummingbirds are a prime example. There are many hummingbird-pollinated flowers in the Californian, South American, and Mexican and Central American Areas, and our two commonly encountered hummingbird species, Anna’s and Allen’s, readily visit plants such as salvias that occur in these areas. But, they also visit tubular flowers from around the world, including plants from Southern Africa that are sunbird-pollinated in habitat, such as aloes and certain flowering bulbs. Another example is Melianthus major, the honey bush, from South Africa. This plant produces copious amounts of nectar, and is visited by a wide array of native birds, including Black-headed Grosbeaks, Hooded Orioles, Golden-crowned Sparrows, and Yellow-rumped Warblers.

Allen's Hummingbird feeding on Nicotiana tomentosiformis in the South American Area

Allen’s Hummingbird feeding on Nicotiana sp. in the South American Area at UCBG by Melanie Hofmann

Between its diverse plant life, and edges created by transitions from one garden area to another, the botanical garden is appealing to many different bird species. This is an example of the ecological concept of “the edge effect”, where changes in population or community structures occur at the boundary of two or more habitats. Edges are often species rich, and the Garden provides a microcosm of this kind of environment. Permanent water features, including the Japanese Pool and several tributaries of Strawberry Creek, draw in water birds, although few stay for very long.

You can see a typical range of migrants in the UCBG during the spring and fall. Lazuli Buntings are dependable in the spring, and Rufous Hummingbirds are typical during early fall (and late summer) migration. During breeding season you’re likely to find Black-headed Grosbeaks and Warbling Vireos in small trees throughout the UCBG, Olive-sided and Pacific-slope Flycatchers in the redwoods that shelter the Asian Area, and Hooded Orioles in the fan palms around the conference center. Moist creek courses throughout the UCBG are good places to look for Wilson’s and Orange-crowned Warblers, Pacific Wrens, and Swainson’s Thrushes with their ethereal song.…

Golden Eagle flying by a wind turbine in Altamont Pass

Help Protect Our Birds in the Altamont Pass

Burrowing Owl behind a fence

In less than one week, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors will decide whether to approve of the Mulqueeney Ranch Wind Repowering Project despite the fact that it will unnecessarily kill large numbers of Golden Eagles, Burrowing Owls, Swainson’s Hawks, and Tricolored Blackbirds, many of which are already severely impacted by the Altamont Pass.

On Thursday October 7, the Board will hear our appeal to overturn the recently approved environmental impact report which will allow for the construction of 24 new wind turbines in a highly sensitive habitat area for these bird species. The project will actually increase the amount of megawatts produced at the site, likely resulting in killing more Golden Eagles than were killed under the old turbines.

Audubon supports responsible development of renewable energy, but that requires that counties and wind developers make real efforts to protect birds and bats. We need your help to tell the Alameda Board of Supervisors to send this project back so it can be modified to reduce impacts to Golden Eagles and other protected species.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

1. Find your District representative (see full list below) and contact them with the following message:

“Dear ________________, as an Alameda County resident, I ask that you consider overturning the East County Board of Zoning Adjustment’s (ECBZA) approval of the Mulqueeney Ranch supplemental environmental impact report and reject the approval of the project.”

If you are not an Alameda County resident contact CB*@***ov.org with the following message:

“Dear ________________, as a concerned citizen, I ask that you consider overturning the East County Board of Zoning Adjustment’s (ECBZA) approval of the Mulqueeney Ranch supplemental environmental impact report and reject the approval of the project.”

- Please feel free to use any of the additional messages listed below to support your ask.

- - The Project site is located in a highly sensitive habitat area that includes seven Golden Eagle active breeding territories, an active CESA-listed Swainson’s Hawk nest site, several CESA-listed Tricolored Blackbird nesting colonies, several Burrowing Owl habitat colonies and protected areas, and water features that attract both free-tailed and hoary bats.

- - The current level of take of protected and sensitive species by projects at Altamont Pass is unacceptable and unsustainable. Approval of yet another bird and bat killing project at Altamont Pass will make the situation significantly worse.

- - Failure to adequately address impacts to birds and bats at the Altamont undermines California’s goals to achieve 100% renewable energy by 2045 and conserve its biodiversity as directed by Governor Newsom.

…

Golden Gate Bird Alliance Docents at Lake Merritt

Lake Merritt Docents: The Wonder of Birds

By Maureen Lahiff

Ducks and waterbirds come in close toward the paved path around the lake. Gulls drop mussels on the path to crack their shells. Black-crowned Night-Herons sit motionless in the trees.

For the past several years, passionate Golden Gate Bird Alliance volunteers have helped passerby notice, understand, and appreciate these everyday moments at Lake Merritt.

Like many of the people I greet at the lake, my parents did not have many chances to engage with nature and birdlife as kids or young adults. They did their best to nurture my interest and provide opportunities for me and my sisters, even though there was no money for luxuries like binoculars. Since 2014, I’ve been part of the Lake Merritt docent program creating a space for Oakland parents and their children to have the same sorts of life-changing experiences.

Lake Merritt Docents educating the public on the local birdlife

At the beginning of our mission statement we say “The Golden Gate Bird Alliance engages people to experience the wonder of birds…”.

I can’t think of a better way to sum up the goal and rewards of being a Lake Merritt docent. To give you an even fuller picture, here is what three of my colleagues have to say about the work we do.

Patrick Meeker

I have found being a docent has been incredibly rewarding. I often get to teach someone something new each time I’m out there. I get to see the changes in people’s faces when all of the sudden, people who have been walking in places they’ve lived for years no longer just see “ducks on a lake ” but instead, they see the differences between Lesser and Greater Scaup, know what time of year Ruddy Ducks will show up, and understand the story behind where the Canvasback got its name.

A Canvasback floating in shallow water

Hilary Powers

Among my long-term favorite things are; watching birds, talking to people about birds and watching a hitherto-non-birder look through a scope for the first time to really see the intricate interplay of light on feathers. My new favorite thing, in this not quite post-pandemic world, is talking to other humans at all. It’s a huge break from restricted routines. The Lake Merritt docent program has it all!

Hilary Powers outside of the Geodesic Bird Dome with a group at Lake Merritt

Blake Edgar

I was already a docent at the Oakland Zoo when I joined the Lake Merritt team in 2019, and I enjoyed being able to apply my zoo experience to engaging folks about our backyard birdlife.…

eBird Streaking Leads to Better Birding

By Marjorie Powell

I followed the lockdown rules carefully; I went out once a week for groceries; I went birding, alone, once or twice a week. I read book after book—history, biography, fiction, emptying the shelves of books collected over the years. Then Golden Gate Bird Alliance member and birding instructor Dawn Lemoine asked me to meet her, masked, at the Elsie Roemer Bird Sanctuary platform in Alameda. This evolved into birding twice a week with Dawn and two other friends. Occasionally we included other birders, especially when we traveled a distance seeking special birds, such as to Staten Island for the Sandhill Cranes.

Sandhill Crane by Chingling Tien

Dawn encouraged me to keep an eBird list and tutored me on the mobile app. She taught me to use the four-digit “Quick Codes,” a slight variation from breeding codes, to bring up the bird’s name quickly on the eBird list. Because eBird uses them, I learned birds’ official names: A white pelican is an American White Pelican or AWPE; a raven is a Common Raven or CORA. Perhaps the most esoteric eBird skill is speaking Quick Codes: For example, “SNEG or GREG?” is a request to determine if the white bird you spotted is a Snowy or a Great Egret.

Knowing that eBird data might be used by researchers, I felt pressure when birding alone to list all the birds correctly. I began to study each bird a little more carefully than I had when my “list” was notes on a scrap of paper stuck in a bird book. More and more birds became instantly identifiable by size, shape, face pattern, location, and even sound. That large white bird must be a Great Egret… the v-shaped tail of a flying black bird makes it a Common Raven… a wren with a white eyebrow is a Bewick’s Wren.

Bewicks Wren by Gayesh Jayaraman

More eBird skills followed—selecting an existing eBird hotspot rather than creating my own, estimating numbers of birds, learning about the half circle (which means “uncommon at this location and time of year”) and full circle (meaning “rare and must be described before eBird will let you submit the list”) after a bird’s name on the eBird list. I learned about justifying a “rare” bird or an unusually large number of birds, and signing up for a county alert, a “needs list” (birds seen in the past 24 hours that you’ve not listed this year) or rare bird list.…

Tesla Park: A Win for Wildlife

By Ilana DeBare

There are too few victories for wildlife these days, but East Bay conservationists and their legislative allies just managed to save 3,100 acres of unique habitat in the hills of southeastern Alameda County.

State lawmakers and Governor Newsom agreed last week to turn the property known as Tesla Park into a permanent state park rather than an off-road vehicle recreation area.

Blue oaks in the summer at Tesla Park / Photo courtesy of Friends of Tesla Park

Corral Hollow Creek in Tesla Park / Friends of Tesla Park

The decision is a win for wildlife on the site, which supports three nesting pairs of Golden Eagles, numerous other raptors and songbirds, tule elk, and several threatened species including the California red legged frog, Foothill yellow-legged frog, California tiger salamander, and Western spadefoot toad.

This was a two-decade-long struggle. Over 30 community groups—including Golden Gate Bird Alliance and Ohlone Audubon—came together to protect the area. Consistent and dogged leadership was provided by Friends of Tesla Park. Golden Gate Bird Alliance supported the campaign through the years by submitting detailed comments on environmental impact reports and other planning documents, and garnering support from San Francisco and Berkeley legislators.

Located near Livermore, Tesla Park is named not after the electric car but after a coal mining town that stood there until the mines shut down in 1911. (Both the mining town and the car were named after electrical inventor Nikola Tesla.)

In 1998, the state used about $9 million from the Off-Highway Vehicle Trust Fund to buy the Tesla property, with the intention of adding it to the nearby Carnegie off-road recreation area. But nearby residents loved the area’s natural beauty and habitat and formed Friends of Tesla Park to fight for its preservation.

This could have been Tesla’s fate: The nearby Carnegie off-road vehicle area

Instead, habitat such as Mitchell Ravine will be preserved. / Friends of Tesla Park

With this week’s legislative deal, the land will be transferred to California State Parks, along with $1 million to plan its future use. Meanwhile, the state will reimburse the Off-Highway fund $29.8 million for the original land cost and expenses incurred during the expansion plan. That sum also includes $11 million for developing an off-road park in another location.

The state legislators representing the Tesla Park area—Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan and State Senator Steve Glazer—were staunch advocates of its preservation, as was the East Bay Regional Park District. …