• 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.    

    Golden Gate Bird Alliance Docents at Lake MerrittLake 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.    

    Canvasback in shallow waterA 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 MerrittHilary 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 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. …

  • MLK Jr. Regional Shoreline: Birding Hotspot

    By Blake Edgar

    Wedged between Interstate 880 and Oakland International Airport along the eastern edge of San Leandro Bay, Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline protects a remnant of a once-extensive tidal marsh. This habitat maintains a population of endangered Ridgway’s Rails and serves many shorebirds and water birds, especially during winter migration. This area was opened to the public by the East Bay Regional Park District in 1979 as San Leandro Bay Regional Shoreline, but in 1992 the name was changed to honor Dr. King.

    You enter the park from Swan Way, although you’re more likely to spot a Canada Goose than a swan there. The road into the park passes three mounds behind a fence on the right where Burrowing Owls have been known to reside. Further along on the right, you can glimpse a larger mound in the distance, strewn with oyster shells, where East Bay Regional Park wildlife volunteers are working to create nesting habitat for Western Snowy Plovers.

    Burrowing Owl in meadow at MLK Jr. Regional ShorelineBurrowing Owl in upland meadow at MLK Jr. Regional Shoreline, by Rick Lewis

    More than 200 avian species have been reported on eBird from MLK Shoreline. For birders, the primary attraction here is often 50-acre Arrowhead Marsh, the park’s centerpiece and a central location for many Golden Gate Bird Alliance activities, from Eco-Education school outings and adult field trips to long-term restoration efforts.

    Time for a bit of history. From a total of around 1,800 acres of tidal marsh in the late 1930s, when GGBA began advocating for the area’s preservation, a series of major development projects (including the airport, highway, and Oakland Coliseum complex) drastically reduced the wetlands. Fifty years ago, GGBA succeeded in protecting Arrowhead Marsh as a refuge.

    Arrowhead MarshArrowhead Marsh at MLK Regional Shoreline by Rick Lewis Sunset and low tide at Arrowhead MarshSunset and low tide at Arrowhead Marsh, by Rick Lewis

    Coastal survey maps from 1855 and 1895 indicate that Arrowhead Marsh formed at some point in the interim period, possibly growing on eroded sediment that came down San Leandro Creek from the construction of Lake Chabot. For a broad, elevated perspective on the aptly named marsh, visit the viewing deck at the observation tower beside the parking lot. Then head to the path along the water’s edge, or the dock that extends out across pickleweed and cordgrass, to seek out some secretive marsh denizens.

    This 1990 aerial view shows why Arrowhead Marsh has its name. Photo by Ron Russo.…

  • Oysters, Climate Change, and Pier 94

    By Noreen Weeden

    Pier 94, our habitat restoration site along San Francisco’s southeastern shoreline, is a potential oyster hotbed!

    No, we’re not talking about turning Pier 94 into the next Hog Island Oyster Company. These are a different kind of oysters—tiny native oysters that make better eating for wildlife than for humans, and that could become part of our defense against climate change.

    Olympia oysters (Ostrea lurida) are an important part of the cultural and natural history of San Francisco Bay. They provide valuable nutrition for birds such as sea ducks and Black Oystercatchers, as well as rock crabs, bat rays, sea otters, and other marine life.

    The smallest oysters in the United States (2.4 to 3.1 inches long and 0.9 to 1.3 inches thick), Olympias are the only oyster species native to the West Coast. They were part of the diet of Native Americans and were harvested by Gold Rush newcomers, although today people prefer larger, commercially-farmed Eastern (Atlantic) and Pacific oysters (native to Asia).

    Dr. Chela Zabin points out an Olympia oysterDr. Chela Zabin points out an Olympia oyster / Photo by Noreen Weeden Olympia oysters and shucking knifeOlympia oysters, with a shucking knife for size comparison / Photo by Brianhe

    Olympia oysters improve water quality and clarity by filtering over five gallons of water per hour while consuming microscopic plants known as phytoplankton. Despite dramatic population declines in San Francisco Bay due to over-harvesting, mining silt, pollution, and habitat loss, remnant populations of our little native oyster have survived.

    A fascinating fact about Olympia oysters is that they are sequential hermaphrodites.  They start out as males, develop into females, and switch back again, maybe twice in a year. The larvae float in the water and find a place to attach and grow.

    All interesting… but what do Olympia oysters have to do with Pier 94?

    A shoreline salt marsh restoration site owned by the Port of San Francisco, Pier 94 has been managed by Golden Gate Bird Alliance since 2002.  In a 2016 report on vegetation management there, Dr. Peter Baye suggested that native oysters could provide wetland protection and rocky intertidal habitat enhancement.

    Aerial view of Pier 94Aerial view of Pier 94 in 2020 from a kite camera / Photo by Charles Benton

    In 2017, we partnered with California Academy of Sciences and others on a bio-blitz at Pier 94 where volunteers documented the presence of our native oyster. Later that year, we invited Dr. Chela Zabin of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC), Dr.…