• Creation of a felted Osprey chick

    By Hilary Powers

    Bid high for the baby Osprey in the Birdathon auction – you may never see another!

    When Golden Gate Bird Alliance called for donations of services or experiences (not stuff) to fit this year’s theme, I had to stop and think, because stuff is what I do: true-life replicas of creatures natural or imaginary, captured in wool and beeswax and steel.

    Felted creatures1: A few felted friends. Photo by Hilary Powers

    So how about a choose-your-own baby bird? That’d be an experience, I wrote, and we could set the prize to track the winning bid, starting with a duckling and offering bigger (or more) birds the higher the bidding went. As long as the winner selected a nestling at the downy stage, I figured all choices would be equal. More fool I….

    Why specify a baby? Adult birds have feathers. And feathers are living miracles. With my skills and goals, long feathers are insanely difficult to get right. But I’d spent countless hours editing with nestcams on a second screen, and I’d already built a duckling, an owlet, a few eyases, and even a California Condor. So I (thought I) knew: baby bird = fluffy coat, likely all or mostly one color, probably white = something wool would do easily.

    After pouncing on the idea, the GGBA folks came back and asked if I could make an Osprey for them instead, as that would fit in with their live Osprey nest cam along the Richmond shoreline. Sure, sez I, choose-your-own was just a way for stuff to masquerade as experience.

    Then I started looking at Osprey nestling pics. Oops. Unlike falcons and owls and hawks and eagles and condors, baby Ospreys are never white and fluffy. Ospreys hatch as little dinosaurs and stay saurian until their body plumage comes in, along with all those lovely, complex flight feathers.

    But yes had been said, and a challenge has its own delights.

    Work started March 12 with research: collecting dozens of images (many from Golden Gate Bird Alliance’s webcam videos) and reading up on development. When do pinfeathers start? Way too soon. What’s the eye color? Depends on the day; blue at first but turning blood red after “a few days” (how many, nobody says). What’s the length, beak to tail? Again, depends on the day; happily I found a pic where someone had set a ruler inside a nest of chicks about the right age.…

  • Accessible birding for every body

    By Chris Okon

    When I started birding in 2005, I went on each and every Golden Gate Bird Alliance bird walk that I could: the rolling terrain of Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve, the meadows of Yosemite, the wild hills of the Sierras, the special patches in Golden Gate Park, any opportunity to see and learn about birds from some of the best birders in the area.

    But gradually my body started to switch gears, and after experiencing more and more unexplained, painful, and humiliating falls, I finally got the answer in 2012 when I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). I still loved birding, but when I tried to act as if everything was OK by taking part in group birding trips and Christmas Bird Counts, I soon felt like a burden to myself and others and realized that I couldn’t keep up. Frustrated and sad, I stopped joining group outings. I believe these feelings are shared by many people who have limitations with not only mobility but also vision, hearing, autism, and many “invisible” health conditions.

    Sibley trailAn inviting trail in Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve. But further along will it hold roadblocks for birders with mobility challenges? Photo by Emily Wheeler.

    Now there’s a community for such birders: Birdability, an organization dedicated to inclusion of people who face challenges of mobility, vision, neurodiversity, and other issues that keep them from birding.

    Founded in 2016 by Virginia Rose, who lost her ability to walk after an accident at age 14, and co-led by occupational therapist and avid birder Freya McGregor, Birdability partnered with National Audubon and has already accomplished a lot:

    • Birdability Map: A crowd-sourced tool that lets anyone document and view accessibility features of birding locations.
    • Guidance Documents: Action-oriented explanations about access considerations, how organizations can implement accessible and inclusive birding, a glossary of inclusive language terms, a template to advocate for change, and more.
    • Birdability Captains: An invitation to all to get involved throughout North America.
    • Guest Speakers: Available to present to Audubon chapters, bird clubs, nature organizations and disability groups on accessibility, inclusivity and the joys of birding.
    • Coverage in birding publications and media such as Birdwatching magazine, ABA’s Birding magazine and more.
    • Birdability Week: First celebrated in October 2020, it helps spread the word about birders with disabilities and health conditions, and shares resources to help improve accessibility and inclusivity in the birding community.
    …

  • Egret nests in Alameda, 2020

    Editor’s Note: It’s nesting season! Photographer Gerry Traucht has been following a nesting colony of Great and Snowy Egrets in Alameda for eight years, through the removal of their dying nest tree in 2018 and their shift to new trees in 2019. About a dozen Great Egrets have arrived so far this spring. As we wait for more to begin nesting, here are Gerry’s photos and observations from 2020. 

    By Gerry Traucht

    The 2020 egret colony in Alameda flashed small numbers in a big footprint, taking over a grove of trees like it did in 2019.  There were about 18 nests, each with at least two chicks, sometimes three, and one that seemed to have four. By early June they were at their height of activity and by the end of that month, only a couple of visible active nests remained. In July they left, a very early departure.  What stood out was not so much their smaller number, but their strong visual presence that spoke in stirring imagery.

    Great EgretThis Great Egret was one of the first arrivals on March 19, 2020 / Photo by Gerry Traucht

    For decades, Alameda’s iconic solo Monterey pine nesting tree overflowed with egrets. The tree finished its life span and was cut down following the 2018 nesting season. There is now a bald space at the lagoon’s edge where the old tree once stood. The new colony is in a grove, essentially in the same spot, but set back from the water. It was always a question as to whether the egrets would return after their favorite tree hanging over the lagoon was no longer there.

    Great Egrets often arrive in early March and Snowy Egrets a couple of weeks later. If the colony is large, they may arrive in a stream over several months, sometimes as late as June.

    From spring through summer, green pine branches flower with newborn egrets in clusters of white. Parents with large, magnificent wingspans come and go, repairing nests and bringing food to the newborn. As they grow, this sanctuary resounds with hungry chicks in rhythmic, danceable clatter. The clamor of newborn egrets grows wildly louder as they mature. As the colony grows, it develops the feel of a village.

    Great Egret profile viewA silent moment of beauty on March 19, 2020. Photo by Gerry Traucht. A view from mid-April 2020. Photo by Gerry Traucht. Great Egret with branchGreat Egret returns to its mate with a branch to repair or possibly expand the nest, on April 18, 2020.…

  • Sharing birds with tomorrow’s outdoor educators

    By Analicia Hawkins and Aryn Maitland

    Throughout the past year, opportunities to connect with the birding community in person and enjoy nature together have been few and far between. Even though birding alone can be a fulfilling experience, there’s something special about being able to share that experience with others—especially with people who may be birding for the first time.

    Earlier this year, Golden Gate Bird Alliance members and staff led a day of birding and exploration for a group of young outdoor educators—an all-womxn cohort from the Outdoor Educators Institute (OEI), a program of Youth Outside.

    OEI is a year-long program that supports young adults by providing immersive and culturally relevant training, development, and leadership opportunities. The program is designed to support participants in advancing their careers as educators in a way that centers under-represented groups working in the industry through inclusion and representation. As queer birders who rarely see other queer birders in a structured setting, it filled us with joy and hope to be in the company of such bright, passionate, and engaged birders, many of whom shared similar identities and experiences.

    Outdoor Educators Institute and Golden Gate Bird Alliance volunteers at Elsie Roemer Bird SanctuaryOutdoor Educators Institute participants and Golden Gate Bird Alliance volunteers at Elsie Roemer Bird Sanctuary / Photo by Dan Roth

    Members of the GGBA Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee planned a day-long excursion that led participants through two local wetland bird habitats. We began our day at the Elsie Roemer Bird Sanctuary in Alameda as the tide began to retreat, offering us excellent glimpses of various plover species, American Coots, terns, and more! Participants gathered on the viewing platform and, with the support of GGBA members, gained basic comfort and familiarity using binoculars—some for the very first time—and learned how to use various field guides. The enthusiasm from the group was infectious (COVID pun only slightly intended).

    Afterward, we made the short drive to Arrowhead Marsh at MLK Jr. Regional Shoreline in Oakland. As we began our walk, members of the group stopped to appreciate an Anna’s Hummingbird perched on a fence showing off the striking colors of its gorget in the sun.

    “I would have just thought that was just a regular bird on a fence if I were walking by, but it’s actually beautiful!” one of the participants remarked.

    Anna’s Hummingbird By Bob Gunderson Outdoor Educations Institute at Arrowhead MarshOutdoor Educators Institute participants at Arrowhead Marsh / Photo by Ilana DeBare

    A few steps later we looked up just in time to see a Northern Harrier gliding above the marsh, even pausing for a moment.…

  • Butterflies on Mount Sutro in 2020

    Editor’s Note: Liam O’Brien started conducting twice-monthly butterfly surveys on Mount Sutro in 2020 as part of our wildlife monitoring for U.C.S.F.’s new Vegetation Management Plan, which was the subject of our previous blog post.

    By Liam O’Brien

    Saturday, February 13, 2021 was a glorious day. The sun was perfect, the Castro was full of people on the streets (like the old, pre-Covid days ) and low wind cemented in my mind that I needed to visit the summit of Mount Sutro.

    After an arduous hike up, I entered old Nike Road through the dappled sunlight of the eucalyptus forest. It was too early for the Western Tiger butterflies I’d seen here last year. But there dancing above the nasturtiums was a lone Cabbage White (Piers rapae)—a full month earlier than the first one I’d seen here in 2020.

    Cabbage White butterflyCabbage White butterfly / Wikipedia

    There is an annual contest held by the great butterfly professor Arthur Shapiro in Davis, California. He buys a beer for any of his students who can catch and verify the first Cabbage White of the season. A few days before my Mount Sutro visit, the first one of 2021 had been caught outside Sacramento city limits. This San Francisco sighting was my first butterfly of the new year. Folks dismiss the Cabbage White as one of those “rat” species and a rather generic butterfly. But I think it’s the perfect species to pause on in this write-up on before the flashier ones start to show up in springtime.

    I’m going to now shift things to reviewing my 2020 surveys, gleaned from the annual report I turned into Golden Gate Bird Alliance in January.

    It’s been wonderful to return to this little Eden month after month. I’ve gotten to watch the seasonality change, with different types of birds and bees passing through and the flowers—so incredibly important to butterflies—going through their life cycles.  Ultimately 2020 revealed 20 species of butterflies that dropped into the summit of Sutro over the course of the year.

    When I created the Butterflies of San Francisco pamphlet in 2010 for Nature in the City, I concluded that we had approximately 34 breeding species within our county. This would give Mount Sutro a little less than 2/3 of the known species in town.

    The summit of Sutro has a couple of things going for it when it comes to butterfly presence. …