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How Birds and Chocolate Became My Passion

By Sharol Nelson-Embry

A rare, endangered songbird flute-like call echoes through a tropical forest with cacao trees bordering on a high elevation pine “cloud forest” in the Dominican Republic. The Bicknell’s Thrush is an international resident, crossing borders to winter in the Zorzal Reserve in the Dominican Republic and travels north annually to nest in spring in hardwood forests on the east coast of the United States and Canada. The cacao harvested from this reserve makes a delicious chocolate treat.

Bicknell’s Thrush by Dustin Welch

Two of my passions are birds and chocolate. I retired after 26 wonderful years at the East Bay Regional Park District’s Crab Cove Visitor Center at Crown Beach. I enjoyed educating and entertaining East Bay school kids and families there.

I led bird walks for the park district and continue to lead them for the Golden Gate Bird Alliance (GGBA). I’m in the process of certification as a Master Birder through GGBA and the California Academy of Science, a one year long intensive study of course work and field trips. I’m now in my second year of the program, doing volunteer work associated with birds.

One of the highlights of my Master Birder study year was monitoring the Elsie Roemer Bird Sanctuary at Crown Beach twice a month, as well as monitoring one of the Osprey breeding pairs here in Alameda. It was fascinating to watch how the Bird Sanctuary species changed through the seasons with various bird migrations, as well as observe firsthand the growth of the Osprey chick with both parents caring for it.

The Elsie Roemer Bird Sanctuary in Alameda, California by Richard Wong

My love of chocolate deepened as I dove into single-origin chocolate — bars that are made from cocoa beans of one area or farm. Cacao trees are native to Central and South America but have been exported to many countries around the globe. They only grow in the tropical band of 20 degrees north and south of the Equator. Each location that grows chocolate has a particular flavor profile due to the terroir of the trees, similar to grapes and wine.

A skilled chocolate maker enhances those flavor notes in the way they roast the beans and finish the chocolate bar. Chocolate has four basic flavor profiles: floral, fruity, nutty, or fudgy. Nuanced flavors add to the intrigue of tasting single-origin chocolate including flavor notes that change over the course of a single bite melting in your mouth, creating a crescendo of flavors that cascades over your tongue.…

Thoughts of Tam

By Craig Griffeath

The SF Bay Ospreys nest community mourns the death of 2020 fledgling Tam, aged 76 days. Though brief, his life touched many in ways he could never know, and which his many human supporters are now left to contemplate and celebrate. He leaves behind his parents Rosie and Richmond, along with his two Osprey siblings, and thousands of human followers on sfbayospreys.org.

Tam emerged from his shell on May 11 and quickly captured the hearts of SF Bay Osprey fans. Alongside his brother Lassen and sister Shasta he was, like his mountain namesake, the smallest and youngest of three. Though plucky and capable of holding his own in confrontation (as when defending a fish from the predations of siblings), he soon learned to adopt a more patient stance, allowing the two older chicks to tire themselves out squabbling before taking his turn to dine in relative peace. Tam grew up knowing what faithful nest watchers had learned in previous years: that mother Rosie, unfailingly even-handed in support of her nestlings, would always make sure he had enough to thrive.

Collage in memory of Tam by Geonni Banner

At other times, whatever commotion might be occurring elsewhere on the nest, Tam seemed content to gaze over the edge and observe the world beyond, his family life existing alongside a growing independent identity, an emerging “apart-ness” that would sometimes give him the air of a dreamer. Several watchers saw in him a reflection of 2017’s youngest hatchling Rivet. As a third-born child myself, I felt a particular affinity with Tam and his solitary dreaming. He had a natural underdog status that made him a favorite of webcam viewers during a year when the chemistry among the three nestlings seemed especially promising.

Longtime followers of the Whirley Crane nest know well that each season brings potential risks as well as rewards.

We thrill to watching Rosie lay her eggs, and exult to the hatching of the new chicks. We see them grow under their parents’ watchful eyes, and cheer as they learn to fly and then leave home to make their own future. The time of fledging is the most exciting, but also the most dangerous. Tam’s story parallels that of the first webcam fledgling, Whirley, who likewise suffered a mortal injury just one day after fledging in 2017. We grieved the loss of baby Gamma in 2019, and the unexplained demise of 2019 fledgling Peace-Up a few months later.…

A Bird Class Student for 16 Years

By Linda Swanson

You’re thinking no, that can’t be possible, sixteen years? But yes, I was a student in Joe Morlan’s weekly Bird Class beginning in the fall of 2003, and was continually enrolled through the spring 2019 semester. Technically speaking, that took place in 17 calendar years with CCSF’s Continuing Education Field Ornithology course. I’m used to the looks of bewilderment, wonder, and disbelief when I share this. Was it that I failed each semester, or was it something else?

It was the something else.

There were actually two ornithology courses taught by Joe, a semester’s Introduction to Field Ornithology, an overview of birding, the basics of ornithology, and perusal and study of the entire National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, the course text. The second course was Topics in Field Ornithology, an in-depth study of the birds in the Nat Geo Field Guide, covering the three or four species represented on one page during each weekly class session. Joe presented and instructed us with every field mark, range, history, and nuance of each species accompanied by the slides from his vast teaching collection. These slides are not all stellar bird poses, but instead represent what is encountered in the field: partial views of birds, various plumages, and ages from juvenile to adult. I wasn’t the only long-term student as it took ~ eight years to complete every page of the field guide and to “graduate.” But it never failed that a new edition of the Nat Geo was released with an updated reordering of the species, so it was nearly impossible not to miss some species or other in your education. And yes, there were the legendary quizzes each week, but my favorite part of Bird Class was the discussion that began class.

Joe Morlan and Robbie Fischer, Jigokudani Hot Springs, Honshu, Japan, February 14, 2019. Photo by Linda.

At 7:00 PM sharp, Joe would ask, “Does anyone have anything to report?” We were always a little hesitant to go first, but if no one brought anything up, the slides and instruction would begin, and we all knew this time had the potential to be the most exciting part of class. You never knew where it would go, what we might learn, and which stories Joe would recall from his legendary experiences as an ornithologist beginning here in the early 1970’s, that are at once captivating and priceless.…

New Bluebird in Central Alameda

By Linda Carloni

Western Bluebirds are favorites of many, with the male’s brilliant royal-blue colors and rusty breast.

The species has long been seen on Alameda Point perching near the soccer fields and using the nest boxes installed for them near Crab Cove. They’ve been expanding through Alameda neighborhoods, and a particularly large and colorful male just stopped by on my driveway.

Male Western Bluebird by Allen Hirsch

Westy, as I’ve named him, is the chalk-art rendering I won at Golden Gate Bird Alliance’s recent Online Bird Art Auction.

The auction had its start this spring, when the COVID-19 shelter-in-place caused GGBA to cancel all in-person events of Birdathon, GGBA’s principal annual fundraising event. A group of volunteers seized on the idea of transforming our regular auction of experiences and items into all-art auction, sharing the proceeds with the artists, who are all suffering from the pandemic shutdown as well. The auction was a big success, generating a lot of spirited bidding and about $20,000 in sales.

Westy is the work of Clayton Anderson, a talented artist, accomplished naturalist, and head of GGBA’ Youth Education Program. Nature study and art have always gone together for Anderson – his mother saved a piece of his art from kindergarten, a picture of many kinds of plants, and his childhood was filled with aquariums with fish, frogs, a turtle and other creatures.

Socially distanced and masked, Clay gets to work on bringing Westy to life. Photo by Linda.

Anderson’s degree is in art, but his career has focused on nature education.

At GGBA, he’s been able to blend the two at various chalk art events, including one that was part of the campaign to protect the Black-crowned Night-Herons in Oakland and one in Richmond, celebrating their selection of the Osprey as the City Bird.

Westy. Photo by Anna Carloni.

I selected the Western Bluebird for my drawing because I love its rich colors, because it’s my “bluebird of happiness,” and because I saw the first Western Bluebirds in my immediate neighborhood early in the pandemic shutdown.

You’re welcome to come (masked) to visit him on the east side of Paru Street, between Lincoln and Santa Clara. Come soon before he fades!

Linda Carloni is a member of the Board of Golden Gate Bird Alliance, and co-chair of its Friends of the Alameda Wildlife Reserve committee. To find out more about helping to protect birds in Alameda, email fawr@goldengatebirdalliance.org…

Birds of the Future

By Paloma MacKenzie

During the winter, I always seem to notice crows in the neighborhood more often. It’s become a common occurrence to see them in groups in the late afternoon. The caw of the crow is not what some would call a mellifluous bird song, but I find it endearing anyway. Almost as if they are crying for the sunset, I can see the birds atop the bare branches where their nests can be seen until springtime brings back their foliage.

A murder of Crows by Ingrid Taylor

It seems that they’ve become more numerous in recent years. Previously I’d always considered the urban bird to be the pigeon. And if you’re near the ocean, you know that seagulls rule the beaches and wharfs. I can’t think of anyone who hasn’t had a picnic interrupted when they unknowingly left their snacks out of view and in the vicinity of a curious gull. But crows are beginning to take up these spaces, too. Culture has dictated for so long that the presence of these birds is a curse—that they bring bad omens with them. For instance, their flocks have been referred to as “murders.” And for ravens, “conspiracies.”

Photo by Stefon Linton

Crows are cunning. Corvidae—the crow family, which includes ravens and scrub jays—have proven themselves to be some of the smartest birds because of their strong memories. In the PBS documentary, A Murder of Crows, I’ve seen scientists teach a group of birds the face of a predator (in this case, a masked man), who then pass on the information to their offspring. In this instance, a young crow sounds the alarm when he sees the masked figure he was warned about but had never personally seen. They show complexity in their communication with the variety of calls they make. They function as a family for years after they’ve grown up. They hold funerals for lost ones in which they all participate in a choir.

It’s believed that human development has cleared the way for them to flourish. It’s easy to see why: they’re intelligent and adaptable. And any creature with a penchant for picking food out of human garbage will find more opportunities the further we spread into what was once the wilderness. Still, I often see crows picking wild food from trees and bushes, unlike pigeons, who seem to only go for human food scraps.…