• Vaux’s Swift monitoring hits its tenth year

    By Michael Helm

    This fall, for the 10th consecutive year, Golden Gate Bird Alliance members monitored the number of migrating Vaux’s Swifts spending the night in the chimneys of McNear Brick & Block brickyard in San Rafael.

    Vaux’s Swifts are West Coast birds with a long migration: Some travel as far as 4,000 miles from the Alaska panhandle to Panama. Like swallows, they catch insects on the fly with fast, graceful swoops. Unlike swallows, they can’t perch. They sleep by clinging to rough vertical surfaces, using their tail as a kickstand. They roost communally, with thousands of swifts—sometimes even tens of thousands—cramming together for warmth and safety inside hollow trees and old brick chimneys.

    Vaux’s Swifts enter a chimney at McNear Brickyard / Photo by Michael Helm Vaux’s Swift / Photo by Bettina Arrigoni Swifts roosting en masse in a Washington state chimney / Photo courtesy of Larry Schwitters

    Birders in Washington state began documenting Vaux’s Swift roosts there in the early 2000s, in part to preserve the old chimneys needed by the birds. But the swifts’ other migratory stopping points remained a mystery.

    Then, in 2010, Golden Gate Bird Alliance birding instructor Rusty Scalf discovered a major Vaux’s Swift roost in the Bay Area—the chimneys of McNear Brick & Block in San Rafael.

    While the plant workers and the McNear family were well aware of some kind of occupation of the long-decommissioned chimneys, it wasn’t until Rusty stumbled on the site that the “occupiers” were identified as Vaux’s swifts (and not some kind of confused bat).

    Since then, GGBA members have shown up assiduously just before sunset for two months each fall to count the swifts, in coordination with Larry Schwitters’ “Vaux’s Happening” regional observation project. It takes concentration, a good scope, and a quick hand on a clicker for counting: The sky around the chimneys can shift from open blue to a black swarm of diving and circling swifts at a moment’s notice.

    McNear Brickyard / Photo by Michael Helm Looking for swifts as sunset approaches / Photo by Michael Helm

    The southbound migration typically runs from around August 15 to mid-October. This year’s Vaux’s Swift count season closed on October 23, when sunset came and went with no swifts.

    GGBA and Marin Audubon led one public field trip apiece in mid-September, at the height of the migration, courtesy of McNear Brick and Block and its proprietor, Dan McNear.…

  • Helping birds from the first base line

    By Mary Malec 

    When people sign up to volunteer with Golden Gate Bird Alliance, they often imagine working at shoreline marshes or birdsong-filled hillsides.

    Not first base in a pro baseball stadium!

    But the infield of the Giants’ Oracle Park was in fact the site of a huge GGBA volunteer event recently—with GGBA members helping 100 Salesforce employees build Barn Owl boxes and assemble planting kits for schoolchildren in our award-winning Eco-Education program.

    Salesforce took over the baseball stadium on October 17 for a massive community-service activity honoring about 1,000 employees who had been with the company for ten or more years. Local nonprofits including GGBA were invited to set up service projects across the field.

    GGBA, which has had an ongoing volunteer partnership with Salesforce since 2015, was delighted to occupy the first base line.

    The Salesforce employees built 14 two-foot-deep boxes for Barn Owl nesting. They assembled 450 gardening kits that  contain child-size garden gloves, a small trowel, a packet of wildflower seeds, and a game that helps kids match birds to the plants where they can be found.

    Sounds simple, right? But it took days of preparation by GGBA volunteers to make this afternoon of construction and assembly go smoothly.

    Dan Richman, a GGBA member with superb carpentry skills, prepared the Barn Owl box materials, buying and pre-cutting the wood. Each kit arrived at Oracle Park as a flat-pack comprised of 18 pieces of plywood and 10 straight pieces of pine. To avoid confusion, separate tables were set up for the bottom panels, sides, backs and fronts. GGBA volunteers Eddie Bartley, Greg Dutch, Sandi Estep, Mary Malec, Paul Romanak, and Mary Sue Wallace joined Dan in providing tools and friendly supervision.

    It took a truck plus carts to bring the owl box supplies / Photo by Mary Malec Dan Richman prepares the owl box work area / Photo by Janet Carpinelli

    The Barn Owl boxes were designed by All About Owls, a program that educates the public about owls and provides nesting boxes to groups and individuals. The design has evolved over the years to a size that works for Barn Owls but excludes Great Horned Owls, potential predators. The plywood is made of materials that are non-toxic to birds; a hinged door allows for easy off-season cleaning; and the entry area has grooves that helps the owls grip the box as they arrive. An earlier version of the box had a perch, but perches were eliminated because they allow predators access to threaten the owls and their babies.…

  • Welcoming refugees through birding

    By Laura Cremin

    Lake Merritt, the heart of Oakland, has long beckoned people to peel away from the pulses of the city and just watch the birds. Golden Gate Bird Alliance was fortunate to spend the morning at the lake recently with some remarkable people who are new arrivals to the Bay Area.

    We connected with them through 1951 Coffee Company, a local non-profit that provides job training and employment at coffee shops to refugees, asylum seekers, and special immigrant visa holders. The purpose goes beyond jobs, though—to building a community where refugees can be supported, cherished, and welcomed.

    Audubon leaders with 1951 Coffee students / Photo by Cynthia Zhou A new Bay Area resident who is also a new birder / Photo by Cynthia Zhou

    For Audubon members who dream about birds all day, an intuitive form of welcoming is to share the unique places and wildlife that make the Bay Area feel like home. How could GGBA share a relevant experience? I contacted 1951 to ask, and connected with Cynthia Zhou, a staff member who coincidentally had thought a lot about nature and the refugee community. She agreed that birds make good ambassadors.

    We teamed up and went on a bird walk on a Saturday morning in late September. 1951’s training cafe is a few blocks south of Lake Merritt, making the lake a natural destination to explore.

    Birding with 1951 Coffee students / Photo by Dan Roth

    From Audubon I was joined by Clay Anderson (naturalist and GGBA Eco-Education staff) and Dan Roth (fellow board member). From 1951 side, we were joined by Cynthia Zhou and Hannah Carter (both in AmeriCorps positions).

    And of course, the participants in the trainee program! There were a dozen current and former 1951 students. They had sought refuge from Eritrea, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, and Ethiopia. The range of time that the students had lived in the U.S. varied: Some had been here for a few years and were familiar with the Bay Area, while one student had just arrived a month ago.

    They were all interested in Lake Merritt; only two of them had been around the entire lake before.

    Within our two-hour adventure, we encircled both sides of Lake Merritt, ate chocolate croissants in front of a fitness boot-camp, and even went birding with a bird!

    Cynthia Zhou and her pigeon greet the 1951 birders / Photo by Dan Roth Clay orients the participants / Photo by Dan Roth

    We met at the Amphitheater at the south end of the lake.…