• Bird Mural in Downtown Oakland

    By Pam Consear

    Downtown Oakland has a new mural! Actually, most of a city block full of murals, emblazoned with flying herons and egrets and post office-related paraphernalia (which I’ll explain later).

    I was honored to be hired as the lead artist on this mural project. Here’s how it all came about:

    In 2015 I painted a series of vintage-style postcard murals on three separate buildings in Oakland’s Dimond District. The postcards—which are permanent installations; go have a look!—come in pairs, with a “front side” picture that highlights a special feature of the neighborhood, and a “back side” that includes a postage stamp, address, postmark, and a handwritten message from the community. Those murals caught the attention of Raymond Connell, Development Manager at Holland Partner Group. Ray appreciated the friendly, whimsical, and informative nature of the artwork.

    Murals at Loard’s Ice Cream

     

    Mural at Club 2120

    In 2017, HPG was making plans to build an apartment complex on the formerly barren parking lot at 14th & Alice Streets, where families of snowy egrets and black-crowned night herons had been nesting for years. As many locals are aware, these winged residents have been both beloved by, and a nuisance to, the human residents and workers in the area. And their living conditions present many hazards for the birds themselves—especially for the youngest members of the flocks.

    Ray deserves credit for many things, including working with Golden Gate Bird Alliance to help safely relocate the birds, and reaching out to me to help convey a visual message to the surrounding community. He and his associate at the time, Jacqueline Morrone, approached me about creating postcard-style murals that would be written “from the birds” to inform their downtown neighbors about the new homes that were being prepared for them at Lake Merritt.

     

    Sketch of Postcard Front

    Besides just the pair of postcards, however, Ray and Jackie asked me to come up with a way to embellish all of the 8-foot-high plywood construction fencing that would surround three sides of the city block between 13th and 14th Streets, and Alice and Jackson Streets.

    Artist Lindsey Kernodle, and former GGBA intern, created playful, pun-filled images of members of the bird families. We thought her work would look great styled as Polaroids—a set of (bird) family photos to let the neighbors know how the kids were doing, so to speak.

    Lindsey Kernodle creating bird art at GGBA office by Cindy Margulis

     

    One of Lindsey’s pieces.…

  • Watershed Warriors

    By Leslie Weir

     

    “Why is there so much trash?”

    “Why do people throw so much trash in the water?”

    These are the questions GGBA Youth Programs Manager, Clayton Alexander, most often hears when his Eco-Education students first see the unending line of trash that appears along the San Francisco Bay shoreline as the winter rains flush garbage and debris through the watershed. This line of inquiry is full of opportunity for Clay. It allows him to take his students on a journey of exploration that starts with their neighborhood storm drains, travels along creek beds, through wetlands, and ultimately ends at the Pacific Ocean.

    GGBA Youth Programs Manager Clay Anderson on a field trip with Eco-Ed students

    Over nearly two decades, Golden Gate Bird Alliance has inspired close to 20,000 young people to take better care of their local watershed through Eco-Education and the program continues to win hearts, minds, and awards. Eco-Education was the recent recipient of the Alameda Watershed Confluence Award for Best Youth Program. It is a past recipient of the Governor’s Environmental and Economic Leadership (GEELA) Award and the Outstanding Service Award from the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE). But, most importantly, the restoration focus of the program has helped transform Pier 94 in San Francisco, Arrowhead Marsh in Oakland, and other sites around the Bay Area, into vital and diverse wildlife habitats. The US Geological Survey acknowledged Eco­-Education participants for restoring upland habitat for the endangered Ridgway’s Rail at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline.

    Eco-Ed students on a bird walk

    In the Bay Area, despite their proximity to the San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean, many children from under-resourced neighborhoods and school districts in Oakland, Richmond, and San Francisco, have little contact or awareness of the natural world around them. These children often lack opportunity to encounter the ecosystems and biodiversity within their local creek, wetland and ocean habitats. Through Eco-Education they begin to understand the positive role they can play in helping wildlife. GGBA’s multi-dimensional Eco-Education Program empowers children and their family members to explore nature with joy and to cherish coastal habitats and the unique cohort of wildlife their own local watershed supports. Providing young children from under-served areas with the education, exposure and information about the watershed and coastal habitats inspires them to become active environmental stewards and to continue to apply those lessons in the future.…

  • 5 Ways That Birdwatching Has Changed My Life

    By Taylor Crisologo
    Editor’s note: This blog originally appeared on Taylor Crisologo’s website BayAreaNaturalist.com
    There are very few hobbies that I can say have changed my life for the better, and birding is at the top of that list. Here are just a few ways that birding has influenced me. I have many hobbies that have enriched my life: reading, cooking, and dancing hula all come to mind as interests that make me feel happy and fulfilled. That said, there are very few hobbies that I can say have changed my life for the better. Here are just a few ways that birding has influenced me.

    1. Birdwatching taught me how to pay attention.

    Birding has completely transformed my day-to-day activities by teaching me how to pay attention. While birding has allowed me to further develop my attention span, it has also taught me how to integrate nature into my day-to-day activities by simply paying attention.
    Take walking from your parked car to a building as an example. Before I learned the sights and sounds of individual bird species, a walk from my car was just another task. Learning how to watch birds has flipped an irreversible switch in my mind, turning every moment outside into an opportunity to see or hear new things.
    Today, even when doing something as simple as watering my plants outdoors, I passively pay attention to who’s around. Dark-eyed junco hopping underneath my gardening shelves, looking for spilled seed. House finch singing from a perch on the ornamental tree across the street. It’s an incredible gift that I’m grateful to have learned.

    Devils Slide by Taylor Crisologo

    2. Watching birds got me to spend more time outside.

    I’ve always loved the outdoors, but birding has presented me with the incentive to explore as many new habitats as possible, in hopes of observing more bird diversity.
    Since I’ve begun birding, I’ve traveled to habitats ranging from rocky seashores to the edges of lush agricultural fields in search of a particular species. I’ve gotten to know a diversity of places, thanks to the journeys that birdwatching has brought me on.

    Taylor participating in Herring Gull Research

    3. Birds were a gateway to learning about other incredible wildlife.

    Birds, like all other life, interact with a myriad of other species in their day-to-day activities.
    As an avid birdwatcher, you sometimes can’t help but wonder who else is in the picture as you’re watching a particular bird. 

    …

  • Looking up at the 2018 Audubon California Assembly

    by Clayton Anderson

    “Look Up”! was the slogan for this year’s California Assembly. There were some real positives to take away from the event. I spent some time with Marcos Trinidad, Director of the Audubon Center at Debs Park. After showing me around this beautiful center in the Montecito Heights area of Los Angeles, and meeting Natasha Khanna (Audubon California field organizer) and Estefania Palacio (Audubon California Communications and Development Associate) we had a delicious lunch and talked about the challenges of running a nature center.

    The weather was great, and after checking into the Plaza Marriott in downtown LA, I settled into two days of avian advocacy: Presentations ranged from bird ecology to political strategy for birds, to impacts of climate change on birds. I was able to assist in the “Peer Networking” event by chairing the educator’s discussion group. During the discussion some common themes came up. One theme was the need for support. After writing all of the curricula for her program, and even after paying from her own pocket to get her program started, one educator was not able to garner any additional financial assistance. A second theme appeared to be a lack of awareness of the need. A couple of educators who were members of chapters which contained urban and/or suburban areas felt there was a lack of awareness in their chapters, as well as, among teachers in the education systems?! They found it difficult to form partnerships. All of the educators at the table felt that outreach and education work was ‘challenging’ regardless of the situation.

    Clay with Marcos Trinidad Clay with Natasha Khanna

    On the 2nd day I was a speaker and member of the the discussion panel for “Conversations for a New Generation.” The event was well attended. It seemed the main concerns were: ‘How do we engage?’ And ‘Why Diversity?’ To the latter question I answered: “Nature, by its nature is Diverse”, which received warm applause. All of the presentations I attended were interactive, informative and well organized (Thanks Ariana!). And the food was great, particularly the squash soup, Yum!

    Audubon Center at Debs Park Audubon Center at Debs Park

    On our last day, I signed up for the birding trip to Bolsa Chica. Vic Liepzig was our leader from Sea and Sage Audubon. We saw over 70 species. Being the intrepid birders we are, Vic offered to take me, along with Kenneth Sobon and Matthew Forster (both from Altacal Audubon), over to the ‘birding hotspot’ Huntington Park.…

  • Keep Our Parks Healthy: Vote Yes on Measure FF

    By Pam Young

    In 2004, the East Bay Regional Park District won 72% approval from East Bay voters in Oakland, Berkeley, Richmond, Alameda, San Pablo, El Cerrito, Albany, Emeryville and Piedmont to commit $12 per year as a parcel tax under Measure CC. This measure provided over $37.4 million dollars during the past 15 years and funds park infrastructure, maintenance, safety, and services.

    During 2017, the East Bay Regional Park District (the EBRPD) invited GGBA and other environmental groups to attend a series of meetings and review a range of projects and commitments that were considered for inclusion in a campaign to renew and continue Measure CC. After many long intensive examinations of possible projects, we identified a strong list of habitat restoration and wildlife protection projects that would strengthen the program for environmental stewardship. The updated commitments are in the renewed Measure CC and have the new name, Measure FF.

    Orange-crowned Warbler in Tilden by Pam Young

    Measure FF will continue this East Bay wide commitment to healthy parks by approving the same parcel tax for another twenty years. Measure FF commitments include park wide improvements throughout the western Alameda and Contra Costa counties and will fund habitat restoration, wildlfire hazard reduction, and public access enhancements that anticipate climate change impacts. Measure FF commitments will help restore our shorelines, marshes, wetlands, and urban creeks and protect sensitive habitat for endangered species.

    All these park improvements help protect the important services from our parks – clean air and clean water. The East Bay Regional Park District is a point of pride for East Bay outdoor enthusiasts. Without healthy parklands, we would not only lose our world famous reputation for accessible and affordable outdoor recreation, our enviably high quality air and water would degrade. It is easy to help keep our parks healthy. We will vote to support Measure FF.

    Cooper’s Hawk in Tilden by Pam Young

    If I may share a personal story, you should know that I visit the parks every day. After my daily run along my favorite fire road, I may return to go birding or hiking at one of my special destinations. This daily visit is not only enjoyable – it’s restorative. No visit is ever the same. The endless biodiversity promises a new experience, such as an unfamiliar call or a small overlooked spider web that sparkles with dew and then vanishes after just a few days.…