• Arizona birding — prized destination and auction prize

    By Daryl Goldman

    This year for the first time the Birdathon Auction is offering three great Arizona “bed and bird” experiences — overnight stays at inns or guest houses, two of them paired with an expert birding guide. How did this happen? For years I heard about the amazing birding in southeast Arizona and, when I finally went there with my wife and sister-in-law in 2019, I became hooked.  Here’s a little about what I loved about SE Arizona.

    Tucson, AZ

    We started our birding adventure in Tucson, making our first-stop Saguaro National Park West. Saguaro NP has separate districts on either side of Tucson, with mountains to the east and protected desert vegetation to the west.

    I had a hard time wrapping my brain around the sheer number of saguaro cacti and the number of nest holes in the cacti. With all the bird activity I felt like I was in a Roadrunner cartoon and was warned more than once to stop making Beep-Beep sounds. Cactus Wren, Gambel’s Quail, Ladder-backed Woodpecker, Gila Woodpecker, Verdin, Black-tailed Gnatcatcher, Phainopepla, Black-throated Sparrow, Bell’s Vireo, Lark Bunting, Blue Grosbeak, Canyon Towhee, Curve-billed Thrasher, Pyrrhuloxia, Elf Owl, and of course Greater Roadrunner. These are just some of the birds to be seen there.

    Saguaro NP East by Daryl Goldman, Gila Woodpecker by Gary L Clark, Saguaro NP West by Daryl Goldman 

    We next visited Saguaro NP East, on the other side of Tucson, and were enchanted by the abundance of birds and the way the tops of the mountains glowed as the sun set. The tarantula crossing our path was exciting, although less enchanting.  

    My wife and I are in the process of planning our next trip to Arizona and we will definitely stay at the Tucson casita being offered in the Birdathon Auction this year. It’s just 15 minutes from downtown, minutes away from Saguaro NP West, offers a wonderful courtyard to watch birds over morning coffee, and is delightfully designed and furnished. 

    (The casita stay is being donated to the auction by naturalist-turned-realtor Angie Salonikios. The other part of this Tucson Birding Package is a full day of birding the area with David Robinson, a former Golden Gate Bird Alliance board member who is currently Tucson Audubon’s Director of Advocacy and Education.) 

    Madera Canyon

    During our 2019 visit, we next headed 30 miles south towards Madera Canyon National Forest Recreational Area, a valley in the Santa Rita Mountains.…

  • Birding in Lodi: Not Just Sandhill Cranes

    By Patrick Meeker

    Those of us in the San Francisco Bay Area and its surrounding areas are blessed with a rich tapestry of bird life. But there are times we want to explore further than our regular patch in Tilden Park or Fort Mason, and one prime destination is Lodi, in San Joaquin County.

    This year, our Birdathon auction is offering three separate prizes that can make a trip to the Lodi area even more memorable—a luxurious gourmet dinner there, a two-night stay convenient to downtown Lodi, and a sunset tailgate party while viewing Sandhill Cranes.

    But of course, as we know, it’s all about the birds.

    The annual Sandhill Crane migration is undoubtedly the main attraction of Lodi’s birding scene, drawing thousands of observers from far and wide. These majestic birds typically arrive in late fall and spend the winter feasting on cultivated grains and small larval insects among the shallow marshes before departing for their breeding grounds in Northern Canada. Watching them fly in by the thousands at sunset is a truly awe-inspiring experience.

    Sandhill Cranes returning to roost at sunset by Rick Lewis.

    Other seasonal visitors include Tundra Swans, Snow Geese, and other waterfowl, making fall and winter the prime birding seasons. But Lodi also offers year-round species such as Wood Duck and Acorn Woodpecker. According to the latest eBird data, up to 350 different species have been documented in the Lodi area.

    This wealth of species is largely due to Lodi’s variety of landscapes, including riparian forests, wetlands, and vineyards, which act as a magnet for both resident and migratory species, allowing visitors to see a wide array of birds in a relatively compact area.

    Birders and conservationists have contributed to Lodi’s status as a birding hotspot, with the Nature Conservancy helping protect and restore habitat and local birders organizing the well-known Sandhill Crane Festival each year in November. Here are some of the area’s birding highlights:

    Staten Island
    Situated between the North and South Mokelumne River, this island is teeming with cranes, ibises, egrets, and Northern Shovelers. The Nature Conservancy manages this agricultural land primarily during the winter for these birds. The island’s harvested cornfields provide an abundant food source for the cranes.

    Cosumnes River Preserve
    The Cosumnes River Preserve offers an array of habitats from floodplain wetlands to oak forests. It’s a vital conservation area that provides shelter for thousands of migratory birds and a diverse ecosystem.…

  • The Great Bird Auction Scavenger Hunt

    By Daryl Goldman

    What happens when you ask your wife to be a Birdathon Auction item? Or if you ask your mother, good friend, or friend of a friend?  This is what the Birdathon Auction Committee has been doing since we started meeting in September and so far we are not divorced, disowned, or unfriended. At first some of our requestees had a “deer in the headlights” look, but they became amazingly supportive when they realized how they could help the conservation and educational work of Golden Gate Bird Alliance.   

    Bidding in the 2024 Birdathon Auction opens on May 5 and runs through May 20, although you can view the forty amazing prizes right now. This assortment—everything from a nine-day guided birding trip in the Rockies to a hand-sewn bird-print dress for a toddler—is a true collaboration. The Auction Committee—Patrick Meeker, Ilana DeBare, Sharol Nelson-Embry, Mary Wand, and myself as chair—met monthly to brainstorm, share connections, do research, and scavenge for prizes from loved ones and total strangers. 

    One exciting innovation this year was our decision to create vacation packages by pairing accommodations in birding hotspots with knowledgeable local bird guides. But how were we to find both guides and lodging in these popular destinations? 

    GGBA board members and staff joined us in reaching out to field trip leaders outside the Bay Area whom we personally knew. I filled in the gaps by contacting other Audubon/Bird Alliance chapters to find experienced guides in their cities. Locally, we approached GGBA members with experience birding elsewhere, and were thrilled when Viviana Wolinsky and Steve Hunter offered to provide the nine-day guided field trip in the Colorado Rockies.

    Dusky Grouse in the Colorado Rockies by Steve Hunter

    When it came to lodging, we scoured the internet for “lodging for birders” because so many wonderful inns welcome birders and feature bird feeders on their property. Some even offer to make an early breakfast or breakfast to go. One of these places is the beautiful Casa de San Pedro Inn, whose property borders on the San Pedro River Preserve in Hereford, Arizona. Most of their clientele are birders, many have been GGBA members, and they were happy to support us.  One sleepless night I remembered that a friend I made on an Ecuador birding trip has a brother who is a natural history guide in Southeast Arizona.  As luck would have it, he lives in Hereford near the Casa de San Pedro and, a couple of emails later, Ted Mouras donated a half-day guided bird trip. …

  • Birding in the Rockies

    By Steve Hunter and Viviana Wolinsky

    We were skiers long before we were committed birders. We admired the majestic vistas of the Colorado Rockies as we ascended the ski lifts at various resorts, and toyed with the idea of returning in the summer months. But birding put air under the wings of that fledgling thought.

    With the added incentive of birding, we’ve returned a number of times in the summer months both to the slopes we had skied down and to surrounding areas near or not quite so near.

     El Dorado Front Range in Boulder County by Steve Hunter

    One of our nemesis birds was the White-tailed Ptarmigan, a high-altitude grouse that spends its entire life cycle above timberline in the tundra of the mountain west – the only species in North America to do so. Looking at its range map, we saw only a handful of small areas, dots even, in the lower 48.  One of the larger of these small range splotches is in the northern Colorado Rockies. Drilling down in eBird, we recognized that Loveland Pass, which lies smack on the Continental Divide, was one of the few areas where the bird was somewhat regularly sighted.  So several ski trips saw us eschewing the Eisenhower Tunnel (the longest mountain tunnel and highest point on the Interstate Highway System) and instead braving the curvy two-lane highway to the even higher 11,900’ Loveland Pass in search of the White-tailed Ptarmigan. The birding gods never smiled down on us at Loveland Pass, though.

    Those birding gods were kinder to us in Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP).  On our first visit, though, the birding gods greeted us not with a smile but with a smirk.  Was that little blob on the horizon that we saw  in the scope and on the blown-up photo a rock or a White-tailed Ptarmigan? (Reasonable minds disagree….) The next visit to RMNP, however, left no doubt, as we were graced with the sight of three White-tailed Ptarmigans, including a male who flew not far over our heads, vocalizing.

    White-tailed Ptarmigan in flight by Steve Hunter
    Rocky Mountain National Park by Steve Hunter

    Hiking above the tree line elsewhere has rewarded us with memorable moments, like the time we hiked the Shrine Mountain trail above Vail Pass, where we crossed large meadows full of wildflowers, vocalizing Pine Grosbeaks seemingly in every direction, and a pair of Canada Jays who appeared to fly over to us just to see what we were up to.…

  • Bringing Back the Bay Birding Challenge

    By Whitney Grover

    In 2022 Golden Gate Bird Alliance brought back the Bay Birding Challenge to Birdathon. Two teams, one in the East Bay and one in San Francisco, squared off to see more species in their areas than their competitor in the span of a single day. San Francisco won the day in 2022, only to have their title taken back by the East Bay team in 2023. Watching from the sidelines, it was clear the Bay Area tops the charts in both bird species and badass birders who know just where to find them. This year we are mixing it up! 

    Rather than two teams competing across the Bay, we’re inviting any number of teams to join us on April 27 for a Big Day Challenge like no other. By forming a team of 3 to 10 birders, you can use your hard earned birding skills as a veteran or develop your skills as a beginner by exploring any of our three counties (SF, Contra Costa, and Alameda)! The goals of the Bay Birding Challenge are to have fun, compete in seeing the most bird species, and help fundraise to support our work throughout the year. 

    Interestingly enough, this “new approach” to our Bay Birding Challenge isn’t really new at all. Back in the day we had multiple teams participating in Birdathon “big days.” In some years we participated in National Audubon’s Bird-A-Thon, or partnered with other local chapters to fundraise for particular conservation causes like saving Mono Lake. Turns out we have the best birds, birders, and bird-pun-name-creators in our region.

    I sat down with Dan Murphy of “Murphy’s Mob” to learn more about our history of Big Day competitions and get the skinny on the best strategies for planning one. “April is the month to do it,” Dan said. 

    By April 27 we may miss some ducks but it will be the last good week for shorebirds. It’s important to have all your locations and routes picked out ahead of time. But Dan reminded me the planning process wasn’t like it is today, where we have all the birds and even rare birds pinned down. (I know I start any birding planning with eBird and I’m grumpy when rare birds aren’t reported with exact GPS coordinates, we’re spoiled). It took expert knowledge of the Bay Area’s habitats and a lot of birding to find “hot spots” where you could maximize species. …