• Top ten reasons to be a citizen-advocate

    Audubon members are great at being citizen-scientists!  No one lets their lack of a PhD stop them from contributing to the understanding of birds through Christmas Bird Counts, breeding bird surveys, and other field work.

    But protecting the birds we love takes more than citizen-scientists. We also need citizen-advocates… people who care about California wildlife and are willing to convey that passion to government policymakers.

    Audubon California will hold its third annual Advocacy Day in Sacramento on Thursday, June 8, 2017. We need some people to take part representing the Bay Area! No prior political experience necessary — only a love of birds and wildlife.

    Advocacy Day is fun, fascinating, and empowering. You’ll come away with a firsthand understanding of how our legislature works and how your voice can have a real impact. Golden Gate Bird Alliance member Chris Winn took part last year. Here are his Top Ten reasons to become a citizen-advocate:

    1.  The Capitol is a beautiful building, especially when the surrounding gardens are in bloom as they are in June.

    2.  I don’t think of the Capitol as “their” building but instead think of it as “our” building.

    3.  The State Senators, Assemblypersons, and staff people I speak to always make me feel at ease.

    Audubon members met with East Bay Assemblyman Tony Thurmond in 2016

    4.  Important bills are up for consideration each year, especially this year when California is trying to bolster our environmental standards against federal rollbacks.

    5.  I like to show newcomers the older, historic side of the building especially the contrasting portraits of Governors Jerry Brown and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

    The famous portrait of Gov. Jerry Brown from his first terms in the late 1970s-early 1980s / Photo by Chris Winn

    6.  I found a perfect hidden coffee shop, one block from the Capitol and I’m willing to share!

    7.  The orientation meeting before going into the Capitol is informative and answers all my questions.

    8.  There are always enough folks so that nobody sees a legislator/staffer alone, but is usually sent in with someone fairly expert at the pieces of legislation under consideration.

    9.  There is usually a little after-party somewhere to meet new friends and compare notes.

    10.  I like birds!

    Sign up now! California birds need your voice. See audubon.org/get-involved/2017-audubon-california-advocacy-day for details, the day’s schedule, and registration. And email us if you want to find out Chris’s secret coffee shop.…

  • First BioBlitz at Pier 94 finds 168 species

    By Ilana DeBare
    The Audubon Christmas Bird Count has been called the grandparent of all citizen science events. That might make a BioBlitz the newest grandchild – young, tech-savvy, and inviting all ages to play.
    Like a CBC, a BioBlitz mobilizes regular citizens to document their nature sightings during a 24-hour period of time. But it includes not just birds but all kinds of living things, from grasses and lichens to insects, mammals, and mollusks. Participants don’t need to have any prior expertise, so it’s a great event for people new to nature or to the area, or for families with children. And it invites people to capture their sightings on their cellphones, so they can be easily ID’d with help from scientists and naturalists at the end of the blitz.
    On April 1, 2017, we were delighted to co-sponsor the first BioBlitz at Pier 94, a Port of San Francisco property along the city’s San Francisco’s southeastern waterfront that we are working to restore as wildlife habitat.
    SF Bay makes a stunning backdrop for counting shoreline species, Photo by Liam O’Brien
    American Avocets during the Pier 94 BioBlitzAmerican Avocets during the Pier 94 BioBlitz by Noreen Weeden
    Thirty-three participants of all ages fanned out across the five-acre site. They made 683 observations of 168 species, including 40 bird species.
    The most common bird sightings were Red-winged Blackbirds and American Avocets in breeding plumage, showing how birds have made themselves at home in both the wetlands and uplands sections of the site. Large numbers of Clark’s and Western Grebes, American Wigeons, Mew Gulls, Western Gulls, California Gulls, and Canada Geese were also found.
    All ages took part in the BioBlitz / Photo by Eleanor Briccetti
    Lincoln Sparrow during the Pier 94 BioBlitz by Liam O’Brien
    Among the non-avian species were a harbor seal, common raccoon, black-tailed jackrabbit, Olympia oyster, and Western pygmy blue butterflies. Although the blitz took place in the morning, a few hardy souls returned that night to look for moths. Heavy winds meant that they missed all but one species of moth, the white-speck. But being there at night allowed them to hear the shorebirds chattering at dusk and to see one unidentified species of bat.
    The Pier 94 BioBlitz was co-sponsored by Golden Gate Bird Alliance, California Academy of Sciences, the Port of San Francisco, and the EcoCenter at Heron’s Head Park. Liam O’Brien, San Francisco’s resident butterfly expert, helped with the planning and the event itself.…

  • Gardening for birds – some local models

    By Kathy Kramer
    In a charming New York Times article several years ago called The Chickadee’s Guide to Gardening, Douglas Tellamy wrote, “Chances are, you have never thought of your garden… as a wildlife preserve that represents the last chance we have for sustaining plants and animals that were once common throughout the U.S. But that is exactly the role our suburban landscapes are now playing and will play even more in the near future.
    “What will it take to give our local animals what they need to survive and reproduce on our properties? NATIVE PLANTS, and lots of them.”
    In fact, a pair of chickadees needs 350 to 570 caterpillars every day for sixteen days to raise a family, according to Tellemy! And it’s native plants that provide this kind of food source, while most non-natives do not.
    The large, iridescent blueback pipevine swallowtail butterfly lays eggs on Dutchman’s pipeline — the only host plant for the caterpillars of this native butterfly —in Glen Schneider’s Berkeley garden. Photo by Glen Schneider.
    Here in the Bay Area, we have an outstanding resource for people who want to create bird-friendly gardens — the annual Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour.
    Coming up on Sunday, May 7th, the tour will showcase how East Bay gardeners have attracted birds to their yards. This award-winning, self-guided tour features 40 beautiful Alameda and Contra Costa County gardens that are pesticide-free and water-conserving, provide habitat for wildlife, and contain 60 percent or more native plants.
    Below are descriptions of some of the gardens that have been particularly successful at attracting birds, along with a tip from each host for attracting our winged friends.
     

    Glen Schneider’s garden, Berkeley

    Glen Schneider converted a former driveway to a berry and vegetable garden, providing food for his family. The local native plants have attracted forty-six species of birds, twelve species of butterflies, and more than two hundred types of insects and spiders. Photo by Kathy Kramer.
    Tip: Garden with local native plants.
    Berries, seeds, nuts, nectar, pollen, nesting areas, and shelter are amply provided, and there is no deadheading in this wildlife- and insect-friendly local native plant garden. More than 90 species of local native plants have attracted 46 species of birds, 12 species of butterflies, and over 200 species of insects and spiders to the garden.
    Garden Talk at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.: How to create a wildlife habitat garden using local native plants, by Glen Schneider
     

    Merle Norman and Curtis Beech’s garden, Richmond

    The blossoms of the checkerbloom attract painted lady butterflies and skippers to Merle Norman’s garden.…

  • New season of Oakland heron rescues

    We’re delighted to launch a second year of rescuing young herons in downtown Oakland, together with our partners at Oakland Zoo and International Bird Rescue!

    The busy streets of downtown Oakland are home to about 130 nests of Black-crowned Night-Herons and Snowy Egrets, making Oakland the largest night-heron rookery in the Bay Area.

    But city streets are a dangerous place for young herons. If they fall from their nest or a branch before they can fly, there’s no understory or grassy ground to cushion their fall. They face broken bones, starvation, exposure, or injury by cars.

    So last year we convened a three-way partnership to rescue fallen and injured young herons, a partnership that is now back in action for the 2017 nesting season. So far, six young birds have been rescued this spring and are in rehabilitative care at International Bird Rescue. Two of these birds are scheduled for release back into the wild later this week.

    Young Black-crowned Night-Heron in care this month at Bird Rescue. Note the green and gold leg bandage. (Oakland A’s colors!) Photo by Isabel Luevano.

    “Last year we learned how effective partnerships can be in protecting urban wildlife,” said Cindy Margulis, Executive Director of Golden Gate Bird Alliance.  “We’re so pleased that these three organizations are cooperating again to save the lives of young birds hatched in a less-than-ideal location.”

    Trained volunteers from Golden Gate Bird Alliance check the streets surrounding the rookery daily for fallen and injured birds. Oakland Zoo staff also check the rookery each morning.

    Zoo staff retrieve a fallen bird from its reported location, provide intermediary treatment, if necessary, and transport the bird to International Bird Rescue in Fairfield for long-term care. Having the Zoo’s experienced animal handlers serving as on-call rescue dispatch is a crucial component.

    “We are thrilled to once again be part of this team effort to save these beautiful baby herons. The opportunity to take ‘Action for Wildlife,’ is important to us, around the world and right here in our city of Oakland,” said Amy Gotliffe, Conservation Director at Oakland Zoo.

    Young night-herons in care at Bird Rescue in 2015. Photo by Cheryl Reynolds.

    Once the birds are delivered to Bird Rescue, a world-leading wild waterbird rehabilitative care organization with two centers, the care provided will help them develop the full range of skills needed for survival, such as self-feeding and flight. Like last year, the rehabilitated birds will be released into safe and appropriate local habitat, including Oakland’s Bay shoreline.…

  • A field guide to my first field guide

    By Allen Fish

    Chandler Robbins died last month.  He would have been 100 years old this July 17th. Never as famous as Roger Tory Peterson or David Sibley, Chandler Robbins made some of the most important contributions to bird research and conservation in the 20th century.

    He conducted some of the earliest research on DDT, contributing to Rachel Carson’s crusade; he pioneered the U.S. Breeding Bird Survey, a system of point counts designed to capture data on bird population changes across the continent; and he banded what is believed to be the world’s oldest, still-living bird, an individual Laysan Albatross on Midway Island in 1956.  These are just a few stepping stones across the arc of Robbins’ amazing career.

    Chandler Robbins banding an albatross in 1966 / Photo by USFWS

    Robbins was also the author of the Golden Guide to North American Birds.  First published in 1966, just a few years on the heels of Peterson’s Western Guide, the Robbins Guide corrected a few of the Peterson mistakes.  Robbins put bird pictures, descriptions, and maps all on one open double-page.  No flipping to the back to see what the range was.  And for many passerines, there were sonograms right there as well. And everything in color.

    I got my Robbins Guide not long after, a Christmas present from a grandparent I think, as instructed by my parents with a shrug. “He likes birds.”  It was 1968.  I was seven years old. The political world was swirling in change but I didn’t know anything about that.  I liked birds.

    Fifty years later, I pull Robbins from my book case and put it next to my laptop.  It falls open flat into three separate pieces.  This is in spite of at least two patch jobs I did back in the 1970s.  One I did with black electrical tape from dad’s electrical fix-it box.  The other was with clear contact paper from mom’s craft drawer.  Fortunately today, the heavy vinyl-ish soft-cover is still mostly intact and so holds the sections a bit like an ancient manila folder.

    Allen Fish’s first field guide, with musical embellishment

    On the cover, with its three species of male buntings, faint in the upper left corner is my name in a rolling cursive pen typical of a fifth grader.  It’s likely the first book I wrote my name in. In a moment of pre-teen comic brilliance, after learning the basics of reading music (learned many times, never took), I made a talking balloon from the Lazuli Bunting’s open beak and put a quarter note in it. 

    …