By Ilana DeBare
Golden Gate Bird Alliance has joined the growing chorus of park users and neighbors urging shutdown of the controversial Chabot Gun Club and shooting range.
In a letter to the East Bay Regional Park District this week, GGBA urged non-renewal of the gun club’s lease because of its danger to wildlife, its disturbance of neighbors and park users, and the very high costs of bringing it into compliance with environmental laws.
“The serious negative environmental consequences, plus the daunting costs associated with extending operation of the Club on District land, significantly outweigh any possible benefit of extending the Club’s lease,” GGBA Executive Director Cindy Margulis wrote in the letter.
Chabot Gun Club / Photo by gritphilm (Creative Commons)
Since 1964, the gun club has operated a shooting range with toxic lead ammunition in the watershed of Lake Chabot in Anthony Chabot Regional Park, in the hills between Oakland and Castro Valley.
The East Bay Regional Parks board is scheduled to discuss renewing its lease on November 3rd.
GGBA opposes renewal of the lease for several reasons:

• Lead contamination. Toxic lead levels in the streams flowing from the gun club to Lake Chabot have been found to be more than 14 and 20 times greater than EPA benchmark levels. Lead is fatal if ingested by wildlife – including the 145 species of birds found in Chabot Park. Raptors and vultures are poisoned by eating lead-tainted prey, while other species may be exposed by drinking or bathing in lead-contaminated puddles and water sources. Even Lake Chabot’s nesting Bald Eagles are at risk from lead contamination.

Male Bald Eagle at Lake Chabot / Photo by Mary Malec
Chabot Gun Club / Photo by gritphilm (Creative Commons)

• Noise pollution. Neighbors have complained for years about excessive and disruptive noise from the shooting range. In addition, the sound of gunshots is disturbing to hikers and other park users who come to the park for serenity and peace of mind. Gunfire is all too common and frightening in many Bay Area urban communities; our parks are meant as refuges from that kind of stress.

• Noise impacts on wildlife. Loud noise such as gunshots can harm wildlife as well as humans. At the very least, birds are deterred from using otherwise viable habitat by gunfire. In addition, researchers have documented stress in birds that are flushed by gunfire. Other studies show that birds’ hearing can be permanently damaged by the sound of gunfire.

Editor’s note: On October 6th, Mark Rauzon reported on the SF Birds Yahoo group that he had sighted a Nashville Warbler in downtown San Francisco. But members who viewed his photo pointed out that it was in fact a much more rare Mourning Warbler. Here is Mark’s account of the sighting and what it ended up meaning to him.
By Mark Rauzon
I am sorry I misidentified the San Francisco Mourning Warbler when I found it on Tuesday October 6th. Sorry because a rara avis almost got away and some would miss a lifer and some would be denied a unique county tick. But in hindsight it was the denial of a precognition of death.
I was rushed that day as I had a meeting in Oakland City Hall with our councilmember to try to save the endangered Pallid Manzanita. Since I was at BART and had a few hours before teaching my next class, I jumped on a train and was quickly deposited on the other side of the Bay in the financial district. Two blocks later, I was in Ferry Park. This is a difficult place to bird psychically as homeless addicts, business professionals, and grounds maintenance crews all are in their places. Camera toting, bino laden, I took my place among them. I scanned the towering poplars with the usual sense of how hopeless it is to find a small bird here. But guided by faint chip notes, nearly drowned out by roaring trucks, buses, leaf blowers, sirens, and Ferry Building tower chimes, I saw a Yellow Warbler, a Yellow-rumped Warbler, and a Warbling Vireo, and considered the trip a success. Then I followed a hummingbird into the forest and atop the hill.
I immediately saw something run like a rat into the ground cover. I waited and watched a trembling leaf, then got a glimpse of a yellow bird with a complete eye ring, confirming it wasn’t a MacGillivray’s Warbler. I was sure to see it hopped, not walked, so I eliminated Connecticut Warbler. Because of my lack of familiarity with Mourning Warbler, I was conservative but my heart was pounding as I knew this was something special.
Mark’s mystery warbler in San Francisco / Photo by Mark Rauzon
MacGillivray’s Warbler in New Mexico / Photo by Sara Beckwith, NPS
I dug into my backpack for my camera to document this but the battery was dead. I took a cell phone shot, cursed, took another shot through my binos, cursed, and looked closely at the bird as it disappeared into the agapanthus hugging the hilltop.…

By Ilana DeBare
We don’t normally write blog posts about field trips… but a trip to Brooks Island is not a normal trip.
Brooks Island Regional Preserve, a 373-acre island off the Richmond shoreline owned by the East Bay Regional Park District, is not usually open to the public. You need to visit as part of a guided kayak or boat tour. The very shallow waters and dramatic tide changes make access tricky. There are only a handful of boat tours each year — and we were fortunate to be able to reserve one for Golden Gate Bird Alliance members and friends this past weekend.
Big thanks to East Bay Parks and Dolphin Charters for making this trip not just possible but delightful!
The bay was uncommonly calm and glassy when we departed from the Berkeley Marina on Dolphin Charters’ comfortable and steady River Dolphin. We passed herons and cormorants at the marina, grebes and gulls on the open bay, and — sadly — both dead and living Common Murres. The murres have been struggling this year, most likely due to warmer ocean waters that reduced their food sources. Many have washed up dead or sick on Northern California beaches. They are birds of the open ocean, not normally found within the waters of San Francisco Bay. So seeing even the live ones here was worrisome.
Common Murre on SF Bay by Miya Lucas. Note how glassy and calm the water is!
Brooks Island viewed from the water / Photo by Ilana DeBare
The sand spit and breakwater, with Richmond in the background. Photo by Ilana DeBare
We circled around Brooks Island’s long breakwater, built originally to protect the port of Richmond. The roots of the island’s name are unknown: It was noted as Brooks Island in the mid-1800s, and before that the Spanish called it Isla de Carmen. At various points it was used for sheep and cattle grazing, oyster farming, and quarrying. Before East Bay Park bought it in 1968, it was operated as a private hunting club for celebrities including Bing Crosby, with game species like pheasant imported for their shooting pleasure.
As we approached the island, we sighted an Osprey devouring a fish on a wooden pier! Also a pair of Surf Scoters, even though it is early in the season for these winter visitors.
Osprey with fish / Photo by Miya Lucas
Taking a Zodiac skiff from the boat to the dock / Photo by Ilana DeBare
Because the water around the island is so shallow, visits need to be planned for high tide.…

By Ilana DeBare
One of my favorite parts of working at Golden Gate Bird Alliance is helping curate our annual Birds of the San Francisco Bay photo calendar.
Our 2016 calendar was just released this month, with stunning photos by over 30 of the Bay Area’s best bird photographers. Because I love working on it so much, I thought it might be fun to share the process behind it.
This is our fourth annual calendar. Former GGBA Development Director Lisa Owens Viani came up with the idea – a calendar that, like Golden Gate Bird Alliance, would focus on local Bay Area birds. Lisa also set very high production standards, envisioning a calendar that people would be proud to own or gift, not one of those cheap throw-away ones that come in the mail for free.
We typically put out a call for photos in late spring, and choose them in early July. This year we received over 200 submissions from more than 70 photographers. We had many, many fabulous photos — shorebirds in flight, owls on branches, nestlings being fed, songbirds with their beaks open in song… the full variety of Bay Area avian life.
Western Screech Owls by Sue Petterson – the main March image
Forster’s Tern feeding a chick by Donald Dvorak – the main July image
We want the calendars to have broad appeal – both to experienced birders and to people who simply love nature – so we typically seek a range of birding experience in our curators. This year, our judging team was made up of me (Communications Director for GGBA, so I use a LOT of bird photos all the time!), our office manager Monica Moore (a non-birder), and GGBA member Krista Jordan (a communications professional who is taking our year-long Master Birder class).
Monica and Krista review some of the submitted photos / Photo by Ilana DeBare
This was NOT one of the judges. Photo by Ilana DeBare
What do we look for? There’s no simple formula. The main thing is the “wow” factor – photos that you look at and say “wow.” Photos that will bring joy and inspiration hanging on your wall.
Of course we look for technical quality (not blurry, appealing composition, good detail on feathers and eyes etc.), interesting behaviors, and a variety of species and types of birds. We seek a mix of close-up and wide-angle shots. We try to feature birds that weren’t highlighted the previous year.…