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.…

By Ilana DeBare
One of our favorite shorebirds is back for the winter… and in Alameda, at least, they are finding a safer roosting site than in the past thanks to teamwork by Golden Gate Bird Alliance and the East Bay Regional Park District.
Western Snowy Plovers are tiny shorebirds (just 1.2 to 2 ounces) that winter on many Bay Area beaches. The smallest birds in the plover family, most migrate inland for summer breeding, although a small number also breed here.
There are only an estimated 2,500 Snowy Plovers on the Pacific Coast; the federal government listed the western population as threatened in 1993. One of the challenges they face is that the flat sandy beaches where they roost have been overtaken by development and human recreation. It can be almost impossible for plovers to roost on urban shorelines without being flushed by off-leash dogs or joggers.
Why are secure roosting sites important? Casual passersby often think, “What’s the big deal? If a dog chases them, they can fly up and then settle right back down.”
Snowy Plover at Crown Beach, September 2015, by Allen Hirsch
But roosting is in fact an essential activity for shorebirds like plovers. Their breeding cycle is intensive and exhausting: Snowy Plovers are polyamorous, and the female may mate with several males and lay up to three clutches of eggs in three different locations a single season. She leaves after the eggs hatch, and then the male takes on sole responsibility for tending  the young.
“You can imagine that’s a pretty intensive expenditure of energy by both the females and the males,” says Cindy Margulis, Executive Director of Golden Gate Bird Alliance. “They have this flurry of breeding activity, then they have to rest and begin to rebuild their energy stores during the winter. That’s where the problem with roost sites occurs.”
Snowy Plovers can be hard to spot in the sand. Crown Beach, September 2015, by Allen Hirsch
When you have busy beaches with scores of dogs and hundreds of pedestrians flushing birds over and over throughout the day, it’s impossible for them to rest. Some of the disturbance is unintentional: Plovers, which roost in shallow indentations in the sand, blend in so well that beachgoers often don’t notice them until they practically step on them.
This is where people can help – and in the case of the Alameda plovers, have helped.
Two years ago, GGBA members doing a shorebird survey noticed roosting plovers on Alameda’s Crown Beach.…

By Pamela Llewellyn
When people visit from out of town and ask, “Where’s the best place to go birding?” I always have to pause and collect my thoughts.  San Francisco Bay is one of the richest and most diverse places to bird along the California coast — one of the major foraging, resting, and over-wintering spots along the Pacific Flyway.
Coyote Hills Regional Park in Fremont is one of my all-time favorite East Bay birding locations, due to the variety of habitats supporting diverse groups of both flora and fauna.  But it also has a rich cultural history.
The East Bay’s original inhabitants were ancestors of the Ohlone Indians, hunters and gatherers whose skills enabled them to live well off the land’s natural ounty.  At that time Tule elk, California Condors, sea otters, and fish were abundant.  Some of the rich wetlands that sustained them are preserved at Coyote Hills, along with 2,000-year old Tuibun Ohlone Indian shellmound sites.
The park’s varied history also includes Mission and settler ranching and farming activities, salt production, a duck hunting club, a dairy, rock quarrying, a military NIKE missile site, and a biosonar research facility.  Coyote Hills Regional Park was dedicated to public use in 1967 and is presently comprised of nearly 978 acres of open space.
There is not a dull time of year to bird at Coyote Hills: Each season offers a unique glimpse into the life of birds.
Spring in Coyote Hills is a very busy time of year.  Upon entering the park, the road passes through grasslands and marsh where Northern Harriers (formerly known as Marsh Hawks) soar over the reeds in search of food, or do roller-coaster loops and food hand-offs mid-air air to impress a potential mate.
Coyote Hills in the spring / Photo by Ilana DeBare
Coyote Hills during a spring sunset / Photo by Jerry Ting (East Bay Regional Park District)
Pied-billed Grebe at Coyote Hills / Photo by Pamela Llewellyn
Marsh Wrens chatter their staccato song out in the marshes, while Bewick’s Wrens sing melodiously from branches up on the hillside.  If you park at the Visitor Center and walk up to Hoot Hollow, you might catch a glimpse of the resident Great-horned Owl family with their newly fledged young.   Or if you walk out further into the marshes you may hear the lovely Common Yellowthroats, perched in among the reeds, singing to define territory for their families.…