By Ilana DeBare
The rocky oceanfront near San Francisco’s Sutro Baths is a key nesting spot for shorebirds such as Black Oystercatchers and Brandt’s Cormorants. So longtime birder Alan Hopkins was dismayed last January when he started seeing recreational drones buzzing along that section of shore.
Sam Schuchat had been excited to see a pair of Western Gulls nesting on a ledge across from his office at the California Coastal Conservancy in downtown Oakland in June. Then a drone swooped by and frightened the parent gulls off their nest.
Drones and birds: At this point such unplanned encounters are still an anomaly. But as the commercial and recreational use of drones grows, so will the potential for them to disrupt and endanger wildlife.
Drones — pilotless aircraft that often resemble mini-helicopters — are spreading. The Federal Aviation Authority is finalizing rules this year that will allow the widespread use of commercial, non-military drones. As many as 10,000 to 30,000 commercial drones could be in the air by 2020, used for everything from scientific research and police surveillance to bridge repairs and package delivery. Many of the companies making drones are based in the Bay Area, tapping the engineering know-how and financing of Silicon Valley.
While it’s good that the FAA is developing rules to govern drone use, the proposed rules do not address the potential impacts on wildlife.
And the FAA’s oversight does not include recreational drones used by hobbyists – probably the kind sighted by Hopkins and Schuchat.
In most cases, a single scare from a passing drone isn’t likely to harm a bird. In the incident with the Oakland gull nest, the parent birds returned to the nest after the drone passed and successfully hatched some chicks.
Western Gull and chicks at Oakland nest site that was disturbed by a drone / Photo by Sam Schuchat
But repetition raises the stakes.
Parent birds may abandon a nest if they’re disturbed repeatedly. Even one disturbance can leave their chicks temporarily vulnerable to predators. And flushing birds while they’re roosting or feeding makes it harder for them to build up the energy reserves for successful breeding and migration.
Many bird species today are already under severe pressure from loss of habitat and climate change. They will find it even harder to survive these challenges if their rest and feeding is constantly being interrupted by drones.
Drone sighted by Alan Hopkins over Sutro Baths / Photo by Alan Hopkins
Drone near Sutro Baths in January 2015 / Photo by Alan Hopkins
Black Oystercatcher, a species that relies on rocky waterfront like the area around Sutro Baths for nesting / Photo by Rick Lewis
No major conservation group has so far launched a campaign about drones.…

Note: This is the sixth in a series of occasional blog posts by GGBA member George Peyton about his other half Lani Rumbaoa’s effort to see over 600 bird species in the Lower 48 states in 2015.
By George Peyton
The Texas Coast is one of the two most famous “magnets” for spring migrants in the United States. (Magee Marsh near Toledo, Ohio, is the other.)
Therefore, it was crucial for Lani to be successful in reaching her Big Year Goal of 600 bird species that she identify as many special species as possible during our two weeks in Texas.
To Lani’s extreme good fortune, our close birding friend, whom we call “Birder Bob”, volunteered to be Lani’s unofficial bird guide in Texas — and what an exceptional job he did. Bob Hirt is an excellent birder in the field, and in addition, he spends an amazing amount of time preparing for a bird trip by reading guides such as the ABA Guide to Bird-finding on the Texas Coast in detail. He made numerous notations for further review, checked maps and directions, and reviewed field marks and songs of the many Target Birds Lani needed to add to her Big Year List.
Bob is dogged in tracking down a particular Target Species. He and I had seen both Baird’s and White-rumped Sandpipers (both somewhat difficult to see in Texas) in a partially flooded, plowed field with well over 1,000 other sandpipers, mainly Dunlin and Short-billed Dowitchers. But they were needles in a haystack, with Lani unable to get decent identification views before most of the flock suddenly flew away. We stopped at many other fields with sandpipers without luck. Finally, two days later at the tail end of a large thunderstorm, Bob suddenly pulled a U-turn on a highway on the Bolivar Peninsula to check a short, grassy field where sandpipers had been pushed down by the heavy rain.  Sure enough, out among the several hundred waders of about ten species, he spotted both White-rumped and Baird’s Sandpipers, and Lani had very good scope views.
White-rumped Sandpipers / Photo by Rick Elis-simpson (Creative Commons)
Baird’s Sandpiper / Photo by Dominic Sherony (Creative Commons)
Incidentally, “Birder Bob” Hirt is currently the president of Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society (for the second time) and some years ago was president of Golden Gate Bird Alliance. He participates as an area leader for both the Oakland and San Francisco Christmas Bird Counts and is involved in various bird conservation efforts, but most of all he just loves to go out birding — and is an amazing birder and leader.…

By Dominik Mosur
Imagine a complex of salt, brackish and freshwater marshes and associated upland covering hundreds of thousands of acres. Then picture it reduced by 90 percent, with the lost areas converted into modern humans’ idea of development. This is the story of San Francisco Bay. A visitor to Heron’s Head Park in southeastern San Francisco can — with a little patience and focus — transport themselves back a couple of hundred years in the past and observe a tiny slice of what would have once been all around us.
Heron’s Head Park had its genesis in the early 1970s, when the Port of San Francisco started trucking landfill to India Basin to create a new shipping terminal. The terminal was never built, and for a while there was talk of building a new S.F.-Oakland bridge at the site. But that never happened either and, in the meantime, aquatic plants took root and grew into a vibrant salt marsh. In 1993, Golden Gate Bird Alliance successfully petitioned the Port to preserve and enhance the area as a wetland – leading to the second largest wetland restoration project in the city, after Crissy Field.
Heron’s Head Park trail / Photo by Bob Gunderson
Spotted Sandpiper / Photo by Bob Gunderson
A number of agencies contributed to restoration of the area during the 1990s, including the S.F. Public Utilities Commission and the California Coastal Conservancy. The Port removed over 5,000 tons of excess concrete, built a tidal channel to increase water circulation, and added amenities such as a fishing pier and walking paths.
In 1999, the area officially became 23-acre Heron’s Head Park, named for its shape when viewed from above. The resulting tidal marsh and upland has matured into one of the prime bird habitats in the city of San Francisco.
Heron’s Head Park viewed from the air – can you see how it got its name?
View of Heron’s Head Park from a kite camera / Photo by Charles Benton
This became most obvious with Ridgway’s Rails (formerly California Clapper Rails), a federally-listed endangered species. The first Ridgway’s Rail ever documented at the site was reported in 2010. The next summer, two Ridgway’s Rail chicks were discovered there.
This breeding success appeared to be short-lived, however, and only a single Ridgway’s Rail is thought to remain at the site as of 2015. Habitat restoration can only go so far and re-colonizations like the return of Ridgway’s Rails to Heron’s Head face tremendous odds against long-term success.…

By Ilana DeBare
Golden Gate Bird Alliance relies on volunteers. How many volunteers, you might ask? A few dozen? Maybe a hundred?
Try fourteen hundred — and that’s just in the first six months of 2015.
Saturday was our annual Volunteer Appreciation Picnic, held this year at Alameda’s Crown Memorial Beach, near the Return of the Terns tour site.
Luckily for us and our supply of sandwiches, all 1,400 didn’t show up. But those who did attend enjoyed a yummy picnic lunch, raffle prizes, warm sun and fresh Bay breezes, and glimpses of a flock of Brown Pelicans floating just offshore. Everyone also got our heartfelt thanks and one of our new Golden Gate Bird Alliance Burrowing Owl tote bags!
We awarded our 2015 Paul Covel Conservation Education Award to Herb and Randi Long, who have volunteered since 2009 in our Eco-Education program that each year introduces about 700 children from low-income elementary schools to nature.
Herb and Randi Long accept the Paul Covel Conservation Education Award from Eco-Education Director Anthony DeCicco
What else do Golden Gate Bird Alliance volunteers do, besides help lead Eco-Education field trips? Among other things:
Field trip leaders guide over 120 free bird walks each year, which are the first introduction to birding for many participants.
Docents help the public notice and appreciate the birds around them at Lake Merritt, the Bay Trail, Cesar Chavez Park, and downtown Oakland.
Volunteer Coordinator Noreen Weeden speaks to some of the picnic attendees
GGBA Executive Director Cindy Margulis thanks volunteers
Hundreds of people — both individuals and organized groups such as scouts, students, and workplace teams — help restore wildlife habitat with us at Pier 94, Golden Gate Park, Crissy Field, the Alameda Wildlife Refuge, and Martin Luther King Jr. Shoreline.
Our San Francisco and East Bay conservation committees, along with our Friends of the Alameda Wildlife Reserve committee, study and speak out on local issues affecting birds and wildlife.
GGBA office volunteers do everything from update our membership database to organize our library of birding books.
A number of attendees managed to squeeze in both the picnic AND the Return of the Terns tour!
Endangered California Least Tern on eggs, viewed through wire fence on Return of the Terns bus tour at the Alameda Wildlife Refuge / Photo by Darlene McNulty
Volunteers are a key part of our communications program — photographing GGBA events and sharing gorgeous bird photos, writing articles for our blog and The Gull newsletter, and managing our Twitter and Meetup feeds.…

By Ilana DeBare
If you’ve been involved with Golden Gate Bird Alliance, you’ve probably heard a lot about the nesting colony of California Least Terns at Alameda Point. Our Friends of the Alameda Wildlife Reserve committee has worked on behalf of these tiny, endangered birds for thirty years – pressing for permanent protection of their nest site, helping the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service prepare the site for the terns’ arrival each spring, monitoring for predators, and educating the public.
Today’s blog post is about another East Bay colony of Least Terns – the one at Hayward Regional Shoreline.
Least Terns – the smallest member of the tern family, at just 8-9 inches and slightly over one ounce – were designated by the federal government as endangered in 1970, due to loss of habitat, disturbance of nest sites, and predation by other species of birds and mammals.
In 2001, the East Bay Regional Park District launched an effort to encourage Least Tern nesting on a 0.6-acre island in the shallow, brackish waters of Hayward Regional Shoreline.
Adult Least Tern and chick / Photo by Rick Lewis
Least Tern on nest with egg and chick / Photo by Rick Lewis
The tern island, viewed from the levee / Photo by Ilana DeBare
Over four years, 1,600 volunteers put in 20,000 hours creating the tern equivalent of a honeymoon resort, now known as Tern Town. First they had to remove all the non-native weeds covering the man-made island, since Least Terns look for flat, sandy nest sites where they can easily see their chicks and potential predators. The Park District added a layer of landscape fabric to limit weed growth, and on top of that placed 180 tons of sand, oyster shells, and rock salt.
The District installed little wood and ceramic shelters for the chicks, similar to what Golden Gate Bird Alliance volunteers install at the Alameda site each year. They also placed hand-painted Least Tern decoys on the island to signal, “Come on over! This is tern heaven!” And starting in 2005, they reinforced that message with a stereo system that continually plays tern courtship calls through the first half of nesting season.
The result? The densest concentration of Least Tern nests on the West Coast. The Alameda site remains larger – but Hayward has more successful nests per acre.
Least Tern chick with ceramic shelters / Photo by Rick Lewis
“We have up to 80 or 90 pairs on an island the size of an acre,” said David “Doc Quack” Riensche, the East Bay Regional Park District biologist overseeing the tern island.…