By Bruce Mast

They are the clowns of the oak savannah — Acorn Woodpeckers — with their harlequin faces, gregarious habits, and off-kilter laughing calls that inspired Woody Woodpecker. According to Birds of North America, the “Acorn Woodpecker is a common, conspicuous inhabitant of foothill and montane woodlands from northwestern Oregon, California, the American Southwest, and western Mexico through the highlands of Central America to the northern Andes in Colombia. Throughout its range, this species is closely associated with oaks (genus Quercus) and is most commonly found in pine-oak woodlands.”

Here in the Bay Area, Acorn Woodpecker colonies are fairly common in the East Bay hills and the western slopes of Mount Diablo, particularly where there are concentrations of valley oaks. South of Livermore, they can be locally abundant in the Diablo range. They are rare in Tilden and Redwood Regional Parks and practically unheard of west of the Hayward Fault.

So what’s up with the recent spate of Acorn Woodpecker sightings in urban San Francisco and the East Bay lowlands?

Acorn Woodpecker at Sycamore Valley Open Space Preserve (Danville) / Photo by Larry and Dena Hollowood, www.flickr.com/photos/larry_dena/ Acorn Woodpecker carrying an acorn / Photo by Larry and Dena Hollowood, www.flickr.com/photos/larry_dena/

Beginning around September 1st, Acorn Woodpecker reports started rolling in from multiple East Bay sites from Oakland to Richmond. The irruption hit San Francisco by September 12 when twelve birds were noted flying over Battery Godfrey. S.F. birders started finding bands of Acorns in Buena Vista Park, Lincoln Park, and Golden Gate Park, and solo flyover birds were all over town.

This irruption is particularly noteworthy because Acorn Woodpeckers are not migratory. What’s driving it? The most likely answer is acorn crop failure.

True to their name, Acorn Woodpeckers are acorn specialists. They develop communal granaries that may consist of tens of thousands of holes drilled in tree trunks and limbs, each stuffed with an acorn. Only about half their diet actually consists of acorns — the other half is made up of fruit, insects, and other vegetable matte r— but the acorn granaries are the staple food source that gets them through lean times. Again quoting BN:

[i]n areas where there are large seasonal fluctuations in insects and other foods, year-round residency is dependent on the birds’ ability to store sufficient acorn mast to provide food throughout the winter. Groups that exhaust their stores often abandon their territories and wander off in search of alternative food.

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By Ilana DeBare

Remember the line from Field of Dreams: Build it and they will come? 

The East Bay Regional Park District built protective fencing this fall on Crown Beach in Alameda.

And the Western Snowy Plovers came!

We posted earlier this month about how Golden Gate Bird Alliance volunteers helped win protective signage and fencing for these small, threatened shorebirds at Crown Beach. Shortly after the fencing was installed, the first plovers of the season arrived and started roosting in and near the protected area.

Not only that, the initial group of about a half-dozen plovers includes one young bird that is only four months old!

Birder Bob Sikora managed to capture photos of some of the Alameda plovers on Wednesday, including one bird with colored leg bands. It turned out to have been banded this past summer by San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory at Ravenswood Slough in Palo Alto, shortly after its birth on June 21st.

Last winter, GGBA volunteers spotted a banded adult plover at Alameda that also came from Ravenswood.

“It’s possible they could be from the same family — that this young bird’s father led it over to Alameda,” said GGBA Executive Director Cindy Margulis. “The arrival of this bird shows that a new generation has come to the beach. Now that the plovers have a protected wintering area here, they will have an easier time maturing and getting used to life in the wild.”

Four-month-old Western Snowy Plover with leg bands at Alameda’s Crown Beach / Photo by Bob Sikora, bobsikora.smugmug.com Western Snowy Plover at Alameda’s Crown Beach / Photo by Bob Sikora, bobsikora.smugmug.com

The protected area on Crown Beach — only about two blocks long — is a small but important step in ensuring the survival of Western Snowy Plovers. Due to decades of urban development along western beaches and sand dunes, there are only about 2,000 of these birds left on the West Coast.

Western Snowy Plovers were listed by the federal government as a threatened species in 1993. Beaches like Alameda provide winter roosting sites, where the birds feed and rest in preparation for summer breeding.

But on busy urban beaches — where they are constantly flushed from the warm sand by joggers, dogs, and other passersby — it can be difficult for plovers to get the rest they need. Thus the importance of providing fenced-off protected areas like the one in Alameda!…

By Ilana DeBare

Alameda’s winter population of threatened Western Snowy Plovers will be a lot safer this year — thanks to new protective fencing installed after monitoring and advocacy by Golden Gate Bird Alliance members.

The East Bay Regional Park District added the protective fencing and signage this month at Crown Memorial State Beach in Alameda, where up to 14 of the small shorebirds were sighted last winter.

Due to decades of urban development along western beaches and sand dunes, there are only about 2,000 Western Snowy Plovers left on the West Coast. They were listed by the federal government as a threatened species in 1993.

The plovers rely on Crown Beach for winter roosting, as they forage for small invertebrates along the water and rest in the warm dry sand above the tideline. Winter is critical for them to build up the energy and resources for spring and summer breeding. The birds use camouflage for protection so they don’t have to expend metabolic energy by constantly flushing.

But on busy Crown Beach, people often don’t see them until they nearly step on them — sometimes flushing an entire flock.

Well-camouflaged Western Snowy Plovers in Alameda in early 2014 / Photo by Cindy Margulis

“With this new protection on their winter roost, these birds will have a better chance to conserve their energy and be in peak condition when it’s time to move on to their nesting sites in the spring,” said GGBA Executive Director Cindy Margulis.

The protective fencing is a classic Audubon conservation success story — built on a combination of citizen-science monitoring, public education, and advocacy.

And while some conservation victories take years to win, this one took less than a year!

The story began in November 2013, when several GGBA members taking part in a Point Blue (formerly PRBO) shorebird survey discovered the roosting plover population.

“We all fell in love with the birds as soon as we found them,” Margulis said. “After a week we all talked again and realized one of us had been out there looking for them every day. We had a de facto survey going on.”

GGBA member Leora Feeney had been documenting the presence of plovers at Crown Beach for years. But the new, larger group of plover advocates made it easier to bring them to the attention of the East Bay Regional Park District, which manages Crown Beach.

GGBA members Sue Morgan, Tom and Diane Bennett, and Margulis visited the beach almost daily to record the plovers’ presence and document incidents of disturbance.…

Audubon California is supporting Proposition 1, the $7 billion state water bond that will be on the California ballot in November. Here are the reasons, summed up by Mike Lynes, Policy Director for Audubon California and former Executive Director of Golden Gate Bird Alliance.

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By Ilana DeBare

Do you recall the furor that erupted last spring when the City of Berkeley announced plans to exterminate thousands of ground squirrels at Cesar Chavez Park?

The Regional Water Quality Control Board had told the city to reduce the ground squirrel population due to concerns that squirrel burrows could allow contaminants from the landfill under the park to leach into the Bay.

But the plan would have been a disaster not just for the squirrels but for the park’s small winter population of Burrowing Owls, which rely on squirrel burrows for shelter. Over 80,000 people sent emails of protest to the city.

Golden Gate Bird Alliance’s East Bay Conservation Committee sprang into action. Together with other wildlife advocates including WildCare and In Defense of Animals, GGBA volunteers worked with city officials over a four-month period to come up with a humane alternative to the killings.

And this week marks the start of that new approach — one based on public education rather than mass extermination.

Burrowing Owl and ground squirrel at Cesar Chavez Park / Photo by Penelopedia

The new approach aims to reduce the park’s large squirrel population naturally, by discouraging people from feeding the squirrels. Among the initiatives:

• A new city law, passed in July and taking effect on October 1, that criminalizes the feeding of wildlife in city parks. Violators will face minimum fines of $100 after the initial “warning” period and up to $500 for multiple infractions within a year.
• New signage that will warn people not to feed wildlife.
• Brochures that explain why feeding squirrels may seem kind but is ultimately harmful. Wild animals that come to rely on human handouts risk malnutrition, spread of disease, and loss of fear of humans.

Without human handouts, the Cesar Chavez ground squirrel population will gradually disperse and decline. And there is plenty of time for this  to happen. In the wake of last spring’s outcry, city officials determined that there is in fact no evidence of squirrel burrows currently causing toxics to leach into the bay. If it is a potential problem at all, it is a problem in the future — so there is time to reduce the squirrel population naturally.

New signs for Cesar Chavez Park. “No feeding” is in the bottom left. The other signs clarify the on-leash and off-leash dog areas. Photo by Carla Din.

In a joint press release this week, GGBA, WildCare and In Defense of Animals praised Berkeley for moving away from its original lethal plan.…