Bay Area Bird Blog

This is really sad.  The City of Berkeley, and the Golden Gate Audubon Society, have been working really hard to preserve their tiny remaining population of burrowing owls (three in Cesar Chavez Park, two in the adjacent Eastshore State Park).  At the same time, over in Antioch, a developer is “evicting” burrowing owls (by installing one-way, outward-only gates on their burrows) in preparation to fumigating to kill all of the ground squirrels there, to make way for a big housing development.  Read more about it at “the birder’s report”.  At the least, there should be some kind of required mitigation to try to compensate for the loss of habitat for these birds, which are a “species of special concern” of the State of California because of rapid population decline. Please write to John McCamman the director of the California Department of Fish and Game, with a cc to Regional Director Chuck Armor askbdr@dfg.ca.gov.  At this point they are not going to stop the project but it may not be too late for them to require mitigations; also, it is very important that they know that people out here in the real world notice and care when they drop the ball like this.

[Note added 1/5/09: I just got a request from the Department of Fish and Game, to remove the name and contact information of the DFG’s local representative, Susan Gilmore.  As you can see here, I have removed the contact info but not the name; people who make important decisions should be accountable for them. But there’s no point overwhelming her with messages if she’s not going to read them or is not supposed to read or respond to them, and I assume that’s the case here.]

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If you haven’t seen a burrowing owl, get yourself down to Cesar Chavez Park in Berkeley. They are really cool.  There are three owls in the park this winter, and another three in the “Berkeley Meadow” nearby, which is part of Eastshore State Park. Golden Gate Audubon Society has a docents program at the park, so if you’re lucky there will be someone there to point out the owls, show them to you through binoculars or a spotting scope, and tell you about them.  Just follow the path around the perimeter of the park until you get to the orange fence that protects the owls from roaming dogs.  

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I thought the beavers were doomed when the city of Martinez did some seemingly unnecessary wall-building right next to the beaver lodge; I figured the beavers would move someplace else…which sounds benign, but isn’t, because wherever they went would probably provide worse habitat: if they knew a better spot, they’d have gone there in the first place!  But I underestimated the beavers, which in fact have hung on in Martinez and have done just great.  And not only are the beaver enjoying the spot, they have apparently made the place attractive to other animals…including the cutest family of minks that you could ever hope to see. Check out the video and photos on the Martinez Beaver blog.

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As I’ve mentioned before, my wife and I are very proud of our backyard wildlife habitat and we like to brag when we see a new species there. On Saturday I saw an Audubon’s Warbler, a first for our yard! Actually I’m only about 85% sure that that’s what it was — the blotches of yellow are in the right places but it was much less black than in some photos and bird books. But warblers are pretty variable, so that’s not a big surprise. At any rate, whatever it was, it was new to me!

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In the last month, hundreds of sick and disoriented brown pelicans have been discovered along the West Coast from Southern California to Oregon. Researchers are still trying to determine the exact cause of the widespread and mysterious illness.

If you encounter a sick, disoriented or dead pelican, please call the California Wildlife Hotline at 866-WILD-911. Read more about the sudden illness of pelicans on the West Coast.

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According to the terrific local group Wildcare, “An outbreak of Salmonella is killing songbirds throughout the Bay Area, and WildCare needs your help to stop the spread!”  They give specific advice on their website .  The take-home message for me: I should be cleaning my feeders way more often and way more thoroughly than I do.  Maybe I shouldn’t have them at all!  I will definitely give this some thought, and if I keep the feeders I will definitely clean them better and more frequently.  Please do the same. 

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The SF Chronicle has an article entitled “Presidio’s creeks will spring back to life” that describes a plan to restore the El Polin Spring watershed: “Starting Monday, 58 non-native eucalyptus, cypress and pine trees will be removed from around the springs. Community volunteers will replant the site with native California buckeye, wax myrtle, toyon, willow and grasses grown in the Presidio Native Plant Nursery starting Nov. 22.” 

You can go and take a look: “A guided walk to El Polin Spring covering the Tennessee Hollow environmental restoration project will be conducted for the public from 10:30 a.m. to noon Saturday at El Polin Springs in the Presidio. For directions and to RSVP, call (415) 561-5357 or e-mail jnichols@ presidiotrust.gov.”

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My wife and I went to Point Reyes on Saturday to do a day hike, our first time up there in several months: I hurt my foot in the spring and have been trying to stay off it.  We did the “Drake’s Estero” hike, which goes through grasslands, through a very small area of pine woodlands, over a tidal marsh, and into the hills above the sea.  It was somewhat foggy when we started out, which deterred other visitors (thank god): we saw very few people on the outward leg, but as we got back towards the trailhead there were several big, raucous groups heading out.  

It would be a beautiful hike even if we didn’t see any birds or wildlife, but in fact there was lots of bird activity.  In the little pine forest, we saw a big mixed flock of chickadees, creepers, and pygmy nuthatches. I’d never seen creepers in a flock before, and didn’t know that they like to hang around with chickadees.  In fact, this should be a big lesson to me: often I’ve seen a flock of little birds, taken a close look and said “chickadees”, and not given the flock a second thought…think of all the nuthatches and creepers I may have been missing. 

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