Falcon City
In early spring, downtown San Francisco's office workers are treated to quite an air show outside their office windows: peregrine falcons!
Author Archives: Jessica Taekman
Bay Area native Jessica Taekman spends her spare time hiking, surfing, and baking.
Gray Whale Migration
Now is the time to see gray whales migrating along the California coast and maybe even appearing inside the Bay.
Book Review: Watching Giants
by Elin Kelsey, UC Press, December 2008, 304 pages, $24.95 Long-lived, slow to reproduce, and often hidden beneath ocean waves, whales and dolphins have remained elusive subjects for scientific study, though they have fascinated humans for centuries. In her book … Read more
Down on the Farm
There are many local farms in the Bay Area where families can visit to learn about how food is grown and raised and meet the farmers who make it happen.
Whales at the Farallon Islands
Picture hungry tourists swarming around an all-you-can-eat buffet. Only the tourists are 100 feet long and weigh almost 200,000 pounds. These are blue whales, the largest animals ever, and they've come to feast on some of the tiniest animals on the planet: millions upon millions of tiny shrimplike krill.
The Biggest Bony Fish in the Oceans Swims in the Gulf of the Farallones
Weighing in at almost 5,000 pounds, measuring over ten feet across, infested with scores of parasites, carrying more eggs than any other vertebrate, and shaped like a giant dinner plate, the giant ocean sunfish (Mola mola) is a creature defined by superlatives.
Long Line Fishing Update
On August 10, 2007, the California Coastal Commission unanimously voted to deny a fishing permit to allow experimental long-line fishing off the coast of California and Oregon for the first time since 2004. The proposal by the National Marine Fisheries … Read more
Book Review: Raptors of California
Raptors of California, by Hans and Pam Peeters, University of California Press, 2005, 305 pages, $17.95 Here in California, we are fortunate to have 27 species of raptors, a designation that includes eagles, hawks, and falcons. It’s not unusual for … Read more
Book Review: Birds of Napa County
Birds of Napa County, by Herman Heinzel, Heyday Books, 2006, 132 pages, $12.95 www.heydaybooks.com The common image of Napa County is a world of wine, fine cuisine, and row upon row of grapevines. But Herman Heinzel’s Birds of Napa County … Read more
Kayaking Resources
The San Francisco Bay Area and Central California coast are full of wonderful places to explore in a kayak, from the Russian River south to Monterey and from bayshore wetlands to the wave-swept coast. We’ve compiled some information to help … Read more
