Lake Merced Birds: A Lone Wrentit
Every so often I see a note from a local birder or amateur botanist that reminds me that there’s a whole world of animal and plant movement under our noses...
Author Archives: Dan Rademacher
Dan was editor of Bay Nature from 2004 until 2013, when he left to work for SF-based Stamen Design. He is now executive director of GreenInfo Network, a nonprofit mapmaking organization. A onetime professional cabinetmaker, he considers himself a lifelong maker of things and teller of stories. Dan has been working at the intersection of journalism and technology since, at age 16, he began learning reporting, page layout, and database design. His enduring interest in environmental issues crystallized into a career path in 1998 when he assisted former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Hass in a cross-disciplinary nature writing and ecology course at UC Berkeley, from which Dan received a Masters in English literature. In 1999, he became Associate Editor of Terrain, the erstwhile quarterly magazine of Berkeley's Ecology Center. In addition to editing and art-directing Bay Nature magazine, he was also Bay Nature’s chief technology strategist, fixer of broken things, and designer of databases and fancy spreadsheets. And he was even known to leave the office and actually hike outdoors.
Who builds those stick houses, anyway? Woodrats!
Stewart Gilbert of San Rafael writes to ask: “Who makes these homes built out of sticks? They’re very common at China Camp. From a wood rat of some sort? The...
Surge of pine siskins means dead birds, but also new neighbors
We've been hearing a lot about dead pine siskins all over the country. Turns out it's natural, and it might mean more siskins in more places for a while.
Dinosaur eggs on Point Reyes Estero Trail?
Tim Hastings wrote to us wondering about “many large round, almost ‘dinosaur-egg’ like rocks dotting the muddy sands” when he was hiking the Estero Trail. Tim’s guess is that the...
Satellites to the rescue for Clear Lake algae problems?
Clear Lake algae problems persist, but a new effort aims to use satellite imagery to track pollution and find solutions.
What’s the California newt’s lifespan?
What's a California newt's lifespan? Surprisingly long for captive newts, and wild newts' potent poison likely helps them live longer than other amphibians.
Are deer twins common?
Are deer twins common? Turns out, yes, even though any individual twin fawn is less likely to survive than its singleton cousins. What gives, nature?
Santa Rosa’s Taylor Mountain throws open the gates
Santa Rosa gets a brand-new park this weekend. Taylor Mountain, above the Roseland neighborhood, is a great hiking spot and a model of park planning.
San Francisco Bay herring running at Mission Bay
The herring are running again in San Francisco, and it’s quite a show. Commercial fishing boats cast their nets in China Basin, at the mouth of Mission Creek, in the...
Songbirds dying at birdfeeders
A number of local bird rescue groups are reporting an outbreak of salmonella among pine siskins, small songbirds that are common at Bay Area bird feeders this time of year....
