Never Mind the Game; Here’s a Superb Owl in San Jose

The big day is here. The sun hasn’t broken through the morning chill yet, and a pack of experts is giving me the lay of the land — a dewy, grassy expanse where the stakes are incredibly high. I count myself lucky to be here to witness firsthand what so many have only seen on their TV or computer screens: the Superb Owl.

Oh, right, there’s another way to arrange those letters that’s culturally relevant. Fine, Sunday’s a sports day, but spare a thought for the owls, because I think we can universally agree that owls are really flipping cool. The swooping down on prey, the preternatural night vision and unique hearing abilities… the talons! It’s enough to make this Washington State girl forget about the majestic seahawk (aka osprey) completely.

So with the sportsball in mind, I asked a few bird experts to find me those owls. They brought me to San Jose, to the region’s only actual dedicated “owl preserve,” a nameless plot of land not normally open to the public.

The owl in residence is the burrowing owl (Athene cunicularia), the experts say, which we’ll find during the day sticking close to burrows, protecting homes and potentially their mates.

The burrowing owl is ready for its close-up. (Photo courtesy City of San Jose) — The burrowing owl is ready for its close-up. (Photo by Stephanie Molloy, courtesy City of San Jose)

Standing at the dead end of Nortech Parkway in north San Jose, inside the padlocked fence, we see their burrows: big mounds of dirt a couple feet high popping up amidst short grass. This short grass enables burrowing owls to see their prey, which includes small rodents but also quite a few insects. That’s some crickets and grasshoppers, but mostly earwigs.

Binoculars hanging around their necks, and one absurdly large telephoto lens at hand, the experts guide me on a walk through the 180-acre owl preserve that was established when San Jose’s City Council adopted a plan for its aging wastewater facility that also covered uses of the surrounding lands. (The Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society helps manage the preserve with a grant from the city of San Jose.)

During my tour, we have Philip Higgins, a biologist who helps monitor Santa Clara Valley burrowing owl habitats, and Joshua McCluskey, who manages the burrowing owl conservation project at the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society.

Rounding out the panel is Ken Davies, whose expertise is at the municipal government level. He’s an environmental compliance officer for the city of San Jose, and he’s here to tell me how the city has been active in preserving this land for the owls.

All right, I think, but the proof is in the owl pudding. (I assume owl pudding is cricket and earwig based, but I didn’t get a chance to ask.) Anyway. Show me the owls!

Camera traps capture the owls frequently. (Photo courtesy of the City of San Jose) — Camera traps capture the owls’ behavior. (Photo courtesy City of San Jose)

We set off to the northwest and come across a pile of hay bales, which is meant to foster rodent life for the owls to feed off of. Higgins tips a bale over to reveal a mouse track and a wealth of members of the Armadillidium family, otherwise known as the roly poly or the pill bug.

We approach a rise in the distance and I try to absorb owl expertise whilst keeping my eyes peeled. I point amateurishly off to the east. “There! I think I see one!!” A graceful bird circles close to the ground in the far distance, but I’m the only one who can see it. No, McCluskey says, a burrowing owl wouldn’t be flying around during the daytime. He and Higgins list off all the varieties of hawk and eagle that inhabit the area.

That might have been the western harrier they saw earlier in the morning. Or a peregrine falcon or a golden eagle, both owl predators.

We pass by a pile of wood and other brush covered in streaky white evidence of owls: poop. The brush pile, too, is meant to encourage rodents.

One kind of rodent isn’t normally prey, but is exceptionally important to the owls: ground squirrels. Higgins tells me about the relationship between the species, and frankly, it sounds rather one-sided. The owls don’t dig burrows to live in; the squirrels do that, but once they leave, the owls move in and nest there.

The owls have a complicated relationship with squirrels. (Photo courtesy City of San Jose)

Unlike rodents, owls are not fastidiously neat, and they cover the burrows with white leavings and sometimes “decoration,” as Higgins describes it. This includes shiny things like foil, but also goose poop and other garbage. Higgins once saw a cheese sandwich at the entrance to a burrow.

Once the owls move out, the squirrels move back in and make things tidy again. Other than heeding the owl’s warning calls for predators, which include foxes, house cats, opossums and raccoons in addition to the raptors and eagles, the squirrels don’t get much out of the deal.

Interspecies politics aside, the owls need the squirrels, and so the city of San Jose has tried to make the sanctuary appealing to them. That’s meant putting in more than 80,000 cubic yards of loose soil to promote burrowing, Davies says, and a bit of manipulation. The squirrel population started off in the northwest corner, so every year they plan to keep moving the soil deliveries further into the interior of the sanctuary hoping the squirrels will follow.

Ready to fly. (Photo courtesy City of San Jose)

As I write, Phil says “There it is!” Then, “No, but that’s a western meadowlark.” A group of medium sized not-owls takes flight from the other side of the rise. I glumly take a photo of them lifting off the ground together.

Well, I might not see any owls today, I think. I look desperately up and snap a shot of a plane ascending (I don’t know, because it flies?), and then settle in to hearing more about the owls from Higgins. He shows me an owl pellet filled with earwig antenna.

Biologist Philip Higgins displays an owl pellet filled with insect remains, including earwig antenna. While owls don't generally eat ground squirrels, Higgins once documented baby squirrel remains in an owl pellet. (Photo by Laura Hautala) — Biologist Philip Higgins displays an owl pellet filled with insect remains, including earwig antenna. While owls don’t generally eat ground squirrels, Higgins once documented baby squirrel remains in an owl pellet. (Photo by Laura Hautala)

Foolishly writing things down in my notebook, I jerk up to hear, “There’s one!” The experts are standing expertly with their binoculars, pointing it out to each other by naming the particular burrow the bird is standing to the right of.

“He’s already on guard,” McCluskey says. “He or she.”

My camera lens’s 250-millimeter zoom is insufficient to get a good look, so McCluskey lends me his binoculars. I own binoculars but somehow neglected to bring this birding essential. I imagine this is something like forgetting the guacamole at your Super Bowl party.

An owl guards its post. (Photo courtesy City of San Jose) — An owl guards its post. (Photo by Joshua McCluskey, courtesy City of San Jose)

The owl is dun in color and mottled with white spots, looking like a light colored stone on long legs. It’s motionless, guarding, waiting. When approached, they typically bob up and down and call out a warning cry to other owls, according to one U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service report. I don’t get close enough to see for myself.

Then we’re just knee deep in owls. We unsuspectingly approach burrow 1 and an owl flushes from the mound, flying toward burrow 2. We get closer and another owl flushes from burrow 1 to burrow 2. A pair. The owls are approaching mating season and these two appear to be together.

Oh, wait, what’s that? Another pair is hunched down together at a burrow right next door to burrow 2. They’re still incredibly far away, but I can see the well-camouflaged birds side by side, making sure we don’t threaten their burrow.

Knee-deep in owls. (Photo courtesy City of San Jose)

Now, you, fellow superb owl-admirer, will also have a hard time seeing these birds up close in the feathery flesh should you seek them out.

It’s true that burrowing owls are great for viewing during the daytime, more so than the other more nocturnal owl species. And the camera traps set up at the sanctuary prove that the owls are full of foibles and hijinks, McCluskey said. They fight among each other over crickets and mice and get their feathers ruffled.

(During one chick count, Higgins got very close to a group of three chicks who panicked and forgot where their burrow opening was. One of the youngsters — “no feathers, all fluff” — puffed up, flapped its tiny wings and screeched. It charged Higgins, only to fall on its face. In a word, McCluskey said, the birds are “dorky.”)

In a word, "dorky." A juvenile burrowing owl stares down the camera. (Photo courtesy City of San Jose) — In a word, “dorky.” A juvenile burrowing owl stares down the camera. (Photo courtesy City of San Jose)

State law prohibits lay people from getting too close to owls during breeding season. If an owl reacts by flushing, “It messes with the calorie balance,” McCluskey says. “You could imperil the bird.”

Burrowing owls are birds of conservation concern according to the USFWS, and a state species of special concern. In the San Francisco Bay Area, they are in a precipitous decline.

Loss of habitat is the biggest obstacle to keeping the burrowing owl going strong in the region. But the owl species is thriving here on this field; Higgins said all of the pairs successfully bred last year, compared to the 50 percent success rate he’s calculated for all of the owl habitats he observes in the Santa Clara Valley.

Out of the seven sites Higgins originally studied in the area, only three have any owls left in addition to this one: the San Jose International Airport, Shoreline at Mountain View and Moffett Field.

McCluskey says they would like the birds, which the researchers have just started banding, to spread as far as Coyote Valley, at the southern end of San Jose where another area rich in wildlife diversity and open spaces straddles Highway 101.

That would require the preserve here to overflow with owls, which would be a win for the superb owl and all its fans.

Find out more about the City of San Jose’s owl preserve, or check out the city’s Flickr page with photos from the camera traps.

Agreement Opens Way for Quarrying on Apperson Ridge

A recently announced agreement between two environmental groups and a quarry operator appears to open the way for hard-rock mining at Apperson Ridge, adjacent to Sunol Regional Wilderness, and continued mining at an existing quarry nearby, though the Apperson site would not be quarried until 2030 at the soonest.

The agreement comes after two years of negotiation between the Alameda Creek Alliance, the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), and Oliver de Silva, Inc. The agreement between activists and rock miners will allow mining to go forward in the southeastern Alameda County locations — after several environmental conditions are met.

Environmentalists have voiced major concerns for protected species in this vast grassland habitat and watershed since the ridge site was leased to Oliver de Silva by private landowners in 1984. This opposition continued in 2005, when the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) announced exclusive negotiations with Oliver de Silva for the existing Sunol Valley Quarry, which sits on the SFPUC’s public lands. Then, says Jeff Miller of the Alameda Creek Alliance, representatives from the mining company approached the environmentalists.

“We were very skeptical at first,” says Miller. “[But] when it looked like they would be able to do most of what we wanted, we started negotiating. We negotiated for two years.” The agreement, which Miller terms “unprecedented” and “visionary,” reflects a new approach for two environmental organizations that have pursued costly litigation to protect habitats in the past.

“We decided we probably could not have stopped the project. It was more worthwhile to put that effort and money into creating a conservation plan,” says Miller.

“This provides a rare, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to marry two projects and provide major environmental enhancements that would not be possible if we were not working together with the conservation groups,” said Ed de Silva, chairman of Oliver de Silva, Inc., in a recent press release.

Seeking the least possible damage, environmentalists ended up with a plan that includes unprecedented provisions, such as offsets for 100 percent of greenhouse gases released by the quarries. More germane to concerns over sensitive species, Oliver de Silva will purchase replacement habitat for protected species at ratios of 3-1. For target species like California tiger salamander, the replacement ratio is 4-1. The proposed mine has a 116-acre footprint, and mitigations will result in a minimum of 600 acres of new protected lands if the quarry is opened.

For environmentalists, the most appealing part of a deal with Oliver de Silva was the ability to delay mining on Apperson Ridge by at least 20 years. According to the agreement, Oliver de Silva will not mine on Apperson Ridge until operations cease at Sunol Valley, or until 2030, whichever happens later. Allowing Oliver de Silva to operate both mines will also lessen two of the biggest dangers to the existing tule elk population at Apperson: noise created by processing rock and the massive truck traffic that would be required to remove rock. Instead of roads, conveyor belts will be used to move rock from Apperson to the Sunol Valley Quarry, where it will be processed with existing infrastructure.

Oliver de Silva is also committed to giving $250,000 up front and additional annual payments to support other tule elk habitats in Northern California if and when the Apperson quarry is opened. The annual payments vary based on when and how the Apperson quarry operates during a given year, and whether the elk herd is stable or increasing.

Mitigations, often seen as a lesser-evil option, can be difficult to assess if, for example, lands protected as mitigation are not under immediate threat. What’s more, this agreement does not specify where new protected habitat must be created — just that it be done before the new quarry opens. However, Miller says he is confident that the agreement will result in useful protected spaces in the mine’s vicinity, due to the requirement to purchase land that offers the same habitat and the high replacement ratios. adds, “The lands protected as mitigation in our deal have to be private unprotected lands, Miller says. Land is available, he adds, because “ranchers and private landowners know there’s a market for mitigation land.”

Protected lands will be turned over to the East Bay Regional Park District, and under a previous agreement, this organization will also have first buyer’s rights should the Apperson Ridge Quarry go up for sale.

As for the Alameda Creek watershed — the second largest watershed flowing into the San Francisco Bay — Oliver de Silva will contribute to habitat restoration and the protection of endangered species on several fronts. The company will dedicate several million dollars in funding for fish passage projects throughout the watershed, in addition to directly improving habitat by re-vegetating stream banks and improving flow where streams run near the Sunol Valley Quarry. Oliver de Silva funds will also go to an SFPUC Sunol Valley Restoration Plan to benefit the region’s waterways.

Save Our Sunol (SOS), a local community group that has been critical of quarrying in the past, granted that Oliver de Silva made significant environmental concessions. “I do think they have gone out of their way to answer some of the conservation questions in their agreement,” says Pat Stillman, president of SOS. However, she voiced concerns over threats to community health that she says past mining operations have ignored. “We have a number of children in the school that are asthmatic,” says Stillman. SOS would like to see a fund for downtown improvements and support for the school from Oliver de Silva, and the group is discussing internally how to move forward with these requests.

A spokesperson for Oliver de Silva was not immediately available to respond to SOS’s concerns over potential links between mining and asthma.

Approval of mining operations at Sunol Valley are pending with the SFPUC. That means the agreement with the creek alliance and CBD hinges on the utilities commission’s decision; if the Sunol quarry lease is not approved, Oliver de Silva will move to mine Apperson Ridge immediately and the environmental organizations will sue after all.

The SFPUC will vote on the Sunol lease on June 9. Says Miller, “I think the commission is likely to approve. Giving Oliver de Silva the lease makes sense, certainly from a conservation point of view, and the PUC has a strong interest in having that mining infrastructure moved off the ridge above their watershed land.”

Pending the SFPUC approval, the San Francisco board of supervisors will vote on the matter in July or August. Further approvals from the SFPUC and environmental reviews from Alameda County will determine whether all aspects of the sequential mining will take place.

Read the complete agreement:

www.alamedacreek.org/Alerts/Apperson/Apperson%20Quarry.htm

Two Chances for Expansion at Mori Point

Mori Point, a 110-acre park in Pacifica, has been part of the Golden Gate National Recreation area for nearly a decade (check out our April 2009 article on the park). Now, developments to the north and south could mean a huge jump in size for a coastal property that contains critical habitat for threatened red-legged frogs and endangered San Francisco garter snakes.

On the north side of the point, Sharp Park Golf Course is owned and operated by the city of San Francisco. A proposed city ordinance, up for a vote at an April 30 public meeting, would designate Sharp Park a protected wetland and eventually transfer the land to the National Park Service. What’s more, the housing developer who owns the southern section of Mori Point is now looking to sell.

These two parcels would form a continuous wildlife refuge when combined with the current preserved space at Mori Point. However, public opposition to closing the links at Sharp Park and a steep price for Rockaway Quarry are both formidable obstacles for environmentalists out to create a haven for imperiled snakes and frogs.

The sale of Rockaway Quarry has gotten less attention than the contentious plan to rezone Sharp Park. This is partly due to a lack of public debate about the issue: Development plans there have lost two public votes over the years. Developer Don Peebles — who spent years embroiled in public debate over his plans to develop Rockaway Quarry — may hope to make a direct sale to another developer and has assessed the property at a cool $90 million.

“There will be an effort to acquire this land (or part of it) for conservation but it is quite complicated,” says Michael Vasey of the Pacifica Land Trust, adding that the city of Pacifica has a “long-term commitment to develop” the land. However, the obstacles that Peebles faced won’t go away.

Brent Plater, the lawyer and activist spearheading the campaign to manage Sharp Park for habitat, surmises that the hefty price on the quarry might indicate more than just high expectations from Peebles. It might serve “to leverage the [National] Park Service,” Plater says, if Peebles can’t attract a new developer.

Whether or not environmentalists strike a deal to preserve some of the quarry, public debate is alive and kicking regarding Sharp Park. Because San Francisco operates the golf course, the Board of Supervisors will vote on the ordinance at San Francisco City Hall on April 30 at 1 pm. There will be time for public comment before the vote, and Plater predicts that golfers will show up en masse. “The only way we lose this campaign is if, when the hearing comes, there are 500 golfers and five environmentalists, and that is a distinct possibility,” Plater says.

While golfers will argue that Sharp Park represents one of the last affordable golf courses in the area, environmentalists point out that the course operates in violation of environmental restrictions on draining winter marshes where threatened red-legged frogs lay their eggs. The endangered San Francisco garter snake primarily subsists on the frogs, a situation that represents the larger vulnerability of an ecosystem that has struggled to coexist with golfers for 77 years.

Voice your opinion at the San Francisco city supervisor’s vote:
Thursday, April 30th, 1pm
San Francisco City Hall
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
San Francisco, CA

For more details on the San Francisco vote on Sharp Park, visit www.restoresharppark.org.

UPDATE: On Tuesday, May 5, the San Francisco board of supervisors unanimously approved legislation for turning Sharp Park into a native wildlife habitat for frogs and snakes. The vote was supposed to occur on May 12 but was fast-tracked by city officials. The board will start by completing a study on the property’s conversion by June 1, as well as beginning discussions with the GGNRA about transferring the property.

A sub-committee approved the legislation last Thursday, April 30, which will either incorporate habitat restoration into the golf course’s operations or close the course entirely. The city will either transfer the land to GGNRA or develop a joint management plan.

Brent Plater is cautiously optimistic about these recent victories. “We need to make sure that the study is as good as it possibly can be, and that they select an alternative that is the best possible to ensure recovery of the snake and work with the GGNRA,” says Brent Plater. “So we won round 1, but there are many more rounds to go!”

Elephant Seals and Climate Change

Sex ratios of northern elephant seals may become dangerously skewed due to global climate change, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Mammalogy.

In their study, scientists Derek Lee (of PRBO Conservation Science) and William J. Sydeman (of the Farallon Institute) found that ocean temperature directly impacts the ratio of male to female seal pups born in a given year. With oceans warming globally, scientists worry about the long-term effects of this phenomenon on seal populations.

Normally, this peculiar response to water temperature is healthy for female elephant seals.

This seal species spends 90 percent of its life underwater, most often searching for prey during 25 to 30 minute dives with only a few minutes for breathing in between. After their winter of birthing and mating on the coasts and rocky islands of California, the different sexes of elephant seals migrate to completely different feeding grounds. Male seals swim directly north and feed off coastal prey near the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. Meanwhile, females swim farther east and hunt faster-moving, deep-water prey.

Warmer ocean temperatures mean that females must migrate farther for their prey, which also tends to be more dispersed in these conditions. By giving birth to more males than females in warmer years, adult females reduce competition for food from their daughters.

With natural weather patterns, this change in sex ratio presents no real problems to northern elephant seals. Water temperatures rise and fall with the flux between El Nino and La Nina, and so does the ratio between male and female seal pups. Even a particularly pronounced El Nino, as was seen between 1997 and 1998, has no long-term effect on seal populations. However, the steady rise of water temperatures predicted to continue in the seal’s habitats might create a permanently imbalanced sex ratio.

One possible outcome of this imbalance could be steeper competition for mates between males. Previous studies led by Burney Le Boeuf and Dan Costa at UC Santa Cruz revealed that male elephant seals attempt to woo and cloister several females apiece, so competition is already at play. Weighing in at 1,500 pounds on average and stretching 15 feet long, males employ physical heft to establish dominance among themselves. The effects of even greater numbers of males on these mating practices have yet to be documented. However, researcher Lee refers to the situation as a potential “evolutionary ‘trap’ that results in population decline.”

In light of the new research, it also appears that female survival and reproduction could become much more difficult in higher ocean temperatures. According to Le Boeuf and Costa, female elephant seals spent more time searching for pockets of prey than actively feeding during the El Nino of 1997 to 1998. As a result, their weight was lower than usual when they reached their breeding and mating grounds. Since adults do not eat during this time, blubber reserves are extremely important for successful reproduction. If warm water trends continue, females could be too underfed to birth sustainable levels of pups, and possibly to survive the process themselves.

In the Bay Area, northern elephant seals come ashore at Ano Nuevo state park during winter to molt, birth, and mate before parting ways with their young and the opposite sex for another year. You can visit the park with a special permit starting April 1st. Call (650) 879-2025 or visit http://www.parks.ca.gov for more information.

Native Species Put the Art in BART

On a typical walk through a BART station, it’s hard to ignore the advertisements covering the available wall space. But a few ads are most striking in their mystery: A Steller’s jay? A black-tailed deer? Both with nothing but a subtle BART train in the background. No message. No sell. What are these all about?

They’re part of a recent BART campaign to enrich station environments with illustrations of local native species. Depicted in 60 by 46 inch landscapes are the California poppy, the black-tailed deer, and the Steller’s jay.

: Artwork by Mick Wiggins. Image copyright BART. Used with permission.

The project started with a call to local artists to submit concepts for consideration by BART. “It was an art poster project. The LA Metro, the New York Metro, and the [Portland] TriMet have award winning art poster programs,” says Gina DeLorenzo of the BART Marketing Group. “Mick Wiggins’s concept was to feature these natives.” Riders are enjoying the posters throughout the BART system where free ad space has become available. They can currently can be seen in the East Bay at the 19th Street Oakland, MacArthur and North Berkeley stations, to name a few.

Local illustrator Wiggins found inspiration for his concept by visiting BART platforms and imagining what he would like to see. “The lighting is low,” he says, “the kind of lighting that might be in a museum that has dioramas. I thought it would be kind of fun to have a diorama of nature in a subway setting.” As for choosing which species to showcase, Wiggins was drawn to the beauty of everyday creatures. “I went with the more common, more urban animals that live around us rather than something you have to drive to see.”

The posters stand out not only for their depiction of local species, but also for their lack of an overt advertising message. Says Wiggins, “All the ads down there, they’re shouting at you for one reason or another.” Instead of trying to out-shout all the other ads, the artist took a different route. “I thought the most refreshing thing that could be seen when you’re down in the station was something quiet and nature-like, without a big selling point.” The illustrations aren’t completely message-free, though–they each depict a BART train rolling discretely in the background. Wiggins explains that a BART tie-in was required, but he says that “BART is part of a natural landscape, and it’s a good member.”

: Artwork by Mick Wiggins. Image copyright BART. Used with permission.

Wiggins also drew on a historical precedent of train posters from Europe that focused on the local landscape rather than the trains themselves. “The train posters in turn-of-the-century Britain featured the places they were going to, the beach or a natural setting. You wouldn’t even see a train in the poster for the train,” he explains.

Though the flora and fauna Wiggins chose are not unique to theBay Area, these natives give a great deal of character to urban andrural settings alike. The Steller’s jay ranges throughout western NorthAmerica. They can often be found in woodlands and forests, especiallyconifer forests, which they prefer for nesting and foraging. TheCalifornia poppy, our state flower, actually ranges from WashingtonState to Baja. The black-tailed deer is a part of everydaylife for thousands of people in the Bay Area — these deer have adapted remarkably well to suburban environments.

Art posters are a first for the BART system, and the BART Marketing Group hopes to expand the project, possibly creating a contest to give away some posters. For now you can enjoy them as a quiet breath of nature in the depths of the city.

Brown Pelicans, Victims of Extreme Weather

Brown pelicans migrating from Washington and Oregon back to California have been experiencing severe flight delays due to winter weather. Adult birds have been making crash landings in unusual places and showing signs of disorientation and starvation. Some have even been found dead.

Initially puzzled by the birds’ ailment, scientists now concur that the main cause of harm was frostbite suffered when winter storms hit the Northwest in December 2008.

The mystery of the birds’ sudden illness is tied to their migratory patterns. California brown pelicans live year-round from Baja to Point Conception, near Santa Barbara. They disperse northward and forage for food in warmer months, and recently these travels have led them farther and farther north–all the way to British Columbia in some instances.

This December, counts of the birds in Oregon tallied “unprecedented amounts,” says University of Southern California research professor Dave Caron. Then a cold snap with wet and icy storms struck the region.

Initial concerns that domoic acid–a toxin produced by algae in the Pacific Ocean–could be poisoning the birds have been put to rest. Caron’s lab at USC found the toxin in only a handful of algae samples, and those even those levels were low. “Only a few types of algae produce domoic acid,” says Caron, “and we see those kinds of toxins at low levels throughout the year.” The tests run at the Caron lab found toxins “at a concentration 100-fold less than a toxic event.”

Pelicans exposed to wet and freezing conditions, however, are more vulnerable to even low amounts of domoic acid. A small portion of birds have tested positive for domoic acid in recent blood tests. Toxin levels do not reach those commonly found during past toxic events. But, with weather-ravaged birds, “any small amount of domoic acid can put [pelicans] over the edge,” says Caron.

“The consensus of the experts at this time is still that, while domoic acid might be playing a part, it is a secondary problem,” says Laurie Pyne of the Cordelia-based International Bird Rescue and Research Center.

Several Bay Area organizations have been coordinating bird rescue and rehabilitation. Pyne reports that more than sixty birds have been brought into IBRRC’s Bay Area headquarters in Fairfield. Humane societies have collected ailing birds and transported them to appropriate rehabilitation centers. Nakeisha Brown of San Francisco Animal Care and Control reports that at least three birds have been reported to the agency. “I transported two birds to the Peninsula Humane Society–two stinky birds,” Brown says. The pelicans, alive but lethargic, were found in a dumpster by garbage collectors at Pier 45. It is unknown how the birds ended up in the dumpster or how long they had been there, unable to fly out of their own accord.

Unfortunately, rehabilitating the pelicans is a costly affair requiring medications and loads of smelt and squid for the starved birds.

If you’d like to help rehabilitate a local pelican, the International Bird Rescue and Research Center has adopt-a-pelican programs suitable for individual donors or classrooms whose students would like to witness their pelican being released into the wild. Call them at (707) 207-0380 or visit their website for more information.

GGNRA Big Year Comes to a Close

What brings together professionals and amateur naturalists, butterfly specialists and evolutionary biologists, children and adults, all in the name of endangered species?

Try the Golden Gate National Recreation Area’s Big Year for Endangered Species, a year-long competition created to raise awareness about local endangered species while encouraging people to help restore habitat throughout the recreation area. The event started in January 2008 and will culminate with an awards ceremony and snowy plover birding session at Crissy Field on January 10, 2009.

When they started the competition, participants each received a list of 33 endangered species that ran the gamut – from birds to marine mammals and plants to amphibians and reptiles – and instructions to look for them on GGNRA lands during 2008. Each species also came with an action item that would help restore its habitat in the Bay Area.

To add intrigue and friendly competition to the event, organizers provided incentives for racking up the most sightings and action items. Gift certificates to an outdoor apparel and goods store will be given out in the amount of $2,000 for the first place winner and $1,000 for second. Participants have taken the competition quite seriously, and a leaderboard on the event website reports who holds the top five places. As the event came to a close, the race for first place was in a dead heat between lepidopterist Liam O’Brien and amateur Steve Price tied at 52 sightings and action items each. Close behind is evolutionary biologist David Seaborg with 50 points.

Each of these competitors brings a particular passion to the table, and each has something unique to gain from participating.

Seaborg runs two conservation organizations, the Foundation for Biological Conservation and Research and the World Rainforest Fund. His participation also caused Price and O’Brien to redouble their efforts. “He’s very studious,” says Price. “He had calculated how no one could beat him, so that started the fire under Liam and me. It’s been a great underlying drama line.”

As for Price, who is a brand consultant in San Rafael, he learned of the competition from an article in the Marin Independent Journal and decided it would be a great way to get out into the GGNRA’s parklands and experience nature with his family. “I’m probably the real rookie among the front runners… I have no biology background at all,” he says. “On many hikes my family has gone with me and they’ve enjoyed it. I’m also kind of a list person, and it seemed like an unusual adventure.”

O’Brien, an authority on San Francisco butterflies, says he enjoyed an expanded appreciation of the natural world during the Big Year. His specialty in butterflies has fueled his efforts in the Green Hairstreak Corridor Project, which works to connect two populations of an endangered butterfly species in San Francisco. “It’s made me a better, more well-rounded naturalist,” he says of the competition, “I went into new worlds. I went into botany a lot more.” O’Brien also says he felt rewarded by a closer connection to the natural world and the species he was searching for. “We were all out there at Sharp Park, we were pulling trash out of the creek,” he says, “and right across the creek were six California red-legged frogs sunning themselves. It really helped make the connection between the work [and the species].”

Indeed, viewing wildlife brought excitement to young and old. Another Liam, this one an 11-year-old, spotted the California least tern on GGNRA lands during a birding outing. “They’re easy to find in the East Bay but difficult to find in the national park,” says Big Year organizer Brent Plater. “He had some great sightings during his action items, too.”

Some participants went to great lengths to see rare species, such as the California freshwater shrimp. Price and O’Brien, though reluctant to say where exactly, took to a stream in snorkel gear, wetsuits, and waders after getting a tip about some local shrimp on GGNRA lands. Seaborg saw the crustaceans in a quick net-and-release operation with another naturalist. Other finds were easier to come by, but no less breathtaking. At Fort Funston, says O’Brien, “About 20 of us saw a humpback [whale] right there in the break.”

While Seaborg has completed all 33 action items, Price and O’Brien had time to complete one or two more each as of last week. Last-minute species sightings will be much more difficult to pull off, as some plants are all but impossible to find. Even excluding the showy Indian clover, which has been deemed extinct twice in the past hundred years and only blooms hypothetically on GGNRA lands, most plants are unidentifiable without flowers during winter. Rarely seen animals populate the Big Year checklist as well. “The clapper rail has historic breeding habitat in Tomales Bay but no one’s seen one in a long time. Same thing with salt marsh harvest mouse,” says Plater. “It could end up in a tie,” he goes on, “I don’t want to say for sure, these guys could have some more tricks up their sleeves.”

The Sea Scouts Rise Again

A derelict historic building on the Palo Alto waterfront is about to find new life: As the expanded home of the 36-year-old nonprofit Environmental Volunteers, which offers hands-on science learning to thousands of South Bay schoolchildren each year. Now the group will put its teaching into practice by moving its headquarters to a fully recycled structure that models green building standards.

Now condemned and prone to flooding, the structure was abandoned 17 years ago. But the Sea Scout building, constructed in 1941, once housed a division of the Boy Scouts of America focused on nautical adventures for young people. The building sits on a marshy inlet known as “the duck pond area” in the Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve, off of Embarcadero Road. Shaped like a boat, the building embodies a “streamlined modern” architectural aesthetic that renovators will work to preserve.Getting started with restoration has meant seeking approval from several city, state, and federal agencies, as well as raising millions in funds. However, Environmental Volunteers (EV) couldn’t be happier to take on such an involved plan. “It’s the ultimate recycling project,” said Executive Director Allan Berkowitz. “We are reusing an entire building and incorporating green construction elements such as the lighting, heating, and ventilation systems, enabling our new home to serve as a demonstration of our mission to inspire environmental stewardship.”

In addition to providing the public with wildlife viewing programs and nature photography exhibits, the building will house the organization’s staff. Once they move into the new building, board member Carol Broadbent Fields says the organization hopes to launch “a new suite of programs” to get more students involved directly with the Baylands Preserve.”The EcoCenter itself is going to be a place for the EV team to develop new programs, to train the volunteers, and to maintain materials and kits. It’s sort of that nucleus of program development,” says Broadbent Fields.

What’s more, the project will mend a broken link in the Bay Trail, allowing cyclists and hikers to cross right over the building’s front porch. This could lead the EV to create new programs for passing hikers, bikers and joggers.What’s the draw at this unusual building and unique habitat? “It’s at the intersection of history, education, and the environment,” says Broadbent Fields, “and that appeals to Bay Area people. That confluence doesn’t happen very often.”

The Packard Foundation kicked off fundraising efforts for the project with a $1 million grant. So far, Environmental Volunteers has raised about half of the $4 million needed.There will be a public groundbreaking ceremony on September 14, 2008. Once building starts in October, a webcam will be installed so that visitors to the group’s website (evols.org) can track the renovation’s progress. Sign up for the EV newsletter by emailing info@evols.org, or call (650)961-0545 to learn about volunteering as a docent.

Getting to Work on Tennessee Hollow

In September 2008, an ambitious plan to improve the Presidio’s Tennessee Hollow watershed is getting underway.

At the crux of the plan is the restoration of a creek that runs from the famous El Polin Spring and two other springs to Crissy Field Marsh and the Bay. The creek, which currently runs underground through culverts and channels, will flow aboveground from hilltop to bay, and visitors will be able to walk a trail along the creek’s course. This is the same remarkable area Bay Nature covered in depth in our 2007 article Whispers in the Water.

Planners hope that access to the creek, as well as a restored historical identity in Tennessee Hollow, will create a revitalized and exciting space for the public to explore. The timeline for restoration extends over the next decade, but visitors can track visible changes and enjoy increasing access from the outset.

The Presidio Trust, a federal agency created to preserve the unique natural and historical character of the Presidio, is administering the project and wants to involve the public as much as possible. Plans to restore El Polín, the only named spring of the trio, and the eastern tributary are already complete, but volunteers can help make the plan happen.

If you want to get dirt under your fingernails, join the volunteer planting day on November 22. Volunteers will help bring toyon, wax myrtle, native grasses, and more to the landscape. Thirty-five thousand seedlings cultivated with the help of volunteers at the Presidio greenhouse have already been introduced to Tennessee Hollow, and thousands more will follow. The Presidio Trust hopes to have ongoing planting days on the fourth Saturday of every month.

: Photo courtesy Presidio Trust.

Currently, the landscape of Tennessee Hollow is home to many nonnative species. Eucalyptus trees in particular soak up ground water that would otherwise drain down the hollow. Cypress and nonnative pines also draw from the water table and exclude native plants. Native trees and shrubs such as willow, coast live oak, and California buckeye are better suited to a healthy watershed.

In addition to native plant restoration, plans for the watershed call for the removal of several landfills. That will be a difficult task. Unknown toxins layer the ground in at least five locations, and one site has the confirmed presence of medical waste and cyanide dating from the 1950s.

This may seem dire, but landfill removal and native planting have already successfully restored a lower section of the creek at Thompson’s Reach. “We’ve seen some truly inspirational changes,” says Allison Stone, senior environmental planner at the trust.

Once the landscape is restored, more volunteers will be needed to help link native plants to the watershed’s rich past. “An ethnobotanical garden has been long discussed,” says Stone, and volunteer docents will be needed. “There will also be opportunities for helping to craft some of the interpretive messages,” Stone adds. The garden will showcase the native plants of the watershed and illuminate their historical uses.

The plans also provide for a boardwalk and interpretive signs to go around El Polín Loop. Tennessee Hollow’s history includes settlement by native people, Spanish garrisons, and Mexican ranchers, and more recently by the U.S. military. In 2003, archaeologists led by Stanford’s Barbara Voss discovered the foundation of an adobe structure near El Polín that probably was home to the noted Miramonte and Briones families in the 1800s. El Polín Spring was also the water source for a working well created by the military in the 1930s, and its streamlet was diverted into stone-lined channels. Planners intend to restore the well and channels to working order.

Plans for interpreting the historical significance of these structures are still evolving, says Stone, so volunteers will have a hand in shaping the final outcome. What’s more, plans for restoring the watershed’s lower regions and the western tributary, which runs through Pop Hicks Field, are still being developed and will be open to public comment.

Guided project tours at El Polín are open to the public on September 6 and 13, 2008. RSVP by calling (415) 561-5457 or emailing jnichols@presidiotrust.gov. Maps are also available for self-guided tours for both adults and kids. You can download maps and read more about the project on the Presidio Trust website at www.presidio.gov/trust/projects/tenn.

To volunteer for the November 22 planting day, please call or email the volunteer coordinator at (415)561-5333 or volunteer@presidio.gov. If you’d like to receive updates about future planning and volunteer opportunities, email presidio@presidiotrust.gov and ask to be put on the Tennessee Hollow email update list.

Fall is the Season When Garden Spiders Live Large

Look in your backyard right now, and there’s a decent chance you’ll see the ornate webs of our local orbweaver spiders. After feeding on insects all spring and summer, banded garden spiders and yellow garden spiders get big and very noticeable in fall, just before they lay their eggs and die.

These common arachnids, both from a large group called orbweavers, are best known for their spiraling webs found in many gardens.The banded garden spider (Argiope trifasciata) and golden orbweaver (Argiope aurantia) emerge from their egg sacks as small, fully formed web spinners in spring. They start building by creating a bridge from a shrub branch or window frame to another point, and, through complex geometric patterns, they create a sticky insect trap. The spiders eat their webs and rebuild them at night, and start catching insects again the next day.

For these garden spiders, creating silk is a specialized process. Strands of silk shoot from an apparatus on the spider’s abdomen called the spinneret and twist together to form a tight thread. Silk can be altered depending on its use: only the silk in the outer spiral of the web is sticky, as this is where most insects will be caught.

After catching an insect, the spider uses its legs to turn the prey while spinning silk over it. The spider immobilizes its food with a venomous bite (harmless to humans) before dining.

As the spiders grow, male spiders leave their webs to mate. Sitting on the edge of a female’s web, a male pulls its strands, using vibrations to get her attention. Even though they have eight eyes, orbweavers have very poor vision, so vibrations are the most effective tool for communication during mating season. After mating, a female lays her eggs and creates a thick, papery egg sack to protect them.

Keeping the egg sack safe is a precarious business, and the spiders die in winter, so the babies are on their own after that. A mother spider often suspends the sack on her web to protect it from predators, but the web can become damaged and other spiders and insects might take over part of the sack to hold their own eggs.

The spider young hatch in fall, but wait out the winter in the sack before they emerge and start the process over again.