Naturalist’s Notebook: A Worm Ties Together Crabs, Otters and Scoters
Find out how a little worm ties together the lives, and deaths, of several ocean animals, from sea otters to surf scoters to common sand crabs.
Wildlife
Least Tern Return
Every spring California least terns return to the Bay Area to breed. These endangered birds, and other terns, have a remarkable hunting style: Drop quickly, and crash head-first into the...
A Refuge in the Harbor
Within view of Richmond, Brooks Island today is a haven for nesting terns. That's just its latest incarnation. A short paddle across the harbor to this island refuge takes you...
Protecting Plovers
On a gray September day, I walked north on Ocean Beach from Sloat Boulevard to the Cliff House. It was far from an idyllic walk on that black-sand beach. I...
Hayward Haven
At Hayward Regional Shoreline, East Bay Regional Park District staff and volunteers have created new nesting habitat for the endangered California least tern. Here's the recipe...
A Helping Hand for the Hairstreak
It has been said that the movement of a butterfly's wings can change the course of world events. Some San Francisco neighbors hope that will be true for the green...
Naturalist’s Notebook: Kestrels Pick Out Prey in the Ultraviolet
The kestrel hovering over that vacant field has a vision superpower.
In the Key of Bee
Gordon Frankie has an obsession, and he hopes it's contagious: In gardens around the Bay Area, dozens of species of native bees, many nothing like the more familiar but nonnative...
Splendor in the Grass
In spring, it's breeding time for bay pipefish, remarkable seahorse relatives that hide among the eelgrass in protected bays and estuaries along the West Coast.
