Monterey Birding Festival
Summer in the Bay Area can last well into late September, but by then many birds that overwinter here have already arrived after migrating from the north. While walking through...
Wildlife
Ocean Noise Pollution
We hadn’t yet reached the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, but we were far enough outside the Golden Gate that Angel Island looked like an extension of the...
Warm Springs Unit Expansion
With no April showers, the largest vernal pool in the Warm Springs Unit of the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Fremont was nothing more than a...
Letter from the Publisher
No one can accuse me of being an early adopter—the kind of person who rushes to embrace new technologies. I didn’t get my first computer until 1991, I don’t have...
Naturalist’s Notebook: Summer Brings Terns and Skimmers
Summer brings a diversity of terns and skimmers to San Francisco Bay.
Once Stung, Twice Shy
Learn about some of our local stinging insects, from the familiar honeybee to the powerful velvet ant (watch out for that one!).
The Battle of the Bulge
Snakes are famous for the amount of food they can stuff inside their skinny bodies. It’s common for a snake digesting a mouse or other prey to have an unsightly...
The Saved and the Dammed
For better and worse, the upper reach of the Pilarcitos watershed on the Peninsula was dammed to supply water to San Francisco in the 1860s. The surrounding land has been...
The Steelhead of Alameda Creek
Across the Bay from Pilarcitos, in the Alameda Creek watershed, SFPUC finds itself involved in another steelhead restoration discussion, centered around the utility’s Calaveras Dam near Sunol Regional Wilderness. The...
View from the Ground
Most folks don't think much of snakes unless they trip over them. It turns out that a remarkable diversity of serpents lives nearby, from beautiful red-bellied ring-necked snakes hiding under...
