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In the Key of Bee

April 1, 2009 •  by

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 honeybee, await your discovery, and your help.

Mori’s Story

April 1, 2009 •  by

A town comes together to protect beautiful Mori Point, home to threatened frogs, endangered snakes, and superb wildflowers.

Splendor in the Grass

April 1, 2009 •  by

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.

Tamalpais Walking

April 1, 2009 •  by

Poet Gary Snyder and artist Tom Killion have been walking on and around Marin’s iconic mountain for decades. These prints and text from a new book capture the mountain’s magic and the allure it’s had for generations of artists, poets, and hikers.

Backyard Boarding House

April 1, 2009 •  by

Leafcutters, diggers, carpenters, and masons… At first glance that may look like a directory for building contractors. Add the miners, cuckoos, and sweats and what you have isn’t a list of tool-bag clad builders, but some of the 1,600 known species of native bees in California. Here’s how you can make them at home in your garden.

Timing is Everything

March 25, 2009 •  by

Climate change may have arrived in your own yard, and scientists across the nation would like to hear about it. Researchers and educators in the abstruse-sounding National Phenology Network hope to harness the power of hundreds or thousands of citizen scientists across the nation all keeping notes on critical changes in the natural world.

Elephant Seals and Climate Change

March 20, 2009 •  by

A new study suggests that warmer ocean temperatures brought on by climate change may permanently skew sex ratios of northern elephant seals, the huge seals that visit a few Bay Area locations to breed.

Breeding Time for Herons

March 12, 2009 •  by

Usually solitary birds, great blue herons and egrets abandon their private ways in spring, and you can see them nesting in tree tops around the region.

Falcon City

March 6, 2009 •  by

In early spring, downtown San Francisco’s office workers are treated to quite an air show outside their office windows: peregrine falcons!