In Schooner Bay, Drakes Bay Oyster Farm grows oysters and clams, producing 85 percent of the shellfish raised in Marin County. Point Reyes National Seashore, the company’s landlord, has long planned to close the farm when its 40-year lease expires … Read more
Elfin Butterfly
To us, the San Bruno elfin butterfly, with its one-inch wingspan, seems small, but to the ants that protected it during its larval stage, it must seem a giant. On rocky north-facing outcrops on San Bruno Mountain in South San … Read more
Presumed Extinct
Mention extinct species, and most people think of long-gone mastodons and saber-toothed tigers. But we know that some Bay Area species have disappeared in just the last 200 years. Or have they? Prompted by rediscoveries of lost species in Solano and Contra Costa counties, we decided to see what other missing flora and fauna might still be out there, awaiting a patient observer.
The Checkerspot Comes Home
Contrary to common notions of autumn as a season of dying back, our fall rains often herald new beginnings. That’s especially true this fall at Edgewood County Park and Natural Preserve in Redwood City. For the first time since 2002, … Read more
Coyote Valley: Another Drive-By Extinction?
As we report in The Checkerspot Comes Home, Coyote Ridge southeast of San Jose is one of the last refuges for the endangered bay checkerspot butterfly. A good deal of that habitat is protected, but the checkerspots here should keep … Read more
Field Guide to the Lost Species of the San Francisco Bay Area
A field guide to help Bay Area naturalists in their search for local, lost species that are presumed extinct.
The Biggest Bony Fish in the Oceans Swims in the Gulf of the Farallones
Weighing in at almost 5,000 pounds, measuring over ten feet across, infested with scores of parasites, carrying more eggs than any other vertebrate, and shaped like a giant dinner plate, the giant ocean sunfish (Mola mola) is a creature defined by superlatives.
Raising the Dead: Bringing Ghosts to Life, October-December 2007
How do you commission portraits of species the world has dismissed as extinct, species no one has seen in decades? That was the conundrum we at Bay Nature faced when it came time to solicit illustrations to accompany Presumed Extinct: … Read more
From Collecting to Recollecting
This San Mateo coast reserve–home to brilliantly colored nudibranchs, 20-armed sun stars, and pupping harbor seals–has been transformed from a place of collection and plunder to one of exploration and wonder.
Mount Diablo: A Place for Raptors
Mount Diablo’s woodlands and canyons provide habitat for a fantastic variety of raptors, from kestrels to golden eagles (of which the northern Diablo Range hosts perhaps the world’s densest population). In the 1950s, however, the mountain lost one of its … Read more