Birds will again be studied—and celebrated—at the International Migratory Bird Day festival at the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge on Saturday, May 8, in Alviso (10 a.m. to 4 p.m.). The free event will include naturalist-led bird … Read more
Wildlife
Spring Issue 2004
The Courtship of Herons
All around the Bay Area in spring, herons and egrets begin their annual transformation from mostly solitary top predators to birds gathered in crowded breeding colonies. Local photographer Philip Greene has spent years following the whole subtle and spectacular process by which these large birds break down their resistance to social communion: the changing color of bills and legs, the growth of flowing nuptial plumage, and the complex gestures and dances that make up the fine art of getting to know one another.
Winter Issue 2004
Altamont Wind Resources Area
As migrating shorebirds pass through Northern California, environmentalists hope they don’t meet the same fate as the hundreds of raptors that perish each year at Altamont Pass in Livermore. More than 40 golden eagles, up to 300 red-tailed hawks, up … Read more
Winter Issue 2004
Marin Development on San Geronimo Blocked
In another recent victory for wetland habitat, Marin Superior Court Judge Lynn Duryee ruled in early November that the County of Marin had failed to meet the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) when it issued a development … Read more
Winter Issue 2004
Napa County Breeding Birds Atlas
How many people does it take to figure out the number of bird species that breed in Napa County? For the Napa-Solano Audubon Society (NSAS), all it took was some 70 volunteers, most of whom surveyed separate 5-kilometer plots between … Read more
Winter Issue 2004
Out in the Tules
The rounded hills by the Bay are the first thing that catch your eye at Coyote Hills Regional Park. But the brackish and freshwater marshes behind the hills have a charm of their own. Remnant of a once-extensive mix of tidal and freshwater wetlands that sustained a thriving Ohlone community for several thousand years, the marsh is now home to marsh wrens, muskrats, and one of the East Bay’s few remaining patches of tules.
Winter Issue 2004
Where the Elk and the Antelope Played
A million years ago, in a climate much like ours today, the land around an ancestral bay teemed with large animals: mammoths and saber-tooth cats; bears, horses, and peccaries. By 300 years ago, the mammoths were gone, but grizzlies, elk, condor, and pronghorn were abundant.European settlers wiped out many of those animals, but programs to reintroduce some of them are now under way. Which raises the question: What should a healthy, native megafauna look like now?
Wildlife
Megafauna Resources
To learn more about ancient megafauna and efforts to protect and restore the Bay Area’s megafauna: Megafauna Video Check out our feature article on the Bay Area’s prehistoric megafauna, and then watch KQED’s video on megafauna, part of their Quest … Read more
Fall Issue 2003
Book Review: Sharks, Rays, and Chimaeras of California
by David A. Ebert (text) and Matthew D. Squillante (illustrations), University of California Press, 2003, 284 pages, $19.95 (www.ucpress.edu). Bat rays. Great whites. Ratfishes. Mantas. Who isn’t at least a little fascinated by sharks and their cartilaginous kin? They … Read more
Fall Issue 2003
Lodi Crane Festival
Fall marks the height of bird migrations along the Pacific Flyway. And while the Bay Area has plenty of birds to see, you’ll have to head a bit farther east to see the spectacular sandhill cranes that winter in the … Read more
