The Simple Life of a “By the Wind” Sailor
Usually around late April, following spring storms, Northern California beaches are littered with something that looks like gobs of purple-tinted slimy cellophane.
Wildlife
Video: Migrating Birds Provide a Feast for the Senses
Humans aren’t the only creatures that flock to California to take advantage of our state’s mild winter climate. Millions of ducks, geese, and other migrating birds also make the Golden...
Video: The Return of the California Condor
The Big Sur coast has always provided nature lovers with an abundance of breathtaking scenery. But one of the most majestic elements of this coastal landscape, the California condor, nearly...
Duck! It’s Time for Winter Waterfowl
San Francisco Bay and its surrounding wetlands become a mallard mecca every winter. Mallards come by the thousands to spend the relatively balmy fall and winter months here while their...
Video: Comeback of the Coho Salmon in Central California
Since their listing as endangered in 1997, wild coho salmon have begun a slow but steady comeback to their native Central California streams.
Bay Area Migrations
Thanks to our mild climate and productive ecosystems, many species of animals (including people) migrate to and through the Bay Area. Winter is a great time to learn about some...
Lead Poisoning in California Condors
When California condor number 307 saw biologists capturing other condors at Pinnacles National Monument last summer, she apparently spooked and flew northeast to San Luis Reservoir. By the time she...
Making Peace with Coyote
Clementine is a 130-pound great Pyrenees—a white shag carpet of a dog who sleeps through the day out in the rolling hills of West Marin, guarding up to 1,500 head...
Standing the Tests of Time
Walk patiently along a few ocean beaches in the Bay Area, and you just might find objects of stunning beauty that also provide clues to a lost world, fossil sand...
The Napa Valley, and a History of Water and Wine
The Napa Valley was once a place of enormous natural bounty, fed by a vibrant, healthy river teeming with salmon and steelhead. Today, the valley is more famous for its...
