Exploring Nature in the San Francisco Bay Area
Opossums are having a bit of a moment thanks to the internet. America’s only marsupial – the Virginia opossum Didelphis virginiana — is what many consider unlovely. Gray fur and a bare, prehensile tail make it look rather rat-like. Beady eyes and a gaping mouth don’t help the image; their teeth look sharp, and they…
For those who are unaware of Point Reyes Station, it is a small town adjacent to Point Reyes National Seashore and the quaint town of Inverness. It’s the type of town that tourists flock to on the weekends and most travelers of Highway 1 venture through as they make their way along the California coast.…
I found this on my front door — it looks like needles in a circular motion with white tips. What is it? The small “needles” that start to decorate doors, plants, and just about any surface imaginable this time of year are from an often overlooked family of insects known as the green lacewings (Chrysopidae).…
An ecological history of a massive ranch for sale in the Bay Area.
Like me, you may have seen recent headlines sounding the alarm that birds are vanishing from North America. From the abstract of the September 2019 report in the journal Science, an “integration of range-wide population trajectories and size estimates indicates a net loss approaching 3 billion birds, or 29 percent of 1970 abundance.” Whether you are a bird…
This article was originally published on Undark. Read the original article. When a major new study on North American bird populations appeared in the journal Science last week, it included all the trappings of a typical scientific paper, along with one, less conventional addition: The study also came with its own hashtag, #BringBirdsBack. Certainly, the…
Independent, nonprofit environmental journalism connecting people with nature in the San Francisco Bay Area.
