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WINGBEAT! |
APRIL
2006
1 Thank you to SFBBO Volunteers
2
SFBBO Events
3 Coyote Creek Field
Station Update
4 Birds of the
Baylands Update
5 Welcome to SFBBO!
6 New Volunteer Orientation
7 News on the Fly
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Thank
you from your 'BO!
SFBBO Honors Four Volunteers for
Their Dedication
| Volunteer
Appreciation Night last month at the Rengstorff House was a
great party! SFBBO thanks Randy Arnold from Barefoot Cellars
for the generous donation of wine and Trader Joe's for the
donation of cheese. We also recognized four volunteers for
outstanding volunteer work in 2005: Bill Hepburn, Spike
Marlowe, Sandy Moore, and Vicki Silvas-Young.
See photos from the event and read
Executive Director Janet Hanson's words of praise for our
honorees on the SFBBO
website. |
Randy Arnold,
photo by Rod Golden
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Venture
Out into the Urban Wilds
Great
Blue Heron Day, April 23, Vasona Lake County Park
Is that rain over yet? Bask in the springtime sun with the Great Blue
Heron colony and their baby chicks.
There will be an informational display, and SFBBO volunteers
will be on hand with their scopes so that you can get a closer look
at these beautiful birds. For
more information and directions, go to www.okaponds.com
or the calendar at www.sfbbo.org.
Maker
Faire, April 22-23, San Mateo County Fairgrounds
SFBBO Board member Lisa
Myers will be presenting a citizen science workshop at this
event. There are thousands of other exhibits around the theme
of "maker," including presentations from the Cornell Lab
of Ornithology and GGRO. So what exactly does "maker"
mean? Check out the website
for the millions of ways you can be a maker, too.
South
Bay Bird Fest, May 6, Don Edwards Environmental Education Center
Enjoy guided walks, refuge safari tours, activities, and a
street fair where SFBBO will show how bird-banding codes work. The
event name has changed from "International Migratory Bird
Day"--but it's still the same great people
and birds.
Planning on attending
and wouldn't mind taking an hour to represent SFBBO at the street
fair? We need volunteers to give festival participants stamps for
their "migration passports." E-mail Juliana Chow, jchow@sfbbo.org
with a time preference to sign up.
Wings
Over the Basin, May 19 - 21, Santa Cruz Mountains
Join SFBBO members Karen DeMello and Jan Hintermeister at the Big
Basin birding weekend where they'll be leading activities. Check
their website
for registrations information.
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Coyote
Creek Field Station Update
Notes from Biologist Gina Barton
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photo by Rod Golden
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Rain,
rain, and more rain is the theme for March, which resulted
in the biggest flood of the overflow channel in at least the
past 5 years! We had 7 new species for 2006: Mourning
Dove, Flicker Intergrade, Downy Woodpecker, Northern
Mockingbird, Yellow Warbler, Selasphorus Hummingbird, and
the highlight of the year, a Second Year (SY) female Cooper’s
Hawk. Read
more and see
pictures from the flood. |
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Birds
of the Baylands Update
Notes from Biologist Cheryl
Strong
Another season
of Colonial Waterbird Monitoring and Western Snowy Plover Monitoring
has begun. Rain hasn’t slowed the Great Blue Herons although terns
and gulls are setting up nests later than usual. The first Snowy
Plover surveys were mostly rained out with access limited by
extremely wet levees.
SFBBO
biologists Ann Murphy and Cynthia Padula will begin the 8th
monthly survey of salt ponds in the Newark-Mowry area in mid-April.
Rain hampered surveys last month, but all the ponds got counted! We
look forward to counting local nesting birds as other waterfowl and
shorebirds head for northern climates. |
Hellos
and Good-byes
SFBBO welcomes new staff and
bids farewell to Sharon and Roy
Biologist Cynthia Padula joins the SFBBO team as assistant
biologist and volunteer coordinator for the Birds of the
Baylands program. Originally from Argentina, Cynthia studied
biology at UC Santa Cruz and has worked on projects
with mixed seabird colonies in Patagonia and migratory
passerines in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and also gained
valuable experience at a tropical biology program in Costa
Rica.
Sharon
Miyako has departed for the rugged cliffs and waterfalls of
Yosemite for a temporary interpretation post before heading
to Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Juliana Chow |
Taking
her place as the new Outreach Specialist is Juliana
Chow, who is a native resident of the Bay Area.
After studying English in college and falling in
love with the likes of Thoreau, Frost, Moore, and
other great American writers who found inspiration
in nature, she went on to a master's program in
Nature, Science, and Environmental Policy at Oxford. |
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looks forward to following SFBBO volunteers, camera
in hand, and helping give SFBBO a new look with the
"Branding the 'BO" Committee. |
Roy
Churchwell has migrated to California's desert on seasonal
fieldwork. After that, he'll go where the wind blows. In the
meantime, SFBBO looks forward to welcoming a new Landbird
Program Director in the near future.
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Cynthia Padula: "Today I am
given the opportunity to have the best of both worlds:
to be the mother of my two beautiful girls and to be
part of the SFBBO team. I don’t have enough words to
express my gratitude and happiness for being surrounded by
such a wonderful group of human beings and by being once
again in the life of my dreams, still exploring and
discovering nature’s endless mysteries."
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Calling
All New Volunteers!
Monday, May 22, 7:00 - 8:30 p.m.
Location: SFBBO office
Learn
more about SFBBO's programs and find out how you can participate in
SFBBO's fieldwork! This orientation is required for people who are
interested in volunteering or have already begun volunteering but
have not yet attended an orientation.
Please RSVP to jchow@sfbbo.org by
May 17th. If you would like to attend but cannot make this date,
please e-mail jchow@sfbbo.org with available evenings or weekends.
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News on the Fly
Sandpiper Tracking from Panama
to Canada
Seen any western sandpipers with antennaes sticking out their
backs, perhaps with green or blue breasts? No, not mutant birds or
another avian epidemic on the loose.
The Kalhiltna Research Group at California State University, Long
Beach is tracking western sandpipers from Panama and Mexico to
Canada. Panama birds have been marked with blue on their breasts and
Mexico birds with green (in addition to the transmitter pack).
Please e-mail Prof. Patricia Baird, patbaird@csulb.edu if you've had
any sightings!
They recently found a Panama bird at Batiquitos Lagoon on April
9. Last year, Mexico birds were found at the Santa Maria river and
at Morro Bay.
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If this e-newsletter has piqued
your interest in the SFBBO, consider taking the next step. If you are not
already a member, please join us! Be a part of our bird conservation science and
outreach programs in the Bay Area as a member and volunteer. To our current members, we greatly appreciate your continued
support. Looking for other ways to support SFBBO? Check out our Wish
List.
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