Did you participate in the Christmas Bird Count? How many kids were along on your count? Did you count at night or by day, outdoors or from a window? The history of this important event is introduced, in simple picture-book format, in Counting Birds by Heidi Stemple. "Frank Chapman loved birds," she says, and describes how he worried about the tradition of ...

​Greetings from south of the equator! I’m currently teaching bird language in the Amazon jungles of Ecuador. There is such a passion here to protect the rare and endangered birds. I’m grateful to share bird language in Spanish because it connects local families to their natural world without the challenge of identifying the 1638 species of birds that live here! We can just listen and learn.

I grew up with a marine biologist father. So I was always at home poking about in the tide pools, walking in the woods, and ...

​With the closing of 2018 also comes the end of another Avian Disease Prevention Program season in the South Bay! This year we collected and removed 10 dead birds of 5 species (American White Pelican, California Gull, Double-crested Cormorant, Mallard, and Canada Goose), 17 dead striped bass, and 1 unknown fish species. In addition, we captured 10 sick or injured birds with 8 California Gulls, 1 Herring Gull, and 1 Mallard. All live birds were taken to the ...

Each Saturday morning Raptor Migration programs began with introductions in front of the 158-year-old historic ranchero house at Bernal-Gulnac-Joice Ranch. Avid bird watchers would arrive early and were easily identified with binoculars around their necks. The new additions to raptor observation in the field were still waking up at 9:50 AM on sleepy Saturday mornings as they carefully parked their vehicles in the car lot. Visitors would be greeted by a friendly easy going smile from San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory staff/volunteer Eric Lynch. ​Darting between Eric and the visitors wold be myself ...

Cada sábado en la mañana los programas Raptor Migration empezaron con presentaciones en frente de la casa histórica Bernal-Gulnac-Joice Ranch, en el estilo ranchero que tiene 158 años. Observadores ávidos de aves llegarían temprano y los identificamos de sus binoculares colgados en sus cuellos. Los nuevos observadores de aves de rapaz acaban despertarse, son las 9:50 AM de la mañana. Eric Lynch el personal/voluntario de San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory, saludó a los visitantes con una sonrisa sin preocupación. Me lanzaba entre ​y los visitantes para completar ...

​Growing up, my brothers and I knew better than to expect lots of gifts at Christmas time. Nuts and oranges in our stockings, topped with a peppermint stick; new shoes; and one or two special gifts were about it, except for the handful of small packages that came in the mail from relatives. As little kids, we played with blocks, a doll or two, and Lincoln logs; as we got older, we rode bikes or skated.

Contrast that with today's closets full of toys. With the gift-giving holidays approaching, how does a distant relative know what to ...

I first came to SFBBO in the Fall of 2014 to work as a Salt Pond Intern. I was familiar with waterbirds, but as a recent New England transplant, my only experience had been with east coast species. To say that I had a lot to learn those first couple months would have been an understatement, and not only that but I needed to learn fast as the winter migration of shorebirds & waterfowl would soon be in full swing. But after my first salt pond survey not only was I hooked ... ​​I was obsessed! I loved familiarizing myself with the diversity of the pond habitats and their corresponding waterbird niches. As my internship was ending, an opportunity arose for me to join the ...

​Thanks to the hard work of our staff and volunteers, our 2018 California Fall Challenge was a huge success and we surpassed our goal to raise $30,000 for our avian science and outreach programs! Congratulations to Cookie Segelstein for winning the People’s Choice Award in our Click Off bird photo contest with her photo “Cormorant and ...

​With Thanksgiving almost upon us, how could we NOT read about turkeys?
 
"You have to see that PBS show about the turkey guy!" my brother insisted. And he was right. Naturalist Joe Hutto's documentary When I was a Turkey about raising wild turkeys from rescued eggs to adulthood is a moving story. So I was delighted when it came out as a DVD and then as a book for middle-grade readers, complete with Hutto's drawings and photographs. From a plowed field, thirty rescued eggs ​hatched into tiny poults that ... 

Julie Ho is an exhibit and graphic designer at NUMU (New Museum of Los Gatos) and designed the artwork for this year's California Fall Challenge T-Shirt. Below she shares the steps she took to create this year's design and gives a little preview of the kinds of things she may be sharing during her "Sketching and Beer: Capturing Nature With Art" CFC workshop on Oct. 6th!

The Sketch: This year's t-shirt design is a marsh theme featuring a ​salt marsh harvest mouse (Reithrodontomys raviventris) and a ...