Wingbeat Blog

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 …

​I joined the SFBBO Habitats program as a seasonal (part-time) ecologist in the summer of 2016. At the time, I only had a vague understanding of the tidal marsh wetland-upland transitions the program works to restore. This was partly because most San Francisco Bay area residents overlook the Bay: the hills surrounding the bay are charismatic and relatively unblemished, while the margin of the bay often butts up against major freeways and sometimes smells funny. However, the Habitats Program soon taught me to appreciate this often overlooked resource. The boat trips we took to our different restoration sites …

​It’s hard to believe that the Avian Disease Prevention Program season is half over! From June through November, we patrol Artesian and Guadalupe Sloughs by boat for the cities of San Jose and Sunnyvale who are required to monitor for avian botulism in order to release treated fresh water from their facilities. During these weekly boat surveys, I am joined by one or two volunteers, who help me by scooping up all the dead vertebrates and sick or injured birds we come across.

We began monitoring the South Bay sloughs for avian botulism in 1982. Since then, there have been six large die-offs of waterbirds and …

​Last month, I lead a very enjoyable walk for SFBBO at Ulistac Natural Area in Santa Clara on Bird Language. As I looked around the circle of twenty students that day, I made an observation I often make on bird walks: we’re all over 50 old! Well, not quite. I noticed a few seeds of change: three parents had brought their teens.  

“Is this going to be another boring walk just naming the birds we see?” muttered one teen before returning back to her cell phone. ​