Golden Gate Audubon Archive

GGAS joins lawsuit to protect swallows May 20, 2013

Posted by Ilana DeBare in Conservation, Golden Gate Audubon Protestor at bridge site / Photo courtesy of Native Songbird Care & Conservation
By Ilana DeBare

Last month we wrote about the Caltrans netting on a Petaluma bridge construction site that was trapping and killing dozens of Cliff Swallows.

Many Golden Gate Audubon members — as well as other conservation groups — wrote to Caltrans asking it  to adopt less lethal methods of keeping birds from nesting on the bridge during construction. But Caltrans hasn’t list…

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One year of plover habitat help May 13, 2013

Posted by GGAS in Birding, Conservation, Golden Gate Audubon Western Snowy Plover with leg bands for scientific research / Photo by Matthew Zlatunich

By Corny Foster

If you are walking the north end of Crissy Field beach in the Presidio, you can easily mistake a Western Snowy Plover for one more ripple of sand. Camouflage helps the plovers evade predators. It is also the reason that few people know the birds are there until they almost step on them!

Luckily, there are some people who are highly aware of the plovers – Golden Gate Audubon and National Park Se…

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Beach Chalet goes to the Coastal Commission May 1, 2013

Posted by Ilana DeBare in Conservation, Golden Gate Audubon Dark-eyed Junco, one of 70 bird species that rely on Beach Chalet as habitat / Photo by Bob Lewis

 By Ilana DeBare

For the past two years, we’ve been fighting plans by the city of San Francisco to create artificial-turf soccer fields with stadium-style lighting in western Golden Gate Park, an area that was intended in city plans to remain more natural and less developed.

We lost a round in this battle last summer before the city’s planning and parks commissions.

But next week, the issue …

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Birdathon sails south (to Elkhorn Slough) April 21, 2013

Posted by Bob Lewis in Birding, Golden Gate Audubon Th ever-popular sea otters / Photo by Bob Lewis

By Bob Lewis

Eleven friends of Golden Gate Audubon did a Birdathon trip near Monterey on April 15 aboard the Elkhorn Slough Safari boat, finding about 43 species in two hours, and photographing many.  Although the weather report promised high winds and cold temperatures, the elements held off and the morning was pleasant.  Captain Yohn is expert at maneuvering close to animals without spooking them, …

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Midway through Birdathon madness April 14, 2013

Posted by Ilana DeBare in Birding, Golden Gate Audubon Cinnamon Teal at Coyote Hills, Fremont / Photo by Jerry Ting

By Ilana DeBare

If this blog has been a little quiet for the past couple of weeks, it’s because we’ve been spending a lot of time on the (annoying, frustrating, necessary) administrative details of our annual Birdathon, which runs throughout the month of April.

But here’s the payoff for all that administrative scutwork — time in the field for Birdathon participants!

Jerry Tin…

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A bird-friendly bioswale in Richmond (someday) March 31, 2013

Posted by GGAS in Golden Gate Audubon, Nature Education Rich Walkling with Bay View fourth graders

By Ilana DeBare

Fifteen wiggly fourth graders crowded into a narrow asphalt strip between their North Richmond schoolyard and the fence bordering Rheem Creek. “You are standing in what may be your future rain garden!” declared landscape architect Bob Birkeland, a volunteer with Golden Gate Audubon’s Eco-Education program.

That didn’t seem to mean much to the kids, who wer

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Birding, Miwok-style February 25, 2013

Posted by GGAS in Birding, Golden Gate Audubon miwoks2

By Ivan Samuels

When was the last time you went birding without binoculars?  Most birders would consider this a bad idea for obvious reasons.  But with experience, you would be surprised how many species you can identify without optics.  Birding by ear, by definition, implies that you don’t even need to see the bird for species recognition.  And in many cases, you already know the species you are wa…

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