Whew. The fundraising is over, the birding is over, the judging is over, and now even the celebrating is over.

And get this — together we raised more than $47,000 in Birdathon 2013!

This is by far the most we’ve ever raised in four years of Birdathons. In addition, our expenses this year were much less than in the past, in part because Alan Harper and Carol Baird donated their beautiful home as the site for the Birdathon Awards Dinner last Sunday afternoon. (Click here to see a full set of photos of the event.)

These results are a testament to the love and commitment that you, GGAS members and friends, feel for this organization and for the Bay Area birds and habitat that are at the center of our mission.

This has been a tough year financially for GGAS. And you all came through more than ever. Twenty volunteer field trip leaders led Birdathon trips ranging from the Richmond shoreline to Pinnacles National Park. Over 70 people went on those trips or on self-guided ones, raising money from friends and family —  that’s an average of nearly $700 raised for every Birdathon participant!

Birdathon 2013 Awards Dinner in the Oakland Hills / Photo by Peter Maiden

More than 450 individuals donated to GGAS during Birdathon — plus we had generous corporate sponsors at Farella Braun & Martel, Dolphin Charters, SCS Global Services Inc., Waste Solutions Inc., Animal Farm Pet Supplies, EMS Solutions Inc., LSA Associates and Recology.

Perhaps our favorite part was those GGAS members who had never done any fundraising before… but went out and raised $100, $300, even $1000! You know who you are. Feel proud.

But enough on the money stuff. We know what you really want to hear about — the winners. Here are the awards that we announced on Sunday:

Elsie Roemer Conservation Award – Dan Murphy (Note: We will be holding a reception in San Francisco to honor Dan’s long history of leadership with GGAS later this summer. Stay tuned for details.)

Paul Covel Conservation Education Award – Dave Quady

Most species on a field trip of six hours or less:

• First place – Glen Tepke and the Oakland Ouzels (105 species)
• Second place – Chris & Gary Bard and the Alameda Avocets (91)
• Third place – Angie Geiger and the Lake Merced team (57)

Pat Bacchetti accepts a Birdathon award for Glen Tepke and the Oakland Ouzels / Photo by Peter Maiden

Applauding the award winners / Photo by Peter Maiden

Most species on a field trip of more than six hours:

• First place – Dan & Joan Murphy and Murphy’s MOB (106 species)
• Second place – Michelle Labbe, Jeremy Andersen and the Birding by Bike team (88)
• Third place – Steve & Carol Lombardi, Rich Cimino and the Mines Road team (81)

Best Bird 2013 — Rusty Scalf for the California Condor (Pinnacles National Park field trip)

Dave Quady presents Rusty Scalf with the Best Bird award / Photo by Peter Maiden

Birdathon Hero 2013 – Ivan Samuels, for Miwok-style birding and fundraising prowess

Individual Fundraising:

• First place – Bob Lewis (raised more than $2000)
• Second place – Chris & Gary Bard (raised more than $1400)
• Third place – Glen Tepke (raised more than $1200)

Team Fundraising:

• First place – Tilden Park team, led by Bob Lewis
• Second place – Elkhorn Slough team, led by Bob Lewis

• Della Dash
• Pamela Llewellyn
• Bob Toleno & Juli Chamberlin

Definitely a day for sun hats / Photo by Peter Maiden

Fari Ansari plates the desserts baked by GGAS volunteers / Photo by Peter Maiden

Our warmest thanks to everyone who helped make Birdathon such a success — from our inspirational Birdathon Coordinator Della Dash and the volunteers who helped people sign up online, to the folks who helped out with the Birdathon dinner. Peter Maiden of Maidenfoto in Palo Alto donated his services to give us these great event photos; a team of GGAS volunteers baked all the desserts. (Which were so good you probably thought they were made by a professional bakery!)

And now, amazingly enough, we want to start thinking about Birdathon 2014.

We’ve posted an online survey seeking feedback on Birdathon 2013 — what worked and what didn’t. If you took part in any aspect of Birdathon this year, please take five minutes to click here and fill it out! Or if you considered participating but chose not to, please fill it out too – we want to know what we could do differently to get you involved in the future.

Finally, this summer we’ll be convening a volunteer committee to start planning for Birdathon 2014. If you’d like to be part of it, email Ilana at idebare@goldengateaudubon.org.

Denise Wight enjoys the amazing nest photos of Sharon Beals at the Birdathon dinner / Photo by Peter Maiden

GGAS Executive Director Mike Lynes thanks Della Dash and Ilana DeBare for their work on Birdathon / Photo by Peter Maiden

Of course there was birding! / Photo by Peter Maiden

Hosts Carol Baird and Alan Harper with board president Carey Knecht / Photo by Peter Maiden

Each year, a colony of endangered California Least Terns returns to nest on the tarmac of the old Alameda naval air base. The areas is off limits to the public except for one day — Return of the Terns, when you can take a biologist-led bus tour around the edges of the breeding area. This year it’s on Saturday June 15. See terns sheltering and feeding their chicks, and learn about the challenges these tiny birds face!

Register in advance, because spaces on the three bus tours will fill up quickly. Click here for the flyer with full information.

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 listened, and insists that the problem is “solved” even while birds continue to be trapped.

So on Friday, GGAS joined a lawsuit against Caltrans filed by Native Songbird Care & Conservation, the Center for Biological Diversity and several other groups (including Marin and Madrone Audubon).

A lawsuit is a blunt, costly instrument. But sometimes it’s necessary when government officials refuse to listen to the public and take reasonable steps to protect wildlife and comply with environmental laws. This is one of those cases.

The press release about the lawsuit is below. Thanks to all of you who sent letters to Caltrans! (Even if Caltrans didn’t listen.) If you’d like to support us in this next step, we are accepting donations to help cover our legal costs in this suit. Click here to donate, and in the comment box on the donation page, write “Petaluma swallows.”

Swallows trapped in Caltrans netting / Photo courtesy of Native Songbird Care & Conservation

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Lawsuit Against Highway Agencies Targets Deaths of Migratory Swallows

Deadly Netting in Petaluma Has Killed, Injured More than 100 Swallows

SAN FRANCISCO – Conservation and animal protection groups filed a lawsuit Friday against the California Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration for causing and allowing the deaths of migratory cliff swallows nesting under bridges at a highway widening project in Petaluma, Calif. The agencies refuse to remove deadly netting installed at bridge overpasses as part of a Caltrans highway widening project along Highway 101 in the Marin-Sonoma Narrows. The netting has killed and injured more than 100 swallows in a one-month period.

“Incompetence and indifference by Caltrans is killing swallows that have just travelled 6,000 miles to return to a traditional nesting site, which the agency should have known about,” said Jeff Miller, a conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity. “Caltrans continues to say the problem is fixed, but the netting is ineffective and deadly. There are better ways to discourage birds from nesting at a construction site.”

The entrapment and killing of swallows violates the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and National Environmental Policy Act. The Animal Legal Defense Fund filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity, Golden Gate Audubon Society, Madrone Audubon Society, Marin Audubon Society and Native Songbird Care and Conservation. The Washington, D.C. law firm Meyer, Glitzenstein & Crystal is assisting in the lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in the Northern District of California.

“Cliff swallows are protected by a nearly century-old federal law, and the Animal Legal Defense Fund is outraged by this cruelty to animals in our own backyard,” said Stephen Wells, executive director of the Cotati-based Animal Legal Defense Fund. “These agencies must find ways to build roads without resorting to deadly netting.”

“The netting is the wrong material in the wrong environment,” said Veronica Bowers, director of Native Songbird Care and Conservation. “Caltrans’ neglect has caused the senseless death of scores of swallows. Their refusal to remove the netting is shameful.”

“The point of an environmental review process under the National Environmental Policy Act is to identify potential impacts of a project, so how did Caltrans and federal agencies fail to identify the bridge locations as significant cliff swallow nesting sites and why did they install inadequate exclusion measures,” asked Susan Kirks, President of Madrone Audubon Society. “Caltrans blundering forward with attempted repairs and construction is encroaching on established swallow nests during their brief nesting season.”

Background

Every spring the highly social, wide-roaming cliff swallows travel thousands of miles from South America to return to their nesting sites in the Petaluma area. These swallows nest on bridges and other human infrastructure as well as rocky cliffs and foothills.

A contractor for Caltrans installed exclusionary netting in February, and the agencies knew by late March that the netting was trapping, maiming and killing swallows returning to nest. Although exclusion of nesting birds is permitted by regulatory agencies and is often standard procedure for such construction projects, the netting is ineffective at this location, was sloppily installed and is loosened by high winds. The netting has not prevented swallows from attempting to nest on the bridges. Under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act it is “unlawful at any time, by any means or in any manner” to capture or kill any migratory bird.

A coalition of more than two-dozen conservation and community organizations around California have joined together to take on fiscally irresponsible and environmentally damaging highway-widening projects throughout the state by Caltrans. The coalition cites wasteful spending, institutionalized disregard of environmental regulations designed to protect natural resources, and a pattern of refusal to address local community concerns. Groups in the Caltrans Watch coalition have filed litigation challenging the controversial $210 million Willits Bypass project along Highway 101 in Mendocino County, the $10 million project to widen and realign Highway 101 through ancient redwood trees in Richardson Grove State Park in Humboldt County, the $19 million Highway 197/199 widening projects in Del Norte County along the “wild and scenic” Smith River to accommodate oversized commercial trucks, and the $76 million Niles Canyon highway-widening project in Alameda County.

Together with Native Songbird Care and Conservation, the Center for Biological Diversity and other conservation groups, GGAS filed suit on May 17 against the California Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration over the deadly netting.

Wildlife advocates had repeatedly been asking CalTrans and its construction contractor to remove the netting and replace it with less lethal alternatives, to no avail.

“These swallows migrate 6,000 miles each year, only to return to their nesting sites here in Northern California and face a  brutal death in the CalTrans nets,” said GGAS Executive Director Mike Lynes. “The worst part is that these deaths are completely unnecessary. There are other, non-lethal ways to keep birds from nesting on bridges at construction sites.”

GGAS first wrote about the deadly swallow netting in our blog on April 17th, encouraging members to write or call CalTrans. Since then, the swallow death toll has risen from the dozens to over 100.

Following is the press release about the lawsuit:

Lawsuit Against Highway Agencies Targets Deaths of Migratory Swallows

Deadly Netting in Petaluma Has Killed, Injured More than 100 Swallows

SAN FRANCISCO – Conservation and animal protection groups filed a lawsuit Friday against the California Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration for causing and allowing the deaths of migratory cliff swallows nesting under bridges at a highway widening project in Petaluma, Calif. The agencies refuse to remove deadly netting installed at bridge overpasses as part of a Caltrans highway widening project along Highway 101 in the Marin-Sonoma Narrows. The netting has killed and injured more than 100 swallows in a one-month period.

“Incompetence and indifference by Caltrans is killing swallows that have just travelled 6,000 miles to return to a traditional nesting site, which the agency should have known about,” said Jeff Miller, a conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity. “Caltrans continues to say the problem is fixed, but the netting is ineffective and deadly. There are better ways to discourage birds from nesting at a construction site.”

Swallows in netting / Photo by Scott Manchester, Santa Rosa Press Democrat

The entrapment and killing of swallows violates the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and National Environmental Policy Act. The Animal Legal Defense Fund filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity, Golden Gate Audubon Society, Madrone Audubon Society, Marin Audubon Society and Native Songbird Care and Conservation. The Washington, D.C. law firm Meyer, Glitzenstein & Crystal is assisting in the lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in the Northern District of California.

“Cliff swallows are protected by a nearly century-old federal law, and the Animal Legal Defense Fund is outraged by this cruelty to animals in our own backyard,” said Stephen Wells, executive director of the Cotati-based Animal Legal Defense Fund. “These agencies must find ways to build roads without resorting to deadly netting.”

“The netting is the wrong material in the wrong environment,” said Veronica Bowers, director of Native Songbird Care and Conservation. “Caltrans’ neglect has caused the senseless death of scores of swallows. Their refusal to remove the netting is shameful.”

“The point of an environmental review process under the National Environmental Policy Act is to identify potential impacts of a project, so how did Caltrans and federal agencies fail to identify the bridge locations as significant cliff swallow nesting sites and why did they install inadequate exclusion measures,” asked Susan Kirks, President of Madrone Audubon Society. “Caltrans blundering forward with attempted repairs and construction is encroaching on established swallow nests during their brief nesting season.”

Background

Every spring the highly social, wide-roaming cliff swallows travel thousands of miles from South America to return to their nesting sites in the Petaluma area. These swallows nest on bridges and other human infrastructure as well as rocky cliffs and foothills. A contractor for Caltrans installed exclusionary netting in February, and the agencies knew by late March that the netting was trapping, maiming and killing swallows returning to nest. Although exclusion of nesting birds is permitted by regulatory agencies and is often standard procedure for such construction projects, the netting is ineffective at this location, was sloppily installed and is loosened by high winds. The netting has not prevented swallows from attempting to nest on the bridges. Under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act it is “unlawful at any time, by any means or in any manner” to capture or kill any migratory bird.

A coalition of more than two-dozen conservation and community organizations around California have joined together to take on fiscally irresponsible and environmentally damaging highway-widening projects throughout the state by Caltrans. The coalition cites wasteful spending, institutionalized disregard of environmental regulations designed to protect natural resources, and a pattern of refusal to address local community concerns. Groups in the Caltrans Watch coalition have filed litigation challenging the controversial $210 million Willits Bypass project along Highway 101 in Mendocino County, the $10 million project to widen and realign Highway 101 through ancient redwood trees in Richardson Grove State Park in Humboldt County, the $19 million Highway 197/199 widening projects in Del Norte County along the “wild and scenic” Smith River to accommodate oversized commercial trucks, and the $76 million Niles Canyon highway-widening project in Alameda County.

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Help us stand up for the Petaluma swallows! We welcome contributions of any level to help cover the legal costs. Even $5 can help. To donate, click here. In the comment box on the donation form, write “Petaluma swallows.”

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 Service volunteers who spend one morning each month grooming the Crissy Field beach to maintain suitable habitat for the birds.

We recently reached the one-year anniversary of the Crissy Field volunteer program. Over the past year, volunteers put in 105 hours removing invasive weeds and collecting 36 buckets of trash – all aimed at ensuring a hospitable home for the sparrow-sized plovers.

The Western Snowy Plover — the Pacific Coast sub-species of the Snowy Plover — inhabits coastal areas from Washington State to Baja California. There are well-publicized programs to protect the plovers’ nesting beaches, such as those at Point Reyes and the Monterey Peninsula.

But the Bay Area’s wide sandy beaches are also important to the plovers as an overwintering site, where between July and May they build up energy reserves for migration and breeding.

Western Snowy Plovers resting in the dunes at Crissy Field / Photo by Matthew Zlatunich

The first person to identify these small birds was Lt. William P. Trowbridge, who supervised the construction of the San Francisco Tide Gauge near the Golden Gate in 1854. Trowbridge was a West Point graduate and an accomplished naturalist who collected biological specimens and sent them east to be examined and included in museum collections.

Of the many species he collected, some proved to be new to the body of scientific knowledge.  One such species was the Snowy Plover (Charadrius nivosus), which Trowbridge collected on May 8, 1854 from the shoreline dunes of the Presidio.

Habitat loss and degradation due to development, beach recreation, and non-native vegetation have contributed to a decline in the Western Snowy Plover population, which in March 1993 was listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act.  Up to 100 of the estimated 2,300 birds remaining on the Pacific Coast overwinter in San Francisco on Ocean and Crissy Field beaches in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA).

Do you see the Snowy Plover in the foreground of the tide gauge station? Photo by Matthew Zlatunich

At GGNRA, use of these popular beaches by patrol vehicles, equestrians, dogs, joggers, and kite flyers can disturb the plovers, cause them to expend excessive energy fleeing, and make them more visible to avian predators. Despite the high levels of disturbance, Snowy Plovers return to the GGNRA every year, possibly because the beaches provide high quality prey or offer some of the only suitable habitat left in the region.  The GGNRA has established Protection Areas on both beaches, which require walking and other recreation to take place on the wet sand, and for dogs to be leashed.

Native vegetation anchoring the Crissy Field dunes / Photo by Matthew Zlatunich

Since March 2012, a small group of Audubon and park volunteers spend the second Monday of every month grooming the Crissy Field Wildlife Protection Area (WPA), removing trash and non-native vegetation such as sea rocket.  (And, of course, birding!)

For better or worse, the trash at Crissy WPA reflects many of the lives of Bay Area residents.  Cherished plastic Batman rings and GI Joes are lost in the sand and find their way to the volunteers’ buckets.  The plastic refuse of our modern civilization washes off the streets of San Francisco and into the volunteers’ buckets – pens, bottle caps, packing materials and candy wrappers. Plastic shotgun shells come down from the Delta after a day of duck hunting. It’s particularly important to collect fishing line and string of any sort that might tangle in the snowies’ legs and cause injury.

Since the volunteers have regularly been cleaning the beach, the average size of the plastic has dropped but new items constantly wash in. Native vegetation has expanded since it faces less competition from invasive species.

Crissy Field volunteers grooming the beach / Photo by Corny Foster

Under the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge, the Crissy WPA is becoming a wonderful example of a natural beach on San Francisco Bay.  It hosts many native plants including sand verbena, beach evening primrose, beach bur, beach saltbush, coastal sagewort, beach morning glory, American beach grass and the endangered dune gilia.

And enjoying the beach as the seasons change are Snowy Plovers, Killdeer, Long-billed Curlews, Whimbrels, Willets, Least Sandpipers, Sanderlings, Western Gulls, Elegant Terns, Common Ravens and American Crows… well, you probably know the usual suspects for Bay Area beaches.  Occasionally something unusual goes by, like five Brant Geese and a Pomarine Jaeger!

The volunteers work from 10:00 a.m .to noon every second Monday of the month, meeting in front of the Warming Hut in the Presidio — rain or shine, snowies in residence or not.

If you love birds and love (or at least tolerate) picking up small pieces of plastic, please join the group. (The next work days will be on Monday June 10th and July 8th.)

And the next time you see a bit of Crissy Beach sand unexpectedly move, stop and watch a Snowy Plover foraging in the high tide wrack line.

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Corny Foster is a retired banker who spends much of her time volunteering with the GGNRA in the Presidio and Alcatraz, working with birds, native habitat restoration and historic garden preservation.  She leads the Monday work groups at Crissy WPA.

It’s been one full year since we started this Golden Gate Birder blog!

In that time, our busy and talented members have written posts about grebe courtship at Clear Lake; Bald Eagle nest monitoring at Lake Chabot; falcon nesting drama in downtown San Francisco; birding in the style of a native Miwok tribes person; the difference between “birders” and “birdwatchers”; and many more.

One of our first posts was on the spread of nesting bluebirds in Berkeley, thanks in part to the nest boxes installed and monitored by GGAS field trip leader and birding class instructor Rusty Scalf.

Since we have now come a full cycle and it is spring again, let’s celebrate a year of birds and a year of this blog with some new photos of bluebirds in Berkeley. These shots of a pair of Western Bluebirds at their nest box on San Pablo Avenue were taken by Allen Hirsch. You can see his entire album of Berkeley bluebird photos at http://allenh.zenfolio.com/p818641381.

Meanwhile, do you have birds nesting in your yard or neighborhood? Which ones are they? 

Western Bluebird by Allen Hirsch

Male and female Western Bluebirds by Allen Hirsch

Female Western Bluebird brings caterpillar to nest box / Photo by Allen Hirsch

Female bringing caterpillar to male on nest / Photo by Allen Hirsch

Caterpillar exchange! Photo by Allen Hirsch

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Last call to sign up for our Birdathon dinner! Join us on Sunday May 19th for an afternoon of good food, boutique wines and great birding stories, all in a beautiful private location in the Oakland Hills with birding opportunities before, during and after the event. Deadline for sign-up is Wednesday May 8th — click here to sign up or email Ilana at idebare@goldengateaudubon.org.

We also need volunteers to help by baking cookies or other desserts, and to help set up on the day of the event! If you can help, please email Ilana. 

The following is an excerpt of an interview with Sharon Beals by Chuck Hagner, from BirdWatchingDaily.com.

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BirdWatching: Where did the idea for the book come from? 

Beals: The idea evolved over a 10-year trajectory that began after reading Scott Weidensaul’s amazing book Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere with Migratory Birds. Besides explaining how birds manage to find their way — navigating by stars, magnetic fields, polarized light, or even what might be some inherited instinct — he also talks about what they encounter along the way, and at either end of these journeys.

Pine Siskin nest / Photo by Sharon Beals

And as most of your readers may already know, migratory hazards and habitat loss are affecting so many birds around the world. I had already been interested in native plants and habitat restoration, but this book was the inspiration to learn as much as I could about what birds need to survive and about what I do in my own life that affects the welfare of birds, even at a distance.

BirdWatching: What made you ask, in 2007, to see the collection of nests and eggs at the California Academy of Sciences?

Beals: I wanted to share what I was learning, and to reach a larger audience than the already-converted choir of birders and native-plant aficionados. How to do that with my skill and artistry eluded me. It was only after photo-ing some of a friend’s innocently but, as it turned out, illegally collected nests (now either returned to the wild or donated to the Academy for use in nature education) that I felt that I had found a subject matter that would engage a wider public and, hopefully, engender their interest in birds.

California Towhee nest / Photo by Sharon Beals

BirdWatching: Are nests more of scientific or artistic interest to you?

Beals: I would say that the nests first spoke to me artistically, since sticks and twigs are in my preferred color palate, but I think that attraction has an element of science in it. I don’t think that, for some of us artists (and hopefully viewers), we can make that separation. Maybe it is because the nests are all about science, with remnants of a bird’s habitat and their methods of construction, that we see them as an art form. I hope this isn’t too confusing.

House Finch nest / Photo by Sharon Beals

BirdWatching: I was struck by the string, paper, ribbon, plastic, and other detritus that birds (such as the House Finch) incorporated into their nests. What do nests that contain human detritus tell us about the birds that constructed them? And about us humans?

Beals: I think, in short, that the birds are expeditious when it comes to the task of house building. Even the Greater Roadrunner nest (page 55), built in 1908, has a little scrap of burlap, a suitable substitute for a snakeskin, one of the regular ingredients of their nests.

What a bonanza that sheep’s wool must have been for that Western Kingbird (page 109)! Or the yarn and pheasant feathers for the Common Rock Sparrow (page 43), even back in 1938. Some of their choices might be, like bowerbirds, as mate attracting, or as pure fancy. I also read that hummingbirds will use blue paint chips in place of lichen; maybe like blue eggs, this is a camouflage that mimics the color of sky.

What I think it says about us humans is that we might be removing the natural materials that some birds would normally use to build nests, and our detritus might be the only options that they have to finish off a nest.

Of course, many birds, like the House Finch (page 67), have only benefited by our alteration of habitats, thriving as we spread across the continent and famously using almost any object, from tin cans to cars, for a nest cavity and even nails as nest-building materials. While our leavings might be fanciful and useful nest ingredients for some birds, for others, pardon the obvious, they are serious hazards.

Swainson's Thrush nest / Photo by Sharon Beals

BirdWatching: Which nest in the book is your favorite? Why?

Beals: Ohhh, if this were an audio interview, you would hear a big sigh. It’s so hard to choose a favorite. I love the deep woven cup of the Swainson’s Thrush (page 99), because it is the nest of one of my favorite birds, whose song I know from my childhood — but also because I felt like I was touching history. When I read the collection tag, I learned that this particular nest was collected by Joseph Grinnell, the scientist whose collections and field-research archives were the foundation of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology.

Bank Swallow nest / Photo by Sharon Beals

I love the little Verdin nest as well (page 105), because it is such a defiant little fortress. But my heart also is moved not just by the fragile beauty of the little collection of gull feathers of the Bank Swallow’s nest (page 25), but because I go and see them at Ocean Beach, San Francisco, every spring, when they return from their long migrations and start digging the tunnels to their new nest cavities. And I always return a few weeks later, when every tunnel entrance is filled with at least one, if not a few chicks, waiting for their parents to arrive with the next insect.

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Click here for details and registration for the Birdathon dinner, on Sunday afternoon May 19th in Oakland.  For more about Sharon Beals’ photography see her web site at http://www.sharonbeals.com/ 

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 goes before a different body — the California Coastal Commission.

And there are (fingers crossed!) some signs of hope.

The Coastal Commission staff report, which was released last Friday, concludes that the Beach Chalet soccer field project may conflict with the city’s Local Coastal Plan.

The “project will modify the Beach Chalet fields in a way that will alter its naturalistic character, including through the introduction of elements that would significantly change its spatial organization and setting (e.g. artificial turf, field lights, seating areas, fencing,  concrete paths, etc.),” the commission staff wrote.

The report recommends modifying the project along the lines suggested by GGAS and our allies —  improving the grass fields, rather than replacing them with artificial turf, and eliminating or reducing the proposed 60-foot-tall lighting towers.

The staff report noted that:

Such a project would be a significant improvement to the Beach Chalet fields area that would both enhance its pastoral naturalistic character and its utility for recreation consistent with the LCP [Local Coastal Plan].

So that’s good news! But the commission is by no means required to follow the recommendation of staff. And the same powerful interests that pushed the city for an artificial turf “solution” will also be trying to influence the Coastal Commission.

Together with our allies in S.F. Ocean’s Edge, we’re asking people to come to the hearing on May 9th, to support an alternative that would meet the needs of both recreation and wildlife.

Beach Chalet now, with natural grass fields

What Beach Chalet would look like with lights

If you can’t attend the hearing, you can send the commission a letter. But it would need to be a postal letter (no email!), and they would need to receive it by May 3rd. Click here for information on what to say and where to send a letter.

Email us at ggas@goldengateaudubon.orgif you can attend the hearing. If enough people are coming, we can try to arrange carpools. The hearing will be at the Marin Board of Supervisors chamber, 3501 Civic Center Drive in San Rafael. Although it starts at 8:30 am, Beach Chalet is item 15 on the agenda and may not come up until noon or later.

Want more information?

• Read our previous blog post on Why fight for Beach Chalet.
• Read our new Action Alert.
• Read the Coastal Commission staff report.
• Visit the web site for SF Ocean Edge, the group of Golden Gate Park neighbors who have been leading the fight against artificial turf at Beach Chalet.

Brian will be reading from Snapper between 5 and 6 pm next Sunday at a private home in Rockridge (Oakland). Golden Gate Audubon members and friends are warmly invited. Email Ilana at idebare@goldengateaudubon.org if you’d like to attend.

Meanwhile… check out Brian’s opinion piece on birding in this week’s Sunday New York Times! Or read about Snapper on Amazon.

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, and we got great looks at quite a few.

It was a grand time to see birds in their alternate (breeding) plumage, and we found all three cormorants – Brandt’s on nests with their bright blue gular pouches, Pelagic with bright red faces, and Double-crested sporting bright yellow pouches.

Brandt's Cormorants nesting / Photo by Bob Lewis

Pelagic Cormorant / Photo by Bob Lewis

Double-crested Cormorant / Photo by Bob Lewis

American White Pelicans flew by showing off their “nuptial knobs,” strange protuberances on their bill that are only present during breeding time.

White Pelicans with breeding "bump" on bill / Photo by Bob Lewis

The most interesting bird was a Red-throated Loon in alternate plumage.  It’s a plumage seldom seen south of the arctic nesting grounds, so exciting to find.  Some of the Common Loons were also in striking black and white breeding plumage, Eared Grebes showed off golden ear tufts, Black-bellied Plovers had black bellies, Greater Yellowlegs were strikingly speckled, and a Pigeon Guillemot showed off his bright red feet.

Red-throated Loon / Photo by Bob Lewis

Best mammal award was a tie between the always adorable Sea Otters and the Harbor Seals with their newborn pups.  Sea Lions will probably dispute the judging – they had a lot to say as we cruised by their overcrowded dock.

Newborn harbor seal and mother / Photo by Bob Lewis

Many thanks to all the participants and others who contributed to our Birdathon efforts.

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Even if you didn’t go on a Birdathon field trip, please join us at the Birdathon Awards Dinner on Sunday afternoon May 19th! There will be good food, good friends, boutique wines, and birding opportunities at a beautiful private hillside home next to Redwood Regional Park. Info and registration at http://www.goldengateaudubon.org/donate/birdathon-2013/birdathon-2013-dinner/.