birding Archive
Posted by Ilana DeBare in
Birding, International Birding. Tags: birding, British birding, David Lindo, Golden Gate Audubon Society, Outdoor Afro, The Urban Birder, urban birding.
By Ilana DeBare
As residents of San Francisco and the East Bay, we in Golden Gate Audubon are all pretty much urban birders.
But David Lindo is The Urban Birder.
A native of London, Lindo has built a career around extolling the wonder of birding in cities. He’s done books, TV shows, tours and writes a blog called (of course) The Urban Birder.
“I’m all about trying to engage people who haven’t declared an interest in birds,” he said during his firs…
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Posted by GGAS in
Birding, Golden Gate Audubon. Tags: Birdathon, birding, birding by ear, birding without optics, Bolinas, Miwok-style birding.
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 watching as you begin to raise your binoculars.
In …
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Posted by GGAS in
Birding, Birding Hotspots. Tags: birding, Central Valley birding, Colusa National Wildlife Refuge, Cosumnes River Preserve, Gray Lodge, Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, Snow Goose, Willows Cemetery.
Editor’s note: We are nearing the end of peak winter birding season in the Central Valley. If you haven’t been there, now is the time! Golden Gate Audubon board member David Anderson offers some tips and routes.
By David Anderson
The sky filled suddenly with a blizzard of snow geese, lifting in waves near and far — ten thousand or more. A thousand undulated in the distance, winging high; a few thousand rose then settled back close by; s…
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Posted by Phila Rogers in
Birding, Birding Hotspots. Tags: Bay Area birds, Berkeley wildlife, birding, Birding hotspots, East Bay Birding, U.C. Berkeley, U.C. Botanical Garden.
This is the third in a series of occasional reviews of Bay Area birding locations. Do you have a favorite site you’d like to share? Email idebare@goldengateaudubon.org.
By Chris Carmichael and Phila Rogers
Strawberry Canyon has it all – a vigorous year-round stream, lush riparian vegetation that follows the stream, and surrounding hillsides with native coastal chaparral and open grasslands.
The U.C. Botanical Garden, located on 36 ac…
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Posted by Ilana DeBare in
Birding, Golden Gate Audubon. Tags: Bay Area birds, birding, Christmas Bird Count, Golden Gate Audubon Society, San Francisco birding, San Francisco Christmas Bird Count.
By Ilana DeBare
What a glorious day for a count! It started out cool and windy, especially for the teams by the ocean, but by midday the sun was strong and hats came off.
And best of all… we set a new record for the San Francisco Christmas Bird Count.
Eighteen teams counted a preliminary total of 179 species – breaking the prior SF CBC record of 177 species and surpassing this year’s Oakland CBC total of 177. (Not that San Franciscans are co…
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Posted by Ilana DeBare in
Birding, Golden Gate Audubon. Tags: Bay Area birds, birding, Black-and-white Warbler, CBC, Christmas Bird Count, Golden Gate Audubon Society, Great Horned Owl, Oakland birds, Oakland Christmas Bird Count, Ross's Goose.
Sunday December 16th was Golden Gate Audubon’s 72nd annual Christmas Bird Count in Oakland. About 200 volunteers fanned out in a 15-mile circle, from the Oakland Airport in the south to Point Isabel in the north, and from Lafayette Reservoir in the east to Treasure Island in the West. Here is the initial report by Dave Quady, who organized the count with Bob Lewis. They will have a final report in several weeks.
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Posted by Ilana DeBare in
Birding. Tags: bird watching gifts, birding, birdwatching, Environment for the Americas, gifts, gifts for birders, holiday gifts, National Audubon Society, National Wildlife Federation, nature gifts, Pearl Reef Designs.
By Ilana DeBare
Hard as it may be for some of us to imagine, the Audubon Christmas Bird Count isn’t the only big event in December. There’s that little holiday called, um, Christmas. Plus Chanukah, and Kwanzaa, and solstice… lots of reasons to celebrate and buy gifts for loved ones.
Need help finding gifts for the birders in your life? Here are some ideas for cool presents for adults and kids, home and field, in various price ranges.
(N…
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