This young western bluebird — a “helper” — has been feeding wiggling meals to his baby siblings. Photo: Elaine Miller Bond Last year, Rusty Scalf, teacher and trip leader for the Audubon Society, introduced me to a family of western bluebirds living and nesting in Berkeley’s San Pablo Park. This year, Scalf called me back. […]
Elaine Miller Bond
Elaine Miller Bond is an author and photographer whose work celebrates the natural world. She is the author/photographer of Running Wild and Living Wild, lively children’s board books from Heyday Books in Berkeley. She is also the photographer of The Utah Prairie Dog, a scientific book by Theodore Manno. Her writing and photography have appeared on the Discovery Channel and in Science, BBC Earth News, NPR online, and her favorite local news site, Berkeleyside. One of her recent Berkeleyside photo-essays, about monarch butterflies, went “viral” and was shared 21,000 times on Facebook. Another photo-essay, Sweetness & Light: Diary of a Hummingbird’s Nest, has been adapted into a children’s book, forthcoming from Heyday Books. See her website.
Posted inNature
Lynxes of the bird world: Cooper’s hawks nest in Berkeley
Cooper’s hawks are woodland hawks, about the size of a crow. They are often mistaken for their smaller dove-sized cousins, sharp-shinned hawks. Location: Nimitz Way, Wildcat Canyon Regional Park. Photo: Elaine Miller Bond They’re secretive, stealthy and quick. Allen Fish, director of the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory, calls them “feisty.” Cooper’s hawks, he says, are “the […]
Posted inNature
The mystery and thrill: Shorebirds enjoy winter in Berkeley
Location: Rocky shoreline, Berkeley/Emeryville border. Photo: Elaine Miller Bond A wide variety of shorebirds winter in the San Francisco Bay waters, and in Berkeley in particular. A few, like the whimbrel (a type of curlew), migrate from as far away as the Arctic. Elaine Miller Bond, whose work on local wildlife we have been delighted […]
Posted inNature
Rare bluebird sightings bring happiness in a Berkeley park
Rarely spotted in cities, western bluebirds require cavities in which to nest and large, irrigated lawns, like athletic fields, which teem with worms and insects. Photo: Elaine Miller Bond Birds are singing. Children are laughing and playing in patches of sunlight. And I am strolling through large fields of grass here at Berkeley’s San Pablo […]
