Now is a great time to get outside and do some birdwatching along our shorelines. Here is what to look for and where.
Golden Gate Audubon Society
Posted inArts
Tilden Park exhibit marks Golden Gate Audubon’s centennial
The Berkeley-based Golden Gate Audubon Society is marking its 100th anniversary with a traveling exhibit on display at Tilden Park Environmental Education Center through the end of March.
Posted inNature
Berkeley teams help make Oakland Christmas Bird Count the biggest in the world
A brown pelican spotted during Golden Gate Audubon’s annual Christmas Bird Count. Photo: Alan Krakauer A brown pelican spotted during Golden Gate Audubon’s annual Christmas Bird Count. Photo: Alan Krakauer Emilie Strauss peered across Lake Anza and divided up the watery territory by species. “David is counting coots, Mark is doing mallards, who wants to […]
Posted inNature, Schools
Students think outside the box to build better birdhouses
Doris Chang drills holes in her nesting box during the embARC Summer Design Academy. Photo: Tracy Bugni By Kathleen Maclay Sawdust, the smell of success. As this year’s month long embARC Summer Design Academy at UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design neared its end, the fabrication lab filled with the buzzing of band saws and […]
Posted inNature
At 2014 Christmas Bird Count — no rain, much fun
Varied Thrush at Albany Hill. Photo: Alan Krakauer The Bay Area’s welcome rainstorms let up for 24 hours on Sunday Dec. 14… just long enough for more than 200 birders to have a fabulous Oakland Christmas Bird Count. Both novice and experienced birders fanned out over a 15-mile-wide circle including Oakland, Berkeley, Albany and neighboring […]
Posted inNature
Why Acorn Woodpeckers are appearing in Berkeley
Acorn Woodpecker at Sycamore Valley Open Space Preserve (Danville). Photo: Larry and Dena Hollowood By Bruce Mast They are the clowns of the oak savannah — Acorn Woodpeckers — with their harlequin faces, gregarious habits, and off-kilter laughing calls that inspired Woody Woodpecker. Here in the Bay Area, Acorn Woodpecker colonies are fairly common in […]
Posted inNature
Climate change spells trouble for Berkeley birds
Burrowing Owl: one of the local species that has been identified as being in climate trouble. Photo: Doug Donaldson Burrowing Owl: one of the local species that has been identified as being in climate trouble. Photo: Doug Donaldson Some of Berkeley’s most common and beloved birds could face extinction within the next 70 years due to climate change, […]
Posted inNature
Cardinals trounce Bears in first ever birding Big Game
Jack Gedney and Maureen Lahiff search for birds on the UC Berkeley campus during Sunday’s inaugural Cal vs Stanford Big Game birding competition. Photo: Peter Maiden Jack Gedney and Maureen Lahiff search for birds on the UC Berkeley campus during Sunday’s inaugural Cal vs Stanford Big Game birding competition. Photo: Peter Maiden Ten birding Bears! […]
Posted inNature
Counting crows: Why are there so many in Berkeley?
Crows staging in a tree after sunset, Alfred Hitchcock-style: their numbers have increased significantly in the Bay Area. Photo: Elaine Miller Bond “Why are there so many darn crows in Berkeley these days?” We get that question a lot at Berkeleyside, and Golden Gate Audubon gets it too. It’s not just Berkeley. Crows are on […]
Posted inNature
Berkeley squirrels are safe from extermination — for now
A Western Burrowing Owl and a ground squirrel at César Chávez Park. Photo: Penelope Hillemann By April Rose Sommer Much to the relief of wildlife lovers, the Berkeley City Council voted Tuesday night to delay its pilot program to exterminate ground squirrels at César Chávez Park. The city had generated broad outcry earlier this year […]
Posted inNature
It’s Cal versus Stanford in first ever birding Big Game
An Oak Titmouse, one of the many species birders hope to spot on the Cal campus during Birding’s Big Game on April 13. Photo: Linda Tanner “Go Bears! Spot that warbler!” That’s a chant you’re unlikely to hear from the packed bleachers of Memorial Stadium during a Cal-Stanford football game. But it’s a chant a […]
Posted inNature
‘Catios’ protect birds, give cats taste of outdoors
Phil Price and Juliet Lamont call to their cat Chester in the elaborate catwalk they have built at their north Berkeley home. The “catio” lets indoor cats have a taste of the outdoors. Photo: Ilana DeBare Phil Price and Juliet Lamont call to their cat Chester in the elaborate catwalk they have built at their […]
