NBC News reported
New research shows that seasoned birders — including older adults — had denser tissue in parts of the brain tied to attention and perception.
Read more at Birdbrain’ benefits: How being an expert birdwatcher may boost cognition
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | March 19, 2026
‘Birdbrain’ benefits: How being an expert birdwatcher may boost cognition
Posted in Uncategorized
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | March 18, 2026
Volunteer opportunity: Garden Greeter in Tilden Regional Parks Botanic Garden
Garden Greeters offer a warm welcome and helpful orientation to Botanic Garden visitors on weekends and holidays. Volunteer greeters hand out maps, offer general information, and provide games for children. The next Garden Greeter training will take place on Saturday, March 28, and Saturday, April 4, from 9 to 11 a.m. Attending both dates is required. To learn more and apply for the training, email greeter_coordinator@nativeplants.org.
Posted in Garden | Tags: Regional Parks Botanic Garden
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | March 18, 2026
Regional Parks Botanic Garden Photos 3/17/26
Photographed in the East Bay Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Tilden Park in Berkeley, CA on March 17, 2026.
The Regional Parks Botanic Garden is a California native plant garden. It is located within Tilden Park in the hills above Berkeley, California, It is a 10-acre garden includes many of the state’s rare and endangered plants and a place for visitors to wander among trees, shrubs, flowers, and grasses from plant communities throughout the state. There are free weekend and holiday tours. Admission and parking are free. For more information about the garden visit the Friends of the Regional Parks Botanic Garden.
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | March 18, 2026
Upcoming UC Berkeley Botanical Garden Events
See the events calendar for the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden at Garden Events
Posted in Class/Workshop, Garden | Tags: UC Berkeley Botanical Garden Events
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | March 18, 2026
Free Talks at East Bay Nurseries
from Bring Back the Natives
the times and locations of the free Talks in the Nurseries, which will take place this Saturday, March 21, during the next Native Plant Extravaganza. Shop during this event and a percentage of your sales will go to support the Tour.
Native Plant Extravaganza
Saturday, March 21, 10:00-4:00
Shop in-person on Saturday, March 21, or shop online at participating native plant nurseries on Saturday or Sunday March 21 or 22, and a percentage of your purchases will go to support the Tour.
A link to each nursery’s plant inventory is included. Call ahead if there is a plant you specifically want, as inventories change rapidly.
Free Talks in the Nurseries!
The Watershed Nursery Cooperative, 601 A Canal Blvd. Richmond
11:00 “Best pruning practices for California native plants” by Nicholas Crawford, ISA Board Certified Master Arborist at The Davey Tree Expert Company
Nicholas will discuss native plant care, demonstrate hands-on pruning skills, and provide information on California’s evolving fire clearance requirements.
See the Watershed Nursery Cooperative’s plant inventory here, and their nifty Plant Finder page here.
Posted in Garden, Talks | Tags: Bring Back the Natives
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | March 18, 2026
Giant tortoises return to Galápagos island after nearly 200 years
The BBC reported
Giant tortoises are roaming the Galápagos island of Floreana for the first time in more than 180 years, in what conservationists have called a “hugely significant milestone”.
One hundred and fifty eight captive-bred juvenile tortoises were released on the island as part of the Floreana Ecological Restoration Project led by the Galápagos National Park Directorate.
Read more Giant tortoises return to Galápagos island after nearly 200 years
Posted in Animals | Tags: Gallapagos, Giant Tortoises
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | March 17, 2026
Drawing and Painting Wildflowers Throughout the West 3/20/25
From the Regional Parks Botanic Garden
MAR
20
Drawing and Painting Wildflowers Throughout the West
Join Linda Ann Vorobik, botanist and botanical artist, for an illustrated talk. There will also be a show of botanical art and hand-painted silks with 25% of sales donated to the Botanic Garden.
For more information and details about event and upcoming 2-Day Botanical Watercolor Workshop
go to View Event →
Posted in Talks | Tags: Drawing and Painting Wildflowers Throughout the West
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | March 17, 2026
‘Sly stowaway’ UK fox finds new home at Bronx Zoo after illicit transatlantic trip
The Guardian reported
The fox is said to be ‘settling in well’ after mischievous 3,400 mile journey from Southampton to New York
Read on www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/mar/11/stowaway-fox-travels-on-cargo-ship-from-england-to-us
Posted in Animals | Tags: Fox Stowaway
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | March 17, 2026
27 elephant seals test positive for bird flu in Bay Area outbreak
KRON4 reported
More than two dozen elephant seals have tested positive for avian influenza since the outbreak at Año Nuevo State Park on the San Mateo County coast began in February, according to an update from UC Davis released Monday. One sea otter and two California sea lions have also tested positive after […]
Read on www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/27-elephant-seals-test-positive-for-bird-flu-in-bay-area-outbreak/
Posted in Animals | Tags: Bird Flu, Ekephant Seals
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | March 17, 2026
Lead Pollution Has Dropped 100-Fold in the U.S. Over the Last Century
Good News Network reported
Lead pollution compared to 100 years ago in the US has dramatically declined by 100-fold. BLL levels of 15 plummeted to just 0.6 in 2020.
Read on www.goodnewsnetwork.org/lead-pollution-has-dropped-100-fold-in-the-u-s-over-the-last-century/
Posted in Environment | Tags: Lead Pollution
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | March 16, 2026
Talk: TALES OF ANIMAL SEX, MURDER AND MAYHEM 3/19/26
From Golden Gate Bird Alliance
Jeff Miller is a naturalist, conservationist, and passionate advocate for wildlife. He has dedicated several decades to championing protection of endangered species and native wildlife habitat in the Bay Area. He’s the founder of the nonprofit Alameda Creek Alliance and a senior conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity, spearheading biodiversity and wildlife protection campaigns throughout the Bay Area and California. The Irreverent Naturalist website.
Date: Thursday, March 19 @ 7pm
Location: Hybrid — Tamalpais Room @ the David Brower Center (2150 Allston Way, Berkeley 94704 and online via Zoom
If you plan to attend in-person, please RSVP at the button below. Otherwise, you can join us via Zoom through the link below. RSVP Here
Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87377145453?pwd=Jt8aYrFqyD9zTBGl09jH58J5s9gbev.1
Posted in Animals, Birds, Talks | Tags: Bay Area Wildlife
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | March 16, 2026
110 planned homes near Yosemite National Park spark controversy
Posted in Park | Tags: Controversial New Housing Near Yosemite
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | March 16, 2026
A fish a day: More than 300 freshwater species described in 2025
Monga Bay reported
Taxonomists described 309 new species of freshwater fish in 2025, according to a report released by SHOAL, the IUCN Freshwater Fish Specialist Group (FFSG) and the California Academy of Sciences(CAS). With nearly one new description each day of the year, the tally is the highest since 2017, and the third-highest since 1758, when scientists began keeping records.
The new fish species come from five continents and a diversity of habitats, including limestone caves, peat swamps, wetlands and rivers. Most are endemic and some are already at risk of extinction. Asia topped the list with 165 newly described fish species, followed by South America with 91, Africa with 30, North America with 20, and Europe with three.
Read more A fish a day: More than 300 freshwater species described in 2025
Read about one unusual new species at Discover Wildlife :
“Like an ‘aircraft’ hovering in the middle of the water.” Ghostly cavefish found beneath the ground in China https://share.google/MxQIEmk1nPgGjIWLE
Posted in Animals | Tags: New Fish Species
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | March 16, 2026
After logging bans, Australia turns to “forest thinning”. Does it reduce fire risk?
Monga Bay reported
- As native forest logging ends in parts of Australia, governments and industry are turning to large-scale forest thinning as a tool to reduce bushfire risk, prompting a new debate over how best to protect communities in a warming climate.
- Research shows thinning can lower fire severity under some conditions, especially when paired with prescribed burning, but its effectiveness often diminishes during extreme fire weather — the very conditions driving the most destructive fires.
- Scientists warn that removing trees can alter forest structure, dry fuels, release stored carbon, and eliminate critical wildlife habitat, meaning the ecological and climate costs may be substantial in high-conservation forests.
- The controversy reflects deeper tensions over land use, public safety, and economic transition, with critics arguing that large-scale thinning risks becoming logging by another name while supporters see it as a necessary adaptation to escalating fire danger.
Read more After logging bans, Australia turns to “forest thinning”. Does it reduce fire risk?
Posted in Environment | Tags: Australian Bush Fires, Forest Thinning
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | March 15, 2026
New Revlator Column new column to help keep environmentalists resilient
from the Revelator
Dr. Green’s emotional rescue: Let’s be honest: Working in conservation and environmental protection can be stressful and lead to burnout, eco-anxiety, depression, and more. Our new mental-health advice column for environmentalists is here to help. Read our inaugural column and submit questions about the emotional challenges of your environmental work or activism. Their resident psychologist answers environmentalists’ questions about staying mentally resilient when eco-challenges get you down. You can find it at Doctor Green’s Emotional Rescue for Environmentalists
Posted in Environment | Tags: Mental Health Impact of being an Environmentalist
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | March 15, 2026
Water vanished in California. Here’s how one species saved itself.
SF Gate reported
As the most extreme drought period in more than 10,000 years ravaged California from 2012 to 2015, many wildflowers died.
But in a new study published Thursday in the journal Science, researchers documented how one flower survived the hard times without rain.
Their findings show rare evidence of “evolutionary rescue” — a phenomenon whereby a species rapidly evolves to survive — outside the lab and amid climate change.
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | March 15, 2026
Scientists think they know how T. rex ate enough calories to grow so large
Earth.com reported
Fossil evidence shows that baby long-necked dinosaurs were a major food source for several large meat-eating dinosaurs during the Late Jurassic period.
Because these young plant-eaters were so common and easy to catch, predators at the time had an easier food supply than the giant hunters that evolved millions of years later.
Read more Scientists think they know how T. rex ate enough calories to grow so large
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | March 14, 2026
Bear Valley Bald Eagle Cams
Friends of Big Bear Valley (FOBBV) have two live cams of a Bald Eagle nest in Bear valley at OBBV CAM – YouTube
Posted in Birds
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | March 14, 2026
125 million-year-old dinosaur with never before seen hollow spikes discovered in China
ScienceDaily reported
- A 125-million-year-old dinosaur just rewrote what we thought we knew about prehistoric life. Scientists in China have uncovered an exceptionally preserved juvenile iguanodontian with fossilized skin so detailed that individual cells are still visible. Even more astonishing, the plant-eating dinosaur was covered in hollow, porcupine-like spikes—structures never before documented in any dinosaur.
Read more 125 million-year-old dinosaur with never before seen hollow spikes discovered in China125 million-year-old dinosaur with never before seen hollow spikes discovered in China
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | March 13, 2026
Planting Billions of Trees Turned Barren Desert into a Carbon Sink That Lowers CO2
The Good News Network reported
China’s multi-decade long, successful effort to plant a ring of trees around one of the world’s most hostile deserts has sprouted an unexpected benefit to humanity.
Along with protecting the nation’s grasslands and agriculture from the spreading sands of the dismal Taklamakan Desert, the giant ring of trees has turned previous unproductive land into a carbon sink that draws CO2 out of the atmosphere.
Read more https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/chinas-tree-planting-turned-a-barren-desert-into-a-carbon-sink-to-help-lower-atmospheric-co2/Planting Billions of Trees Turned Barren Desert into a Carbon Sink That Lowers CO2
Posted in Uncategorized
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | March 12, 2026
Tejon Conservancy Events
See the calendar of events for theTejon Conservancy at www.tejonconservancy.org/calendar
Posted in Walks & Hikes | Tags: Tejon Ranch Event
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | March 12, 2026
Hipcamp Launches Interactive California Superbloom Forecast | PetaPixel
Hipcamp launches a 2026 California Superbloom Forecast using 150,000 iNaturalist observations to find wildflowers and nearby campsites.
— Read on petapixel.com/2026/03/11/hipcamp-launches-interactive-california-superbloom-forecast/
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | March 11, 2026
Anza-Borrego Foundation Upcoming Events
Anza-Borrego Foundation hosts a variety of events and educational programs, including hikes, botany walks, photography workshops, and more. See the schedule at Events | Anza-Borrego Foundation
Posted in Talks, Walks & Hikes | Tags: Anza-Borrego Foundation Events
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | March 11, 2026
National park evacuated due to volcanic eruption, rock storm
SF Gate reported
For the second time this year, a massive volcanic eruption has rained hazardous materials over Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on Hawaii island, leading to an evacuation of the Kilauea volcano’s summit.
The volcano began to erupt at 9:17 a.m. on Tuesday, according to a park press release, with lava fountains reaching up to 1,300 feet. As that lava cools in the air, it transforms into tephra, which is made up of volcanic rock, ash and glass particles…
Posted in Park | Tags: Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | March 11, 2026
Garden Photos 3/10/26
What’s blooming in my garden right now
Posted in Garden, Photos (Sandy's) | Tags: Garden Photos
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | March 11, 2026
Underwater Photographer of the Year
The Guardian has posted the top photos from the Underwater Photographer of the year at Seals, shipwrecks and a screaming swallower: Underwater Photographer of the Year 2026 – in pictures
Posted in Photography
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | March 11, 2026
Microplastics have reached Antarctica’s only native insect
ScienceDaily reported
- Even Antarctica’s toughest native insect can’t escape the reach of plastic pollution. Scientists have discovered that Belgica antarctica — a tiny, rice-sized midge and the southernmost insect on Earth — is already ingesting microplastics in the wild. While lab tests showed the hardy larvae can survive short-term exposure without obvious harm, those exposed to higher plastic levels had reduced fat reserves, hinting at hidden energy costs.
Read more Microplastics have reached Antarctica’s only native insect
Posted in Animals, Environment | Tags: Belgica antarctica
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | March 10, 2026
How new border wall barriers are dividing bighorn sheep from resources
KPBS reported on how the border wall in southern California is creating serious problems for Big Horn sheep as it fragments their habitat.
Read at How new border wall barriers are dividing bighorn sheep from resources
Posted in Animals | Tags: Big Horn Sheep, Habitat Fragmentation Harms to Wildlife
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | March 10, 2026
The Race to Stop Wildlife Trafficking in Africa – The New York Times
In Nigeria, customs officers and conservationists are confronting the grim impacts of the $20 billion trade.
— Read on www.nytimes.com/2026/03/10/magazine/wildlife-trafficking-africa.html
Posted in Animals | Tags: Wildlife Trafficking
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | March 10, 2026
Xerces Society Events
The list of events will be updated regularly. To view past webinars, please visit our YouTube channel. We also announce events on social media and via our e-newsletter. If you have questions, please email outreach@xerces.org.
To see the current list go to Events | Xerces Society
Posted in Butterflies, Talks | Tags: Xerces Society Events
Natural History Wanderings 