Natural History Wanderings

I went to the Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Tilden Park in Berkeley to hear today’s Roderick Lecture on “Forgotten landscapes of the Bay Area” by Laura Cunningham. It was an excellent talk on her work studying historical California landscapes.  She was like a forensic scientist studying historical accounts, paleontology findings, archaeological data, old records, and maps. Based on her research she has drawn and painted works that show how landscapes of the past looked at a time when the land had not been developed and pre-photography.  I highly recommend checking out her book and website  A State of Change Forgotten Landscapes of California. Her before and after pictures are especially powerful where she compares landscapes that are centuries old with the landscapes of today.

Before the presentation I spent some time walking around the garden looking at plants and birds. The main blooms are the early season manzanitas. There was a lot of bird activity and although I didn’t bring binoculars I am confident in my ID of ten of the usual species and am pretty sure I also heard a Nuttall’s Woodpecker and Northern Flicker.

Today’s birds: Regional Parks Botanic Garden Bird List 1/4/14

To see a large high quality slideshow click on: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sandysteinman/sets/72157639434172663/show

This slideshow requires JavaScript.