SF Gate reported
An unexpected number of Chinook salmon have been seen in parts of the Klamath River Basin following last year’s removal of four dams.
Read on www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/klamath-river-chinook-salmon-return-21114922.php
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | October 29, 2025
Salmon seen for first time in century after California dam removal
Posted in Animals | Tags: Dam removal, Salmon
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | October 29, 2025
Photos of Regional Parks Botanic Garden 10/26/25
Photographed in the East Bay Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Tilden Park in Berkeley, CA on October 26, 2025.
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 | October 29, 2025
Tom Killion Exhibition at UC Berkeley Botanical Garden
Tom Killion Exhibition: California Treescapes Woodcut Prints
Wednesday, October 29–Sunday, November 9
(Closed Tuesday, November 4)
10:00 am–4:00 pm
Julia Morgan Hall
Posted in Garden | Tags: Tom Killion
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | October 29, 2025
Bald Eagles Dancing
Great short video of Bald Eagles dancing Bald Eagle Dance https://x.com/marktakesphoto/status/1427239011018551296
Posted in Birds | Tags: Bald Eagles Dancing
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | October 28, 2025
This bizarre animal creates its own sunscreen by secreting a waxy substance 40 times more powerful than morphine
Discover Wildlife reported
It produces a natural sun cream to protect itself from the elements, and also walks rather than hops and has opposable thumbs
This lagoon and pond-dwelling tree frog species is known for its highly flexible limbs and opposable thumbs that it uses to smear a waxy substance that it secretes from its skin to protect it against the sun’s powerful rays.
Posted in Animals | Tags: Waxy Monkey Tree Frog
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | October 27, 2025
The Best Microscopic Shots of 2025 Will Make You Rethink Reality
Gizmodo reported
From secret mushroom worlds to extreme close-ups of cell motion, these photographs represent how, in science, things often aren’t what they seem on the surface.
See photographs and read more The Best Microscopic Shots of 2025 Will Make You Rethink Reality
Posted in Photography | Tags: Microscopic Photography
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | October 26, 2025
Photos from my garden 10/22/25
Posted in Garden, Photos (Sandy's), Wildflowers and Other Plants | Tags: Garden Photos
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | October 26, 2025
Lodi Sandhill Crane Festival Nov 7 – 9, 2025
Hutchins Street Square 125 S. Hutchins Street, Lodi, California
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Posted in Bird Festivals | Tags: Lodi Sandhill Crane Festival
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | October 26, 2025
White House approves increased oil and gas drilling in Alaska’s national wildlife refuge | Alaska | The Guardian
The Guardian reported
The Trump administration has approved more oil and gas drilling across Alaska’s Arctic national wildlife refuge (ANWR), prompting widespread criticism from environmental conservation organizations.
Read on www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/23/oil-gas-drilling-alaska-national-wildlife-refuge
Posted in Environment, Park | Tags: Arctic Reserve
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | October 26, 2025
This tiny worm uses static electricity to hunt flying insects
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | October 26, 2025
Climate change could erase 80% of whitebark pine’s current habitat across the Rockies and Northwest
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | October 25, 2025
Drone pilots are behaving badly in national parks like Yosemite
SF Gate reported
Drones are buzzing over national parks like Yosemite despite a federal ban — and the government shutdown is making things worse.
Read on http://www.sfgate.com/national-parks/article/yosemite-drone-pilots-in-national-parks-21114340.php
Posted in Park | Tags: Drones in National Parks
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | October 25, 2025
Incredible Journeys: Migratory Sharks on the Move
The Revelator reported
Even as scientists rush to identify the migratory paths of some endangered shark species to help better protect them, climate change and other threats shift this behavior, adding urgency to the research.
Posted in Animals | Tags: Shark Migration
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | October 24, 2025
Theodore Payne Foundation Upcoming Events
Theodore Payne Foundation inspires and educates Southern Californians about the beauty and ecological benefits of California native plant landscapes.We are located on 22 acres of canyon land in the northeast corner of the San Fernando Valley. Our full-service native plant nursery, seed room, book store, art gallery, demonstration gardens, and hiking trails are open to the public year round. We offer garden tours and classes for adults and families, as well as field trips to TPF and in-classroom programs for children. Friendly on-leash dogs are welcome and there is no admission charge!
See upcoming events at Theodore Payne Foundation Events – Upcoming Activities and Tickets | Eventbrite
Posted in Class/Workshop | Tags: Theodore Payne Foundation Upcoming Events
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | October 24, 2025
Former park leaders demand Trump admin close national parks
SF Gate reported
Hundreds of former National Park Service employees urge Trump to close parks as shutdown drags on.
Posted in Park | Tags: National Parks during government shutdown
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | October 24, 2025
When researchers tracked 24 giant manta rays into the deep, they discovered an amazing new behaviour
Discover Wildlife reported
A team of international researchers has discovered that oceanic manta rays – the largest species of ray on the planet – may dive over 1,200 metres deep to find their way around the ocean, according to a new study published in Frontiers in Marine Science.
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | October 24, 2025
How Spiders Fly
Bay Nature reported
Darwin saw them ballooning. Without any wind. Eventually some scientists figured out their electric secret.
Spiders make different silk for different jobs. Dragline silk, which they spin for the mode of transportation we call “ballooning,” is what the U.S. military considers the best kind. It is five times stronger than steel, and more flexible and resistant to extreme temperatures. This is the stuff that, over a decade ago, inspired humans to splice the gene responsible for its production into a multiplicity of fertilized goat embryos, in the hopes of birthing a goat that would allow people to milk out what spiders will not produce on command.
Read on baynature.org/2025/09/18/how-spiders-fly/
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | October 23, 2025
Rare Plant Discovered at Vasco Hills Regional Preserve After 68 Years | East Bay Parks
East Bay Regional Parks reported
A new population of the caper-fruited tropidocarpum (Tropidocarpum capparideum) has been discovered in Vasco Hills Regional Preserve on protected land acquired by the East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) in partnership with the East Contra Costa County Habitat Conservancy (Conservancy). The plant had been undocumented for 68 years until a few individuals were observed on nearby private land in 2023.
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | October 23, 2025
Anonymous donors just reopened Muir Woods
SF Gate reported
Parkgoers hoping to walk beneath the towering Bay Area redwood trees are in luck: Muir Woods National Monument reopened Thursday, thanks to a coalition of concessionaires who run businesses inside the park.
For the next nine days, through Oct. 31, visitors won’t have to pay the monument’s $15 per person entrance fee. They will, however, still need to pay for parking, which ranges from $9.50 for a standard vehicle to $45 for a large vehicle. Parking a personal vehicle or riding the Muir Woods Shuttle ($3.75 for adult round trips) requires a reservation and can’t be completed on-site, where permits aren’t sold and there isn’t any cell service.
Read more: Anonymous donors just reopened a closed national park site
Posted in Park, Uncategorized
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | October 23, 2025
Bumble bees balance their diets with surprising precision
ScienceDaily reported
Bumble bees aren’t random foragers – they’re master nutritionists. Over an eight-year field study in the Colorado Rockies, scientists uncovered that different bee species strategically balance their intake of protein, fats, and carbs by choosing pollen from specific flowers. Larger, long-tongued bees seek protein-rich pollen, while smaller, short-tongued species prefer carb- and fat-heavy sources. These dietary preferences shift with the seasons and colony life cycles, helping bees reduce competition, thrive together, and maintain strong colonies.
Read on www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/08/250827010724.htm
Posted in Animals | Tags: Bumblebees
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | October 22, 2025
Scientists revive a worm that was frozen in Siberia for 46,000 years
Earth.com reported
In Siberian permafrost, scientists thawed ancient soil and saw tiny nematodes move. These animals “woke up” after an extremely long freeze and resumed life functions in the lab.
Source: Scientists revive a worm that was frozen in Siberia for 46,000 years – Earth.com
Posted in Animals | Tags: Panagrolaimus kolymaensis
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | October 22, 2025
Lichen Survives on Outside of International Space Station
ExploresWeb reported
To ask if you could live outside the International Space Station (ISS) is rhetorical at best — but could any living organism on Earth manage it?
One unassuming toughie did, and provided at least rough proof of concept that life could exist on Mars.
Lichen from Antarctica’s McMurdo Dry Valleys survived 18 months on a platform attached to the outside of the ISS’s Columbus module, Futurism reported. Though they emerged in worse shape than temperate lichens tested separately in “Mars-like conditions,” many still survived.
Read more Lichen Survives on Outside of International Space Station » Explorersweb
Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: Lichens Survive in Space
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | October 21, 2025
‘A perfect coincidence’: rare red lightning captured in New Zealand skies
The Guardian reported
The extremely unusual phenomenon – also known as red lightning – lasts for a millisecond and is rarely visible to the naked eye
Read on www.theguardian.com/global/2025/oct/22/red-lightning-new-zealand-red-sprites
Posted in Environment | Tags: Red Lightening
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | October 21, 2025
Ancient elephant migration routes are being blocked off – can anything stop the rising death toll?
The Guardian reported
Human-wildlife conflict has now overtaken poaching as a cause of fatalities – and is deadly for people too. Some villages are finding new ways to live alongside them
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | October 21, 2025
No maps, brown water: Shutdown woes at Calif.’s smallest national park
SF Gate reports on the impact of the government shutdown on Pinnacles National park
The federal government shutdown has impacted Pinnacles National Park, California’s smallest national park, in various ways. While the park remains open, the western entrance is closed to vehicles, causing inconvenience for visitors. Additionally, the shutdown has led to limited access to amenities like trail maps, brochures, and the Bear Gulch Nature Center, impacting educational programs and visitor services.
Read article at : No maps, brown water: Shutdown woes at Calif.’s smallest national park
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | October 21, 2025
New cluster of Tapanuli orangutans discovered in Sumatra peat swamp
Monga Bay reported
- Researchers have confirmed that the critically endangered Tapanuli orangutan, previously thought to live only in Sumatra’s Batang Toru forest, also inhabits a peat swamp forest 32 kilometers (20 miles) away in the Lumut Maju village forest.
- DNA analysis of fecal samples verified the Lumut Maju apes as Tapanuli orangutans, marking the first confirmed record of the species outside Batang Toru.
- The discovery highlights the conservation value of nonprotected peat swamps, which are rapidly being cleared for oil palm plantations, threatening the orangutans’ survival.
- Conservationists warn that the isolated Lumut Maju population, likely fewer than 100 individuals, may not be viable long term unless habitat protection or relocation strategies are implemented.
Read more: New cluster of Tapanuli orangutans discovered in Sumatra peat swamp
Posted in Animals | Tags: Tapanuli orangutans
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | October 20, 2025
East Bay Regional Parks Activity Guide for November & December
Regional In Nature (RIN) Activity Guide. Fun facts on wildlife, plants, ecology, and history; games and activities for kids and families!
— Read on www.ebparks.org/whats-new/rin
Posted in Park | Tags: East Bay Regional Parks
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | October 20, 2025
The 2025 Audubon Photography Awards: The Top 100
National Audubon reported
Marvel at the beauty of birds and learn the stories behind our favorite images from this year’s contests—featuring, for the first time, photographers from Chile and Colombia.
See photos and read more The 2025 Audubon Photography Awards: The Top 100 | Audubon
Posted in Photography | Tags: Audubon Photography Awards
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | October 20, 2025
A Tiny Seabird Faces Growing Threats in the Forest
The New York Times reported
Nesting often high in the redwoods’ canopy, the marbled murrelet faces new and longstanding risks.
Read on at A Tiny Seabird Faces Growing Threats in the Forest
Posted in Birds | Tags: Marbled Murrelet
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | October 19, 2025
Sierra Passes Reopened
Mono County Tourism reported
📣 Sonora Pass (108) has reopened!
All three passes are now open: Tioga Pass (120), Monitor Pass (89), and Sonora Pass (108)
📸Sonora Pass 10.6.25 – pre-storm
Posted in Drives | Tags: Sierra Pass Reopened
Natural History Wanderings 