Photographed in the North Berkeley Flatlands between April 5, 2021.
This is part of my continuing project, the “Stay at Home Photo Project”. It includes many street photos from Berkeley and Albany as well as photos from the UC Berkeley campus, my yard and neighbors’ yards You can see larger higher quality versions of many of the photos at Flickr in my collection Stay at Home Photo Project .
Posted in Photos (Sandy's) | Tags: Berkeley Street Photos, Flowers
See the FeederWatch BirdSpotter photo submissions for 2020 to 2021 at Award Winning Submissions
Posted in Birds, Photos (Sandy's) | Tags: Bird photos
The Guardian reports
Yurok Tribe will create a captive breeding facility in Redwood national park for birds that could be released as early as this fall
Read more at Endangered condors return to northern California skies after nearly a century – The Guardian
Posted in Birds | Tags: California Condors
from Los Padres ForestWatch
Los Padres ForestWatch reports
For the first time in more than a century, a gray wolf has returned to California’s central coast region as part of an epic journey from Oregon spanning more than 600 miles and eighteen counties in California. The wolf, known as OR-93, is fitted with a radio collar, and was detected in both Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties.
Read more at A Gray Wolf’s Epic Journey Toward the Central Coast
Posted in Talks, Wildflowers and Other Plants | Tags: Wildflower Talk
Sonora Pass Hwy 108: Closed – plowing started April 1st Tioga Pass Hwy 120 West: Closed – Plowing will start April 15th Bodie Road Hwy 270: Open from the junction of U.S. 395 to end of the paved section of the road. The dirt road is clear until ½ mile before the State Park entrance. There is still a ½ mile hike into the park with wet and muddy conditions. Due to limited space, RV’s and trailers are not advised. Mono Mills Road/State Route 120 E: OPEN North June Lake Loop/State Route 158 N: OPEN Virginia Lakes Road: Closed at Dunderberg Meadows Road Saddlebag Lake Road: Closed Lundy Lake Road: Open to Lundy Lake Resort Rock Creek Road: Closed at Snow Park – opening will begin 4/12Posted in Drives | Tags: 2021!, Mono County seasonal road conditions as of April 7
Photographed in the North Berkeley Flatlands between April 2 and 5 2021.
This is part of my continuing project, the “Stay at Home Photo Project”. It includes many street photos from Berkeley and Albany as well as photos from the UC Berkeley campus, my yard and neighbors’ yards You can see larger higher quality versions of many of the photos at Flickr in my collection Stay at Home Photo Project .
Posted in Photos (Sandy's) | Tags: Berkeley Street Photos, Flowers
The Anza-Borrego Foundation has an upcoming presentation on What You Need to Know About Ocotillos Before You Die on April 15, 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm PDT
Join us for the first webinar in our virtual Anza-Borrego: In Focus series! Did you know? In the American Southwest, there are more streets named after the ocotillo than any other desert plant. It is the only species that blooms every year regardless of rainfall. Migrating hummingbirds can’t survive without their blossoms. Learn what every desert aficionado should know about the desert’s most remarkable keystone species. Presented by Jim Cornett, who has been studying ocotillos in the Park since 2007. Cost: Free of charge.
Posted in Park | Tags: Wifi in the Forest
Newly released habitat regional charts show habitat associations for 649 species for every week of the year. These interactive visualizations provide insight into how species’ habitat associations change across space and time on a scale not possible before. What types of habitats are your favorite species found in throughout the year? Explore the new habitat regional charts to find out!
Learn how to interpret habitat regional charts and start exploring
Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: Job Opening
Early-Bird Passes to the Point Reyes Birding & Nature Festival are on Sale Now!
We are excited for this year’s event, as we have an amazing line up of local, national, and international speakers joining us from April 22nd – 25th featuring a variety of topics.
Just some of our featured classes included in the four-day online event:
Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: Bird Reyes Festival
The New York Times reports
Males and females of a species that mates monogamously complete their bond by gnawing off each other’s wings, a new study found.
For certain cockroaches living inside rotten logs in Asia, nothing says “I love you” like some minor cannibalism.
Newly mated pairs of one species, Salganea taiwanensis, take turns chewing each other’s wings down to stubs after they move into the homes where they will jointly raise babies. Scientists say this unique behavior may have evolved because of the roaches’ truly monogamous bond.
Read more at Cannibalism May Be Key for These Cockroach Couples – The New York Times
International Dark Sky Week, held during the week of the new moon in April, is a week during which people worldwide turn out their lights in order to observe the beauty of the night sky without light pollution. This event was founded in 2003 by high school student Jennifer Barlow of Midlothian, Virginia.
Learn more about Dark Sky week at Home | International Dark Sky Week
Posted in Astronomy | Tags: Dark Sky Week
The BBC reports
The cherry blossom season, Japan’s traditional sign of spring, has peaked at the earliest date since records began 1,200 years ago, research shows.
The 2021 season in the city of Kyoto peaked on 26 March, according to data collected by Osaka University.
Increasingly early flowerings in recent decades are likely to be as a result of climate change, scientists say.
Read more at Japan’s cherry blossom ‘earliest peak since 812’ – BBC News
Posted in Environment | Tags: apan's cherry blossom, Climate change
It has been a long year since we had to close the doors of our center to the public in compliance with the public pandemic response. It is now spring of a new year and along with all the new life that comes with the season, it fills us with such joy and rejuvenation to announce that the Richardson Bay Audubon Center & Sanctuary grounds are open to the public once again.
Our open hours are 9 AM to 5 PM from Monday through Friday. We ask that all visitors respect public mandates and wear a mask at all times, maintaining proper distance from others on the grounds of the center.
To learn more subscribe to the newsletter at Richardson Bay Audubon Center Newsletter
Posted in Birds, Park | Tags: Richardson Bay Audubon Center
Bay Nature report
The 2020-2021 winter ends as one of the driest on record, with a long summer and fall ahead
The relationship is not so straightforward as a dry winter leading immediately to a catastrophic fire season. The 2017 North Bay fires followed an exceptionally wet winter and a record-breaking fall heat wave. The 2020 lightning fires followed a very dry winter but started in a freak ignition event, a summer lightning storm nearly unprecedented in Northern California’s recent memory. A long, hot summer and fall following a wet winter might result in a more flammable landscape than a mild, foggy summer following a dry winter.
Those are some of the caveats against predicting a bad 2021 fire season ahead. But still, scientists and land managers say, a second dry winter in a row isn’t good news for the upcoming fire season.
Read detailed article of fire risks for this coming summer at A Dry Winter Ends, and Now We Wait for Fire – Bay Nature
Posted in Environment | Tags: Dry Winters and Fire Risk
The San Francisco Chronicle reported
‘Super-pod,’ ‘mega-pod’ or a ‘dolphin stampede,’ whatever you want to call it, the sight of 1,000 dolphins swimming alongside you is a rare and mesmerizing spectacle.
Tourists on a charter boat off Dana Point in Orange County were treated to that very sight for four hours last week, and the footage released of the marvel is breathtaking.
See video link and read story at Video shows 1,000-dolphin ‘stampede’ off California coast
Apr. 14, Wed. 7:00 p.m. Zoom evening program“Putting the Forest back in Forestry” with Laurie Wayburn of the Pacific Forest TrustApr. 17, Saturday. Spring Wildflower Show. The all new, covid-safe Wildflower Show opens the first of its iNaturalist projects.
Apr. 18, Sun. Horse Mountain Field Trip
Apr. 25-May 2, Sat.-Sun. 7:00 p.m. daily. Spring Wildflower Show via Zoom features wildflower fun and speakers on serpentine soils and plants. Flowers are added to the show on iNaturalist through April 30.
May 1-2, Sat.-Sun. Spring Native Plant Sale, by appointment
May 12, Wed. 7:00 p.m. Zoom “Serpentine Ecology: Wacky soils build glorious places” with Kristi Mergenthaler
May 14-17, Fri-Mon. North Fork Smith Overnight Field Trip
Jun 27, Sun. Canoe Fire (Humboldt Redwoods State Park) field trip
Posted in Talks, Wildflowers and Other Plants | Tags: Wildflower Show, Wildflower Talks
The Press Democrat describes five Spring wildflower trails in Sonoma County at 5 spring wildflower hikes in Sonoma County
Posted in Walks & Hikes, Wildflowers and Other Plants | Tags: Sonoma County Wildflowers
The University of Santa Barbara reports
Researchers document the impacts of noise on marine animals and ecosystems and identify actions to restore healthy ocean sounds.
A global team of researchers set out to understand how human-made noise affects wildlife, from invertebrates to whales, in the oceans, and found overwhelming evidence that marine fauna, and their ecosystems, are negatively impacted by noise. This noise disrupts their behavior, physiology, reproduction and, in extreme cases, causes mortality. The researchers call for human-induced noise to be considered a prevalent stressor at the global scale and for policy to be developed to mitigate its effects.
Read article at Healthy Oceans Need Healthy Soundscapes | The UCSB Current
Posted in Animals | Tags: Ocean Soundscapes
The goal of Native Plant appreciation Month is to appreciate the beauty and importance of native flora and it’s relationship to our native pollinators, our wildlife, and ultimately, ourselves. Through this educational process our goal is to develop appreciation of native plants
and to encourage grassroots advocacy for their protection.
Read how the state of Washington is celebrating including a link to a presentation by Doug Tallamy at Native Plant Appreciation Month
Posted in Environment, Garden, Wildflowers and Other Plants | Tags: Native Plant Appreciation Month
Center for Biological Diversity News Release
Africa’s Forest Elephants Recognized as Separate Species, Highlighting Peril
GENEVA— In a long-awaited move, the International Union for Conservation of Nature announced today that elephants in Africa face a serious risk of extinction. At the same time, it is officially identifying African elephants as two distinct species: savanna elephants and forest elephants.
The reclassification — part of an update to IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species — could boost recognition of the dire plight of forest elephants. Forest elephant populations were found to have declined by more than 80% in the last 93 years. Savanna elephant populations declined by more than 50% over the last 75 years.
Posted in Animals | Tags: Elephant Extinction Threat
Photos from a visit to the UC-Berkeley Botanical Garden on March 30, 2021.
The garden is currently open daily to the public from eleven to five by reservation . Garden members can enter at ten. There is an entrance fee (free for garden members) and paid parking. For more information and to make reservations go to UC-Botanical Garden.
This is part of my continuing pandemic project, the “Stay at Home Photo Project”. It includes many street photos from Berkeley and Albany as well as photos from the UC Berkeley campus, my yard, local botanic gardens, and neighbors’ yards You can see larger higher quality versions of many of the photos at Flickr in my collection Stay at Home Photo Project.
Posted in Garden, Photos (Sandy's) | Tags: UC-Berkeley Botanical Garden
NPR reports
They’re purple, spiky and voracious, and just off the West Coast, there are more of them than you can count.
Purple sea urchins have exploded in recent years off California, covering the ocean floor in what divers describe as a “purple carpet.” And they devour kelp: the once-lush forests of seaweed that hugged the coastline are disappearing. Since 2014, 95 percent of the kelp have vanished across a large part of Northern California, most of it bull kelp.
Kelp forests provide a crucial ecosystem for a broad range of other marine life and animals, so their demise threatens the ecology across the entire stretch of California coast. The kelp’s abrupt decline is being driven by warming waters, and it’s a case of how climate change is helping push already-stressed ecosystems over the edge.
Read more at Purple Urchins Devour Kelp Forests, So Divers Fight Back : NPR
Posted in Uncategorized
from Yerba Buena CNPS
April 1, THURSDAY @ 7:30 pm Speaker: Kate Marianchild
Zoom registration here
California’s iconic and magnificent oaks support a more diverse array of organisms than any other terrestrial ecosystem in the state. In a presentation filled with wood ducks, woodrats, woodpeckers, and many other species, author and naturalist Kate Marianchild will discuss the keystone role oaks play in oak woodland food webs. We’ll learn about symbiotic connections between oaks and other organisms, such as fungi, jays, and caterpillars, and we’ll marvel at the tiny wasps who bend enormous oak trees to their bidding. We will crawl with Kate through woodrat mansions, fight for breeding opportunities with acorn woodpeckers, and defend mistletoe with bluebirds. Who could stay away?
See the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden April Zoom programs and recorded March programs at Seasonal Programs & Workshops – UC Botanical Garden
Posted in Garden, Talks | Tags: UC Berkeley Botancial Garden
NatureServe is seeking to fill up to two full-time, seasonal crew lead field biological technician to conduct field sampling. The field season is expected to occur from late April to mid-August. The work will include following established vegetation and soil sampling methods on new or existing ecological monitoring sites, including plot and line-based sampling, identification of plants to the species level, digging soil pits and analyzing soils. Knowledge of native plants, the flora of northeastern California and northwestern Nevada, ecological field monitoring methods, field sampling and project management needed. Availability for participation in a BLM AIM training near Susanville, CA in late April is strongly preferred.
Read more and learn how to apply at Lead Biological Field Technician (Temporary/Seasonal)
Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: Job Openings
Natural History Wanderings 