GGAS BLOG
Welcome to our online blog featuring thoughtful articles on everything from birding hotspots to bird science written by members of our community.
In order to keep this blog as engaging and relevant as possible we welcome all interested contributors to pitch their article idea(s) to our communications desk at rnakano@goldengateaudubon.org. We are especially interested in publishing blog posts from writers within underrepresented communities including; Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color, LGBTQIA+ individuals and people with disabilities. For more information on contributing blog posts and the editing process visit our Blog Guideline page here.
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A Day in the Life of a Climate-Friendly Birder
By Joyce Mercado We all love observing and identifying birds. What joy birds bring us! We naturally want to protect what we love. With that said, climate change is a big threat to birds. When we use fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas for energy, we release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This

Lights out for Larry: The Burden of Brightness on Birds
Two weeks ago, a common blue bird disappeared from the city of San Francisco. You know the bird. The one soaring with its upturned belly, migrating through the digital space. I guess its name was Larry. Back in 2012, when Martin Grasser, Todd Waterbury and Angy Che began designing the twitter logo, Larry, they wanted

Dotson Family Marsh− How We Got This Great Gift
By Maureen Lahiff Dotson Family Marsh along San Pablo Bay in Richmond is a fantastic place to go birding in fall and winter. Now the southernmost unit of East Bay Regional Park’s Point Pinole Regional Shoreline, restored wetlands and coastal prairie provide abundant food and roosting places for shorebirds and ducks, while the uplands host

How to Thrive as an SOB (Spouse of Birder)
By Kim Marvel My wife is a birder. The early signs were subtle. Years ago, she requested my assistance placing feeders and nesting boxes in our backyard. On occasion she signed up for local birding walks. She populated our landscaping with bird-friendly shrubs and trees. Her growing interest became more evident when she placed a

The Berkeley-Stanford Birdathon
By Sierra Glassman Competition has been ingrained in birding culture for a long time. Surprisingly, only one birding competition has ever occurred between Stanford and Berkeley, back in 2014. That is until this past spring, when the Bears for Birds and Stanford Birdwatching Club matched up once again. Established two years ago, Bears for Birds

The Curious Case of Mama Kite
(This blog was originally published at Josh Kornbluth’s substack But Not Enough About Me here) By Josh Kornbluth My wife has uncanny bird-spotting abilities. We’ll be tooling along on our bikes on the San Francisco Bay Trail and Sara, riding ahead of me, will suddenly signal that she’s about to stop. Then she’ll jump off

Birdathon 2023 Breaks Records
By Ilana DeBare Thank you, thank you, thank you! Birdathon 2023 broke all previous records for a Golden Gate Audubon Society Birdathon, raising about 50 percent more money than last year and engaging more participants than ever before. So—before we get into the highlights—we need to give a really big THANK YOU to our amazing

These Binoculars are Out of this World!
By Blake Edgar Bay Area birders in the market for new binoculars or a spare spotting scope know to migrate up the coast to Mendocino and stopover at Out of This World, an emporium for high-quality optics and science-focused activities. For 35 years, store co-owners Marilyn Rose and James Blackstock have been outfitting birders, skywatchers,

From the Sierras to the Mojave: A Search for the Yellow-Billed Cuckoo
By Brandy Ford Walking along a dry sandy riverbed early one July morning in the Kern River Valley, we heard it—a slow, sharp bark building into a rapid rattle. The Yellow-Billed Cuckoo had spotted us. Before we encountered our elusive friend in this gentle riparian habitat on the edge of the Mojave Desert, Bruce Mast

The Golden Gate Gulls Go Birding
Once a year, the Golden Gate Audubon staff takes one of their monthly “in-field” meetings and expands it to an all day “Big Day Birdathon” effort. Last year the team saw a total of 106 bird species while raising funds for the organization. This year, the staff is headed back out as The Golden Gate

RESILIENCE – Bald Eagles of Corica Park
By Rick Lewis The news is out. The Alameda Bald Eagles’ nest at Corica Park suffered significant damage during the recent storm on Tuesday, March 21. The eggs were lost and the nest is tilting, but there are good signs of recovery and current behavior points to incredible resilience demonstrated by our esteemed pair. For

Beginner’s Luck: My First Golden Gate Audubon Birding Trip
By Kara Henderson My excitement faded with each step I took as sheets of water fell. I hadn’t received word the field trip—my first—had been canceled, but how many birds would we really see in this weather? Twenty minutes later, I arrived at Fort Mason Community Garden and was greeted by a dozen or so