By Ryan Nakano Lately, I’ve been wondering what I enjoy most about birding. As a novice, it’s hard to say that it has anything to do with generating a long list, chasing after a rare bird, or even really identifying different bird species by sight or sound. I think what I’m starting to realize is,

By Patsy Wood While we may not realize it, an estimated 100,000 carrier pigeons served in the U.S. military in World War I and 95% of these pigeons were successful in completing their missions. Carrier pigeons were crucial messengers of information between humans during the war and due to the efforts of a single pigeon

By Megan Fradley-Smith The morning of March 31 dawned with sweet promise.: Annie, one half of the famous Cal Falcons, was due to lay her much-anticipated third egg. After a nesting season full of violence, injury, and love triangles, her adoring fans were ready to finally breathe easy. I was up early, coffee in hand,

By Ilana DeBare When a struggle to save a natural area from development has been going on for 25 years, every small step forward is more than welcome. Golden Gate Audubon Society and its allies in the fight to save Point Molate were heartened on March 18 when the Richmond City Council rejected a proposed

By Ryan Nakano On the corner of 12th and Harrison and along the perimeter of the Oakland Museum of California, nesting herons and egrets make a home among 10 large ficus trees. Unfortunately for many chicks, the streets below spell only danger.  “The rookery in downtown Oakland is not a very healthy place for these

By Bryan Flaig I stood on a small berm along the side of a deeply rutted jeep road and turned off my headlamp. The world went dark. Sunrise was still half an hour away and a waxing moon was absorbed by thick black clouds. It was cold. Quiet. Down the east slope of Shaffer Mountain,

By Karyn Noel It’s dark o’clock on the first sunday of 2022.  I make coffee, pack my lunch, grab my bins and head toward my car to participate in the first-ever Richmond Christmas Bird Count.  As a co-compiler, the joyful anticipation of this day has been building for months. Ouch! It’s flippin’ freezing outside. No

By Margaret Hetherwick  Donna Hayes, Audubon member and resident birder of San Francisco’s Bernal Heights district, remembers seeing the glowing face of inspiration when a guest to her office noticed his first bird.  Hayes was a counselor at a city college at the time and was meeting with a student who had brought along their

By David Assmann  San Francisco birders have been lucky – for the past fifteen years, there has been no rain on the Christmas Bird Count, and conditions have been mostly sunny, with a rare bit of fog. The December 28, 2021 count, however, was cold and cloudy, with light rain at various points throughout the

By Ryan Nakano and Viviana Wolinsky The fog is thick. The air, brisk. A small group of “early birders” strike out before the sun has time to show its face. It’s barely 5 a.m., and Dave Quady shines his flashlight after sensing a movement in the trees at the end of a side street near