Golden Gate Audubon’s monthly Speaker Series in San Francisco and Berkeley features renowned naturalists, photographers, ornithologists, authors, international travelers, and other fascinating speakers. To cover event costs, we ask non-members for a voluntary donation of $5. Non-members may attend for free if they join that evening. As always, GGAS members are welcome to attend free of charge. Speaker Series venues are:

San Francisco: Sports Basement, 1590 Bryant Street San Francisco  94103
Berkeley: Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda (between Solano and Marin) 

Doors open for refreshments at 6:30 p.m. and the speaker will start promptly at 7 p.m.

Thank you to Recology- Our San Francisco Speaker Series Sponsor

Iconic Tower, Iconic Bird – Peregrines on the Campanile

Allen Fish

Berkeley
Thursday, March 21
6:30 p.m. refreshments,
7p.m. program

As Peregrine Falcons have recovered from endangered status in the 1990s-2000s, they have often been found nesting on bridges and skyscrapers. For the last two nesting seasons, a Peregrine Falcon pair has taken up residence on the Campanile on the UC Berkeley campus, fledging two chicks in 2017, and three in 2018. A team of citizen scientists led by UC Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (MVZ) in cooperation with the East Bay Regional Park District and the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory, has monitored the Peregrines, enhancing their nest-site, watching for threats, and serving as an information source for captivated CAL falcon-spotters. In 2019, the Cal Peregrine Team is working on getting a web-cam erected on the tower to deepen our knowledge of these urban Peregrines, and to widen interest in these charismatic falcons via the web.

Beyond their sheer magnetism — the athletic hunting flights of the adults and the clumsy antics of the fledglings – the Peregrines are a profound reminder of the ornithologists of a generation ago who walked a tight-rope between science and conservation activism to bring this species back from the edge of extinction.  One of their critical conservation tools? The well-kept and meticulously-labelled egg collections of natural history museums, including our own Museum of Vertebrate Zoology.

Director of the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory (ggro.org) since its founding in the mid-1980s, Allen Fish earned his bachelor’s degree at UC Davis, then returned to teach Raptor Biology there in the 2000s. He was honored with the Maurice Broun Award for achievements in raptor biology in 2003, and the Bay Nature Environmental Educator Award in 2015. A fourth-generation Berkeleyan with deep CAL roots, Fish lives near campus with his wife Allison Pennell, their two kids and a coonhound.

The Socio-ecological Past, Present, and Future of an Urban Lake

Jonathan Young

San Francisco
Thursday, April 18
6:30 p.m. refreshments,
7p.m. program

Please Note: New venue for San Francisco Speaker Series

Sports Basement
1590 Bryant Street
San Francisco  94103

San Francisco’s Mountain Lake, neglected and degraded through centuries of urbanization, became a cesspool of invasive wildlife, toxic algae blooms, and poor water quality. Many native species that depended on the lake succumbed to local extinction, pushing the lake’s health further past the precipice. Beginning in the early 21 st century, the newly formed Presidio National Park began to actively shift the ecological trajectory by restoring the health and function of the lake. From terrestrial and aquatic vegetation to wildlife reintroductions and stormwater runoff management, join Presidio Trust Wildlife Ecologist Jonathan Young as he journeys through the socio-ecological past, present, and future of Mountain Lake.

Jonathan Young, a native southern Californian, began his relationship with the Presidio restoring habitat as a volunteer in 2010. During a three year stint as a Presidio ecological restoration intern, Jon completed his Master’s degree studying amphibian conservation and disease ecology at San Francisco State University. Throughout this time is when he became intimately involved in the Mountain Lake project. Upon completing his graduate studies he became the first Presidio Trust staff member fully dedicated to the park’s wildlife and has been continuing to build the Presidio’s wildlife program over the last five years.

Ecology and Conservation of the Gulf of the Farallones

Peter Pyle

Berkeley
Thursday, May 16
6:30 p.m. refreshments,
7p.m. program

The Gulf of the Farallones lies within an “Eastern Boundary Current System,” one of five such current systems around the world, where cold ocean currents and other environmental factors lead to high ocean productivity; an estimated 85-95% of the world’s seafood originates from these five systems. Peter’s talk will cover the ecology and conservation of the Gulf’s marine vertebrates, from birds to pinnipeds to cetaceans, with emphasis on his main research species, breeding and pelagic seabirds, and great white sharks. We will not only learn about some of the Gulf’s keystone species, but will look in on the excellent research that has been undertaken in the Gulf and the conservation and management actions that have resulted.

Peter Pyle has worked as an ornithologist and marine biologist throughout the Pacific. From the 1980’s to the 2000’s much of his research was conducted on birds and white sharks at the Farallon Islands, California. He is now an identification specialist and consultant for the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary’s Beach Watch program. He is a Research Associate both at the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, and the B.P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu. To date he has authored over 170 papers in scientific journals and two books, and has described a new species of shearwater (Puffinus bryani) and named it after his grandfather, Edwin Bryan. Peter currently works as a staff biologist for the Institute for Bird Populations in Point Reyes Station.

Bay Area Woodpeckers

Jeffery R. Martin

San Francisco
Thursday, June 20
6:30 p.m. refreshments,
7p.m. program

Please Note: New venue for San Francisco Speaker Series

Sports Basement
1590 Bryant Street
San Francisco  94103

Woodpeckers have captured the human imagination for generations. The distant sounds of pecking, flashes of red plumage, and inevitable disappearance into the shadows of the forest evoke a sense of wonder about these extraordinary yet elusive creatures. Jeffery Martin’s lecture and close-up high definition video explore the foraging strategies of our eight North Bay woodpecker species. Insect excavation, acorn storage, the use of sap wells and other intriguing behaviors are our focus. Jeff’s video segments illustrate unique evolutionary adaptations. We examine the anatomy of feet, tail, tongue and head which enable agile vertical climbing, adept grabbing of prey, and protection from concussion and dust inhalation. From the exquisite green and rose- colored Lewis’s Woodpecker to the dazzling Northern Flicker, and more, we take a close-up look at the worlds of our eight North Bay Woodpeckers.

Videographer and naturalist, Jeffery Martin has filmed and produced “Bahia Wildlife Habitat” and “Birds of Las Gallinas Marsh” which can be viewed on the web sites of Marin Audubon and Las Gallinas Valley Sanitary District. His films, “Woodpecker Haven” and “Birds of Lake Solano and Putah Creek” have been shown regularly at the Lake Solano Visitors Center. A number of years ago, Jeff presented “Foraging Behavior in Large Wading Birds” – a similar lecture and video program for the Golden Gate Audubon Speakers Series. In the past, Jeff has contributed to the slide library, visitor literature and campfire talks for Pt. Reyes National Seashore, and natural history walks and lectures for adults and children. In another vein, he has lectured to college faculty, students, and National Park Service professionals on “visitor motivation” and the “psychology of nature” including on safari in East Africa. In his “day job” Jeff is a clinical psychologist and associate clinical professor at UCSF School of Medicine.