California Beaver Summit Day 1: Beaver Essentials—History and Management
2021-04-07 13:00 - 17:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Online
Climate change is making our state hotter, drier, and harder for people and wildlife. Find out how beaver can help.
Beaver has shaped the landscapes of California for over 5 million years. Their dams have slowed runoff and created wetlands of carbon enriched meadows. They charged aquifers, maintained stable temperatures, and cooled stream flows in California’s dry summers. Countless species and entire ecosystems have adapted to these beaver-maintained hydrologies and geomorphologies.
Today, across the US, Canada, and Europe, people have begun to better realize the value these rodents provide. The golden state has been slow to understand this lesson. The California Beaver Summit is an important step towards changing that.
During two half-day sessions on two days in April, we explore the many benefits that beavers offer to our drying state. The first session on April 7th will present an overview of beaver essentials. The discussion will clarify the history of beavers in the state, their ecological contribution as a keystone species, their function in aquatic restoration and conservation, and finally, how to successfully manage common conflicts beavers cause.
The second session on April 9th takes a closer look closer at how biologists, watershed stewards, and land managers utilize advances in beaver science and management for restoration. It addresses where they are being employed for fire resilience, conservation of endangered species, and cleaner water. California-specific management and policy challenges will be highlighted along with directions for future improvements. Because we are behind other beaver-progressive western states like Washington and Utah, California is in a unique position to avoid their mistakes and learn from their successes.
Fires in close succession and habitat destruction, in general, are significantly altering our rich biodiversity. Drought is a persistent concern. Understanding beaver management can transform this animal from an uninvited guest to an untapped resource. Their stewardship of streams can make our state more beautiful, more robust to climate change, and ultimately help keep California’s promise to future generations for years to come.

Treasures Of Mines Road
2021-04-07 19:00 - 20:30 | Online
Treasures Of Mines Road with Steve Lombardi
This virtual 65-mile round trip will explore all of Mines Road plus connecting portions of San Antonio Valley and Del Puerto Canyon Roads. They all run through the East Bay’s Diablo Range in an area virtually devoid of humans, but not of birds. Our virtual tour will take place in early spring, when summer residents are returning and nesting activity is heating up. Highlights will include:
Study of area specialties, like Phainopepla, Lewis’s Woodpecker, Lawrence’s Goldfinch, and Greater Roadrunner (a bird that’s elusive in person, but easily seen virtually).
A drive around Lake Del Valle searching for Bald Eagle, breeding Western Grebes, and several species of nesting swallows.
Views and sounds of the expected chaparral and scrub species, like California Thrasher, Western Kingbird, and Rufous-crowned Sparrow.
We’ll include discussion of the various eBird hotspots along our route, plus tips for visiting the area in person. It will be a 3-county hat trick!
Steve Lombardi, Field Trip Coordinator for Golden Gate Audubon Society, has led springtime Birdathon field trips to Mines Road for years.
This event will take place online via Zoom and last approximately 60-75 minutes. Registrants will be sent a link and password to access the Zoom. The session will be recorded, and registrants will have access to the recording on the web for two weeks after the event, regardless of whether they attend the live presentation.

Singing Hummingbird Feathers and the Quiet Flight of Owls (and Other Birds)
2021-04-08 17:00 - 18:00 | Online
Dr. Chris Clark will present ongoing research in his lab, starting with work on how hummingbirds make sounds with their tail feathers during courtship displays. Then he will shift to ongoing research he is conducting on why owls have evolved to fly quietly.
Dr. Clark grew up in Seattle where he started birdwatching at age 15. After graduating from Washington State University with a degree in Zoology, he received his Ph.D. at UC Berkeley in 2009. He then worked in the Peabody Museum at Yale University before starting a faculty position in the Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology department at UC Riverside.
This talk is recommended for high school and up. Please register – the Zoom meeting link will be sent in the confirmation. If you have trouble registering or have any questions, please contact Sirena Lao, Environmental Education and Outreach Specialist, at slao@sfbbo.org.
This program is possible thanks to the support of SFBBO donors. To help keep these events going, we hope you’ll consider making a suggested donation of $5 or more if you can. Your tax-deductible donation helps us make these events available to the public and engage broad audiences with birds, nature, science, and conservation. You may donate in increments of $5 below or click here to donate a different amount.

Birding By Ear
2021-04-08 19:00 - 20:30 | Online
BIRDING BY EAR: SPRING

INSTRUCTOR: DENISE WIGHT

Six Zoom sessions on Thursdays

Spring! The best time to throw yourself into the cacophony of bird songs! We will virtually explore (via Zoom) various East Bay locations and the birds we’re most likely to hear. We will compare similar songs of local birds as well as go over tips and hints on how to get the most out of your spring listening experience.
Although we cannot meet as a group due to COVID, we will cover 6 recommended locations for bird listening.
Six (6) Thursday evening Zoom presentations, April 8 to May 13; 7 to 8:30 p.m.
Six (6) suggested field trips (on your own) − mornings are best
Waitlist available for this class.
Instructor: Denise Wight
Cost $125.00 flat fee for members and non-members
Registration opens on Monday, March 1st at 9 am and closes on Wednesday, March 31st at 9 am.
Limited to 20 participants.

California Beaver Summit Day 2: Beaver Dynamics—Ecosystems and Restoration
2021-04-09 13:00 - 17:00 | Online

Puzzling Pairs: An Id Workshop
2021-04-09 19:00 - 20:30 | Online
Puzzling Pairs: An Id Workshop with Oliver James & Adrian Hinkle
Spring is here—the perfect time to brush up on your ID chops! Need to recalibrate on the difference between female House and Purple Finch? Is the jury still out on whether that’s a pewee or a dreaded empidonax? Oliver and Adrian will break down a series of notoriously subtle identification challenges, using side-by-side visual comparisons of look alike species that frequent the Bay Area in Spring. Bring pencil and paper—and come ready to test your perception with fun pop Zoom quizzes.
Adrian Hinkle recently moved to California to study water issues as a UC Berkeley grad student. He enjoys leading field trips, exploring under-birded places with friends, and volunteering as an eBird reviewer and regional editor for North American Birds.
Oliver James got his start birding on Golden Gate Audubon Society field trips as a kid in Berkeley, CA. Today, he’s a grad student at UC Berkeley and serves on the Board at GGAS. He’s also the author and illustrator of Birds of Berkeley (Heyday Press).
This event will take place online via Zoom and last approximately 60-75 minutes. Registrants will be sent a link and password to access the Zoom. The session will be recorded, and registrants will have access to the recording on the web for two weeks after the event, regardless of whether they attend the live presentation.

Vernal Pool Wildflower Tour At Woodland Regional Park
2021-04-10 09:00 - 12:00 | Online
Tuleyome is hosting a tour of the wildflowers at Woodland Regional Park, highlighting the sensitive vernal pool areas. Due to COVID-19 and the sensitive nature of the vernal pools onsite, this tour will be held via Zoom. California Naturalist, Nate Lillge will be in the field live-streaming while Tuleyome Board member, Dr. Glen Holstein, will provide information about each of the flowers.
After registering, participants will be sent an email with the meeting ID and password. During the tour, you will be able to ask questions via Zoom’s chat feature. If you have any questions, please contact Nate at nlillge@tuleyome.org.

Behind The Gates At Hayward Marsh
2021-04-11 19:00 - 20:30 | Online
Behind The Gates At Hayward Marsh with Bob Lewis
Stopping at the Hayward visitors center to pick up a key and enjoy the Barn and Cliff Swallows collecting mud, we’ll make our way to the gate to the Hayward freshwater marsh just beyond. We’ve been coming here for about 10 years now, and we always see something special. We hope we see Least Terns and Black Skimmers on the sandy islands, and one or two (one year THREE) species of Phalaropes on their way to their breeding grounds! Some rarities may fly by—Black Scoter or Laughing Gull perhaps? Join us on a very pleasant spring walk via Zoom to a special place, full of birds!
Bob Lewis is a long-time Bay Area birder, photographer, and birding instructor, and a new-time Zoomologist, giving bird-related talks to senior homes, Audubon groups, libraries and Photo clubs.
This event will take place online via Zoom and last approximately 60-75 minutes. Registrants will be sent a link and password to access the Zoom. The session will be recorded, and registrants will have access to the recording on the web for two weeks after the event, regardless of whether they attend the live presentation.

Condors Of Pinnacles
2021-04-13 19:00 - 20:30 | Online
Condors Of Pinnacles with Rusty Scalf & Richard Neidhardt
The bird and the place are both national treasures. The California Condor is the largest bird in North America, recovering from near-extinction in the 1970s due to the pesticide DDT. Pinnacles National Park—a release and research site for these birds—is a 23 million-year-old rhyolitic volcanic formation, one of the oldest known anywhere. The geology of the place is truly fascinating. Join Rusty Scalf and Richard Neidhardt for a 90-minute discussion of both Condors and Rhyolite.
Richard Neidhardt is a condor tracker with extensive experience radio-tracking condors on the ground and in the air, at Pinnacles and far flung locations in the California Coast Ranges. Rusty Scalf is a longtime Golden Gate Audubon birding instructor and trip leader, who leads a field trip to Pinnacles each spring as part of Birdathon.
This event will take place online via Zoom and last approximately 90 minutes. Registrants will be sent a link and password to access the Zoom. The session will be recorded, and registrants will have access to the recording on the web for two weeks after the event, regardless of whether they attend the live presentation.

Bird Sound Recording For Conservation And Research
2021-04-15 19:00 - 20:30 | Online
Presented by Greg Budney
This presentation will discuss how audio recording is used for conservation and research with examples ranging from the use of portable recording systems in tropical bird conservation, autonomous recorders for detection and monitoring, automated playback systems for reintroduction, and will also touch on related issues such as the ethics of playback. The talk will include brief discussion of individuals that have carried out this work.

Discovering Wood-warblers in Marin County: When Nesters Arrive and Where to Find Them
2021-04-15 19:30 - 21:30 | Online
Speaker: Daniel Edelstein
Host: Doug Waterman
Date: April 15th, 2021
Start time: 7:30 PM
End Time: 9:30 PM
Register for Zoom Webinar HERE
Which wood-warbler species typically nest annually in in Marin County and the North Bay region?
Which are year-round residents and when do returning spring migrant species arrive?
And why do vagrant wood-warblers in fall visit the Outer Point at Point Reyes National Seashore?
These questions and others will be addressed in this virtual, Zoom slide show highlighting one of our area’s most captivating bird families.
In creating this program, Avian Biologist and Birding Guide Daniel Edelstein utilizes his 30+ years of watching wood-warblers throughout the USA to discuss both common and rare Marin County/North Bay wood-warbler species.
A professional Birding Guide (WarblerWatch.com) since the mid-1980s, Daniel Edelstein works full-time as a freelance, Consulting Avian Biologist, Environmental Scientist, and is a Certified Wildlife Biologist Associate. He has presented birding programs and led tours in more than 20 USA states. In addition, he teaches college-level birding classes as an Adjunct Faculty member in the Biology Department at Merritt College (Oakland, CA) (Merritt.edu). His popular blog — WarblerWatch.blogspot.com — featuring wood-warbler articles and photo quizzes is now 15 years old.

Mitchell Canyon Birding Hotspot—Spring Migration
2021-04-21 19:00 - 20:00 | Online
Spring in the East Bay outdoors means enjoying comfortable weather, looking at beautiful wildflowers, and greeting the colorful migratory birds flying up from further south that either settle here to find mates and nest, or stop briefly before continuing up north. Mitchell Canyon, on the north slope of Mount Diablo and lying within Mount Diablo State Park, is known by birders as perhaps the best place around to see this annual rush of feathered color and song.
Logon at 7pm on April 21st for the next Mount Diablo Interpretive Association virtual presentation to see some beautiful birds, fascinating migratory maps and learn what we all must do to help Mitchell Canyon’s beautiful birds survive. Presented by Juan Pablo Galván Martínez (Mount Diablo State Park volunteer, Mount Diablo Audubon Society Conservation Chair, and Senior Land Use Manager for Save Mount Diablo).

Finding Rarities In The East Bay
2021-04-21 19:00 - 20:30 | Online
Finding Rarities In The East Bay with Alex Henry
The East Bay is home to an impressive variety of habitats—from vast tidal mudflats, to rolling grassland hills, to the pine-oak woodlands of the interior Coast Range. Corresponding to these varied landscapes is an incredible diversity of avifauna. Join us for a chronological exploration of the bird life of the East Bay, with a focus on strategies for finding the rarer and more sought-after species we are fortunate enough to have in the area.
Alex Henry is a lifelong nature enthusiast and shameless bird-nerd. Although only a recent resident of the Bay Area, Alex has spent countless hours exploring the many wild places the East Bay has to offer, and is excited at the opportunity to share what he’s learned in those explorations. And, although he’s too self-effacing to recount this, he was the number one birder in Alameda County on eBird last year.
This event will take place online via Zoom and last approximately 60-75 minutes. Registrants will be sent a link and password to access the Zoom. The session will be recorded, and registrants will have access to the recording on the web for two weeks after the event, regardless of whether they attend the live presentation.

Point Reyes Birding & Nature Virtual Festival
2021-04-22 09:00 - 2021-04-25 19:00 | Online
Join us in celebration of the 12th Annual Point Reyes Birding & Nature VIRTUAL Festival & EAC’s 50th Anniversary
April 22nd – 25th, 2021 | 9:00 am to 7:00 pm ( Pacific time) each day
Due to the pandemic uncertainty and restrictions, our team has to decided to prioritize the health and safety of our community by hosting our annual event virtually over our regularly scheduled festival dates from April 22nd – April 25th, 2021 from 9:00 am to 7:00 pm ( Pacific time) each day.
Together with our amazing guides, we are building a virtual 4-day conference offering over 24 webinars with some of our local guides, and new guides from around the country, and beyond all for one flat fee. EAC members will receive reduced pricing for our LIVE STREAM ONLY PASS or the LIVE STREAM + VIDEO PASS. Stay tuned for more info, our schedule and registration details in early March 2021.
Sponsors are encouraged, and receive special perks including (4) additional exclusive, Live-Only Keynote Meet & Greets Zoom meetings, plus chances to win special prizes. Each sponsor gift or additional donation to the cause will be matched up to $10,000 by our Albatross sponsor!
Gifts are 100% tax-deductible minus any benefits received. This a great way to support our annual mission, and helps us to keep our pricing low, and provide scholarships when needed. Learn More.

Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour
2021-04-25 10:00 - 15:00, 2021-05-02 10:00 - 15:00, 2021-05-16 10:00 - 15:00, 2021-05-23 10:00 - 15:00 | Online
In a series of live garden visits passionate garden owners and the talented designers of the Bay Area’s most beautiful and inspiring landscapes will show us what’s happening in the garden now, feature their favorite natives, describe their great native plant gardening resources, and more.

Magic Of Mitchell Canyon
2021-04-27 19:00 - 20:30 | Online
Magic Of Mitchell Canyon with Maureen Lahiff
Since riparian habitat is scarce in the San Francisco Bay Area, Mitchell Canyon, on the north side of Mount Diablo, is a magnet for migrating birds seeking a refueling stop. In addition to migrants, we’ll also see and hear a number of permanent residents and summer nesting birds. We’ll look for warblers and flycatchers and enjoy early wildflowers and butterflies while walking along Mitchell Creek, traversing chaparral, and spending some time under a variety of mature trees.
Maureen Lahiff was part of the first cohort of the Golden Gate Audubon Society/Cal Academy of Sciences Master Birder Program in 2013 and is a California Naturalist. She is a Lake Merritt docent and leads field trips and teaches classes for GGAS adult ed. She’s been leading trips at Mitchell Canyon for GGAS and for Birdathon for several years.
This event will take place online via Zoom and last approximately 60-75 minutes. Registrants will be sent a link and password to access the Zoom. The session will be recorded, and registrants will have access to the recording on the web for two weeks after the event, regardless of whether they attend the live presentation.

Monthly Program: May 2021
2021-05-06 19:00 - 21:00 | Zoom, CA, United States
Photo by Ivan Phillipsen

Picture from one of the YES Nature Day Outings at a local Regional Park. Photo credit to YES N2N
Birding Info: In partnership with nature, YES Nature to Neighborhoods nurtures leaders who champion the wellbeing of our community. Eric Aaholm, Executive Director, and Luis Pacheco, YLP Program Manager for YES will discuss its role in developing strong youth and adult leaders starting as young as age eight via engagement in both nearby nature and backcountry settings.

Rufous-capped Warbler, photo by Ivan Phillipsen
Main Program: Birdlife of Oaxaca with Ivan Phillipsen

The Mexican state of Oaxaca (pronounced “wuh-HOCK-uh“) is incredibly rich with biodiversity. From high-elevation interior valleys, to mountains, rainforests, and tropical coastlines, Oaxaca has a wide variety of natural habitats. This region is a great destination for birding and for enjoying cultural wonders. There are ancient pyramids and temples to explore just outside Oaxaca City. The ethnic cuisine of the city is world-famous. Other cultural delights include elaborate wood carvings, pottery, and a vibrant mescal industry.
Birdlife includes neotropical migrants and charismatic resident species. Oaxaca has a few wonderful endemic species and near-endemics, including the Oaxaca Sparrow, Dwarf Jay, and Blue-capped Hummingbird. In this presentation, Ivan Phillipsen will describe the ecoregions and habitats of Oaxaca and present some birding and wildlife highlights of the state. He’ll also touch on some of the cultural aspects that travelers can enjoy there.

Ivan Phillipsen is a professional naturalist guide with a background in scientific research. He’s the co-owner of a small birding/nature tour company, Wild Latitudes. He is also the creator and host of a podcast called The Science of Birds.
Ivan has loved animals and nature his whole life. His first obsession was with amphibians and reptiles. This interest led him to graduate school, where he studied amphibians. After earning a Masters degree in Biology and a PhD in Zoology, he did postdoctoral research on aquatic insects.
Along the way, his love of nature expanded to include plants, fungi, and all animals, including birds. Birds have become Ivan’s greatest passion. He’s an avid birder and loves sharing in the joy of birds with his tour participants. Some places where Ivan leads natural history tours are Mexico, Iceland, Alaska, Uganda, and Fiji.

California’s Iconic Oaks and Their Many Relations
2021-05-19 19:00 - 20:00 | Online
Oaks support more life forms than any other tree in North America, and California’s oaks are no exception. In a presentation filled with woodpeckers, woodrats, Wood Ducks, and many other organisms, author and naturalist Kate Marianchild will explain why oaks play such an important role in oak woodland food webs. She will talk about animals that rely on oaks for food, shelter, foraging substrate, and more, and oak mistletoe as a keystone genus. We’ll hear about the eleven functions of a gray squirrel’s tail, and we’ll marvel at the tiny wasps who bend oaks to their bidding. We will crawl with Kate through woodrat mansions, fight for breeding opportunities with Acorn Woodpeckers, and navigate through an oak with the third eye of the western fence lizard. Who could stay away?

Blackbirds—A Journey Through the Americas
2021-05-20 17:00 - 18:00 | Online
The Icteridae are the blackbirds, but they include many colorful species such as the orioles and meadowlarks as well as the all-black species, such as cowbirds and grackles. Some of the tropical species, such as the oropendolas are downright amazing-looking and sounding birds. This group of birds is only found in the Americas and they are amongst our most interesting of landbirds, behavior, mating strategies, and breeding biology is more diverse than in any other group of songbirds in our continent. This talk is to introduce people to the awesomely interesting group of birds. After this talk, you won’t walk by a Brewer’s Blackbird or Red-winged Blackbird without thinking about how much more complex they are than a sparrow or a warbler. Our quest to see the diversity of the blackbirds will also take us to some interesting parts of the American continent and the Caribbean.
Alvaro Jaramillo is an Affiliated Senior Biologist with SFBBO and the owner of Alvaro’s Adventures where he leads workshops and birding trips throughout the world. He has a B.S. in Zoology and an M.S. in Ecology and Evolution from the University of Toronto, and also conducted research at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia. He is an author and contributor to numerous field guides and popular publications, including the American Birding Association Field Guide to Birds of California and New World Blackbirds.

NightSchool: Songbirds in Spring
2021-05-20 19:00 - 20:00 | Online
Signs of spring: flowers, pollinators, and bird songs. If you’ve noticed more avian chatter, movement, and transportation of nesting material, it’s because it’s bird breeding season. Join the California Academy of Sciences to learn about how scientists monitor the health of California songbird populations and get a peek into the Academy’s stunning collection of eggs and nests.
To-dos for songbirds during the breeding season: Build a nest, keep hungry nestlings fed, and protect nest from predators. Hilary Allen, Avian Ecologist at Point Blue Conservation Science, talks about the sneaky and fascinating behavior of songbirds, and what nest monitoring can teach us about their reproductive success, fitness, and survival.
Because most birds sing when they are on their breeding territories, trained observers often survey birds by recognizing their unique calls and songs. Jack Dumbacher, Academy Curator of Ornithology, will talk about how this is done now, and introduce some of the exciting new technologies that researchers are developing to use song and automated recording units to scale up songbird surveys.
Collections manager Moe Flannery is back, taking viewers behind-the-scenes to explore some of the incredible songbird eggs and nests that are part of the ornithology collections. Now that birds are busy nest-building, it’s the perfect time of year to observe the intricacies and diversity of songbird construction and to marvel at the size of hummingbird eggs.
All NightLife virtual programming is intended for audiences 21+.

The Breeding Seabirds of Alcatraz Island and Climate Change
2021-05-20 19:00 - 20:30 | Online
Presented by Lidia D’Amico and Zoe Burr
In this event, Lidia D’Amico (National Park Service Alcatraz Biologist) and Zoe Burr (Farallon Institute Seabird Biologist) will dive into the world of Alcatraz seabirds. They will tell you about several species that typically breed on the island every spring and summer, and the threats these birds are facing from climate change and living in an urban environment. Alcatraz Island sits in a unique position within the San Francisco Bay and as a result is one of only two estuarine breeding colonies for Brandt’s cormorants.

Lindsay at Home: Hospital Behind the Scenes
2021-05-23 11:00 - 11:30 | Online
An exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the Lindsay Wildlife Rehabilitation Hospital as their veterinary staff treats a wildlife patient! Join them at 11:00 AM Sunday, May 23 live on Zoom for “Lindsay at Home: Hospital BTS” and explore the fascinating world of wildlife rehabilitation. This half-hour online program is perfect for all ages and gives you unparalleled access to a working wildlife hospital. Be sure to bring your questions!

Bird Identification Techniques Workshop 2021—Part 1
2021-05-24 18:00 - 20:00 | Online
There are many challenges to becoming a birder, particularly if you want to know what everything you are looking at is! In other words, you want to put a name to a face. The problem is that it does take a lot of practice; the good thing is that practice is birding, and that is fun! One major challenge is that we focus so much of field marks that sometimes we do not see the forest for the trees. The real way we identify birds is by looking at them not as parts, but as wholes, not only in pattern and color, but also in the way they move and behave. In addition, we hardly ever focus on one of the most important features on a bird: the face! This workshop begins with getting you to understand how the brain identifies birds–the psychology and brain science behind bird identification. We use that to understand how we can best use our innate skills at recognition to apply this to birding. We also discuss tips and tricks that apply to certain groups of birds and facilitate their identification. We think about techniques that may work to speed up learning birds and also tips on how to get better at bird identification even when you are not out in the field on a birding trip. Your computer can even be a learning tool! This will be a holistic, multi-faceted workshop on bird identification. I guarantee to you that it will not be like any birding how-to classes you have attended before. I am hoping you will come out of it with a brand-new outlook on bird identification, and one that will hopefully take away some of the frustration felt in trying to identify birds yourself!
Alvaro Jaramillo is an internationally known ornithologist and expert. Alvaro has a B.S. in Zoology and an M.S. in Ecology and Evolution from the University of Toronto, and also conducted research at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia. An expert on the birds of California and North America, he wrote the American Birding Association Field Guide to Birds of California and New World Blackbirds. He is also an authority on the birds of Chile, authoring Birds of Chile (2003), collaborating on Chile’s Important Bird Areas program, and helping to identify a new bird species there, Oceanites pincoyae (Pincoya Storm-Petrel). An author and contributor to numerous field guides and popular publications, Alvaro’s passion is not only to understand the biology and natural history of birds, but to enrich other’s enjoyment of birds and further avian conservation and he leads birding trips throughout the world with his company, Alvaro’s Adventures.

Bird Identification Techniques Workshop 2021—Part 2
2021-05-26 18:00 - 20:00 | Online

The Nature of Oaks with Douglas Tallamy
2021-05-27 17:00 - 18:00 | Online
Join the Marin Art and Garden Center for an event celebrating one of the most important species of the plant kingdom—the mighty oak tree. In this virtual presentation, Author Doug Tallamy will introduce his new book, The Nature of Oaks.
Oaks sustain a complex and fascinating web of wildlife. The Nature of Oaks reveals what is going on in oak trees month by month, highlighting the seasonal cycles of life, death, and renewal. From woodpeckers who collect and store hundreds of acorns for sustenance to the beauty of jewel caterpillars, Tallamy illuminates and celebrates the wonders that occur right in our own backyards. He also shares practical advice about how to plant and care for an oak, along with information about the best oak species for our area.

Queer Birds: Community Inclusion, Community Building, and Community Science
2021-06-02 19:00 - 20:00 | Online
In the early 2000s, LBGT rights were under attack; there was no marriage equality, and LGBTQ people often felt unsafe in the field. To build a veritable, ongoing community, a group of LGBTQ birders banded together to start what is now called QBNA—Queer Birders of North America. Local Bay Area birder Jennifer Rycenga spearheaded the west coast organizing efforts for this group, which has now flourished for almost two decades, with biennial birding trips both nationally and abroad. The community built up through QBNA has always been open to all allies of the cause, and has been the occasion for genuine solidarity with many straight birders. This model of open, accepting community parallels the 21st century growth in Community Science projects like eBird, iNaturalist, and the BioBlitz movement. This talk will look at the history of LGBTQ birders and QBNA in particular, and the rapid growth of community science in the Bay Area, as examples of how birding can create and sustain diverse communities of people.
Jennifer serves as the Board President of Sequoia Audubon. Jennifer teaches at San Jose State University in Humanities.

Life in a Salty Desert: How Song Sparrows Have Adapted to Life in the San Francisco Bay
2021-06-03 17:00 - 18:00 | Online
Sparrows are one of the most widespread bird species across North America—but the Song Sparrows of the San Francisco Bay aren’t just any ordinary backyard bird. These birds are the only Song Sparrows equipped to survive in the harsh, inhospitable environment of the salt marsh. Each arm of the Bay is home to a different subspecies, making this a hotspot for genetic diversity. Learn what makes these little brown birds different from all the rest, and why it is so important to protect their native habitat.
Chloe Mikles is a first-year PhD student at the Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University. She has a B.S. in Animal Science from Cornell University, where she worked with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology studying evolutionary biology in songbirds. She has studied birds in Kenya and Australia, but the birds of the San Francisco Bay are the most fascinating to her. Chloe is passionate about sharing her love for the outdoors and research with others. Check out her website and follow her on Twitter.
