Magic & Mystery Of Migration - 4 sessions on Tuesdays
2021-09-07 19:00 - 20:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Online
This summer, somewhere in Canada, a Blackpoll Warbler will hatch, fledge, and grow to young adulthood. Come August, this half-ounce bird will fly 3,000 miles to the Maritime provinces and then out over the Atlantic Ocean to catch a northwest tail wind that will take it south to around Bermuda. A northeast trade wind will carry it back to land to complete its 80-hour journey over 2,000 miles of open ocean. Why? Join Bruce Mast for a four-week exploration of the magic and mystery of bird migration. We’ll consider why birds migrate, how they navigate, how they fuel their marathon flights, and the evolutionary forces that have shaped migration over the millennia.
Recordings of the lecture presentations will be available to class participants for a limited period of time.

Instructor: Bruce Mast
Four 1 ½ hour Tuesday classes via Zoom, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. on September 7, 14, 21, and 28.
$50 for GGAS members, $75 for non-members.

Note that we are also offering two sets of optional six-hour field trips — on Saturdays September 18 and October 2, OR on Sundays September 19 and October 3 — for an additional fee of $100/members or $125/non-members. Field trips run from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., and locations will be provided to registered participants. Each set of trips is limited to 10 people.
If you ONLY want to sign up for the Zoom classes, click HERE or use the “Register” button below. (Cost of $50/members or $75/non-members.)
If you wish to sign up for the class plus the optional Saturday field trips, click HERE. (Total cost of $150/members or $200/non-members.)
If you wish to sign up for the class plus the optional Sunday field trips, click HERE. (Total cost of $150/members or $200/non-members.)
MDAS members pay the same rate as GGAS members!

Registration opens: July 1, 2021

Limited to 95 participants

Snowy Plover Conservation in the Bay Area
2021-09-09 17:00 - 18:30 | Online
Snowy Plover Conservation in the Bay Area: Successes and Challenges in a Shifting Landscape
The Western Snowy Plover (Charadrius nivosus nivosus) is a federally threatened, ground-nesting shorebird species that breeds, roosts, and forages along the Pacific Coast from Southern Washington down to the tip of Baja California. While their typical habitat across the range is sandy beaches, within the San Francisco Bay, where up to 10% of the range-wide breeding population may be found, Snowy Plovers instead utilize salt panne habitat found within former salt production ponds. Snowy Plovers in the Bay Area face unique challenges to recovery compared to other parts of the range due to their habitat type and location within a large urbanized area. For close to 20 years, SFBBO has been working closely with federal, state, and local agencies to better understand these challenges and help Snowy Plovers meet regional recovery goals. This talk will focus on recent Snowy Plover conservation successes and challenges within the South Bay, especially within Alameda County, which annually holds the majority of Snowy Plover breeding in the Bay Area.
Ben Pearl is a science director at SFBBO who specializes in Snowy Plover and Least Tern research and conservation. Ben grew up in San Luis Obispo, where he attained an early love for nature exploring the nearby tide pools and oak forests. He completed his B.S. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at U.C. Santa Cruz, and first came to SFBBO while beginning his Masters at San Jose State University. For his Master’s thesis, he examined how various factors affect plover foraging habitat selection during the winter in the South San Francisco Bay.
Please register – the Zoom link will be sent in the confirmation. If you have any questions, please contact Sirena Lao, Environmental Education and Outreach Specialist, at slao@sfbbo.org.
This program is possible thanks to SFBBO donors with additional support from Cargill. 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, click here to donate a different amount, or contact us for other ways to donate.

Nature Journaling At Lake Merritt - 10 sessions
2021-09-09 19:00 - 20:00 | Online and Field Trip
Instructor: Clay Anderson
10 sessions on Thursdays and Saturdays
Venue: Zoom and field trips to Lake Merritt
Come celebrate nature on Lake Merritt. Our nature journal class spans the myriad issues surrounding Lake Merritt’s natural world and the practice of nature journaling. Come share your love of journaling and commune with others of like mind. This year-round course charts the evolution of Lake Merritt’s seasons as the oldest Wildlife Refuge in the United States!

Islands created for birds in Lake Merritt
Photo by Ilana DeBare
Zoom meetings on the 2nd Thursday evening of each month, September through June, with Lake Merritt field trips on the Saturday morning after the lecture.

Classes by Zoom on the second Thursday of each month, from 7 to 8 p.m.
Field trips at Lake Merritt on the Saturday morning after each Zoom meeting, from 7 to 8:30 a.m.
$200 for GGAS members, $250 for non-members.

The meeting spot for field trips will be provided during each monthly class. Once this class is full, you may sign up to be on a waiting list.
MDAS members pay the same rate as GGAS members!

Registration opens: July 1, 2021

Limited to 12 participants

Birds & Mammals of Tanzania
2021-09-09 19:30 - 21:30 | Online
Speaker: Wendy Dreskin
Famous for having the biggest concentrations of large mammals on the planet, Tanzania is also an exciting birding destination. This presentation will feature birds travelers would be likely to see on a safari to Northern Tanzania in the winter, before migratory birds have left for their breeding grounds, as well as some of the large mammals. Birds you will meet include the Hammerkop, a compulsive nest-builder, the Sacred Ibis, extirpated from Egypt but easily seen in Tanzania, the vulnerable Southern Ground Hornbill, the endangered Saddlebilled Stork and other storks, Ostriches, Coursers, Bee Eaters, the Secretary Bird, and a variety of eagles.
Wendy Dreskin is a professional nature educator. She has been teaching the popular class, Meandering in Marin, at College of Marin for over 20 years as well as teaching nature education classes for children. She has been leading trips to Tanzania since 2014.
Photos in the presentation are by William Dreskin, an award-winning photographer whose photographs have appeared in books and magazines including Marin, and Bay Nature. He has exhibited in numerous galleries and national exhibitions, and his photographs are in private and corporate collections.

The Changing Seasons—Birds of the East Bay Hills with Bob Lewis
2021-09-14 18:00 - 19:00 | Online
The Bay Area is rich in varying habitats that are home to many bird species. As the seasons change, some birds arrive, others depart, and some just stay here at home. We’ll talk about many bird species that can be found in our gardens, with some discussion of things one can do to enrich these bird habitats. The talk includes many illustrations of our local birds.
Bob trained as a chemist and worked in the energy industry for 33 years. He’s taught birding classes in the San Francisco Bay Area for over 25 years and is the past chair of Golden Gate Audubon’s Adult Education Committee. His life bird list is over 5000 species, and he loves to travel. He’s an award-winning photographer, focusing on birds. Bob was honored with American Birding Association’s Chandler Robbins Award for Education and Conservation in 2016 and GGAS’ Paul Covel Award for Education in 2017.
Register with your email to attend live and the Zoom information will be sent to you on the day of the event. The event will be closed captioned.

Fall Rarities: Searching For The Unexpected (Session 1)
2021-09-16 19:00 - 20:30 | Online and Field Trip
Instructor: Alex Henry
For Bay Area birders, finding rarities in the fall is part of the fun. Our location on the edge of the Pacific Americas Flyway brings many species of birds through our area on their way south. Birds that normally migrate over the ocean get blown off course and land in the Bay Area, while off-course birds that normally migrate over the North American continent may stop in the Bay Area to avoid going out over open ocean. In many species, the adults begin migration before the juveniles, so young birds may get lost and spend a few days here. By studying when and where these off-course migrants are seen, and what weather patterns are associated with their arrival, we can attempt to predict their occurrence and increase our chances of crossing paths with them.
Join Alameda County birder Alex Henry for a Zoom lecture presentation and field trip to sharpen your skills and hunt for fall rarities.
To maximize opportunities, we’re offering two separate sessions of this class: This one in September and another one in October. Choose whichever class works best for you. (The material in each session is the same.) Field trip locations and directions will be announced in class.
Recordings of the lecture presentations will be available to class participants for a limited period of time. These two classes are the first of a series. We plan to offer similar winter, spring and summer rarity classes.

Zoom lecture on Thursday September 16, from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m.
Field trip on Sunday, September 19. Time to be announced.
Lectures are via Zoom. Field trip locations will be announced in class.
Each class is limited to 20 participants.
$40 for GGAS members, $60 for non-members.

If the class is full, you may sign up to be on a waiting list.

MDAS members pay the same rate as GGAS members!
Registration opens: July 1, 2021

Limited to 20 participants

Purple Martins In The Central Valley: Going, Going, Gone?
2021-09-16 19:00 - 21:00 | Online
Featuring Dan Airola
Thursday, September 16 — 7 p.m. via Zoom
Male Purple Martins in Sacramento, by Lisa Alvarez
Purple Martins have been in long-term decline in California due to factors such as habitat loss, competition with the European Starling, disturbance from construction projects, and declines in their insect food supply due to neonicotinoid insecticide use. Dan Airola has been studying and working for over two decades to conserve the last Central Valley population of Purple Martins, which nest in elevated freeways and overpasses in Sacramento. This program will present his study results and describe conservation measures that have been implemented and are needed to protect this species and help it recover.
About the Speaker
Dan Airola is a wildlife biologist and ornithologist who has worked for over 40 years on bird conservation issues in Northern California. His recent research addresses status, ecology, migration, and conservation of at-risk species including the Tricolored Blackbird, Swainson’s Hawk, Yellow-billed Magpie, fire-adapted forest species, and migrant songbirds. Dan also serves the Central Valley Bird Club as a Director, Conservation Chair, and editor of the journal Central Valley Birds.

California Coastal Cleanup 2021
2021-09-18 | CA
Participate in the CA Coastal Commission’s Coastal Cleanup Day on September 18, and throughout the month!
Due to COVID, organized cleanups won’t be scheduled by our local Contra Costa Resource Conservation District, but they encourage you to do your own self-guided one. The District has resources to make this easier. See their cleanup page HERE.

Advanced Beginning Birding – Morning Lectures
2021-09-22 10:30 - 12:00 | Online and Field Trip
Instructor: Anne Hoff
5 sessions on Wednesdays and Sundays
Venue: Zoom plus field trips
Did the Covid lockdown spark or renew your interest in birding? Want to move beyond being able to tell a robin from a jay and be able to sort out the sparrows? Moved across the country and finding new birds? Or maybe you’re finally retired and have time to do what you love? Outdoors person who wants to enhance the experience? Or maybe you took a beginning birding class and want more?

White-tailed Kite by Mark Rauzon
This Advanced Beginning class is geared to people who meet all those descriptions and more. Participants must have and use binoculars confidently. Field trips will be to East Bay shoreline, woodland, riparian, and grassland locations. This class will help you understand the various bird families and work on tricky IDs. It will also introduce you to community science (bird counting/monitoring) activities and current bird conservation issues.
Recordings of the lecture presentations will be available to class participants for a limited period of time. Please note that we are also offering a version of this class with Zoom lectures in the evening. Choose whichever fits your schedule! The content is the same in both classes.

Five Wednesday morning classes by Zoom on September 22, 29, and October 6, 13, 20, from 10:30 a.m. to 12 noon.
Five three-hour field trips to a different site every week, on Sundays September 26 and October 3, 10, 17, 24, from 9 a.m. to 12 noon.
Lectures are via Zoom. Field trip locations will be announced in class. Field trips meet at the field trip site. Carpooling is encouraged if you are comfortable sharing a ride.
Must have binoculars and use them competently.
$125 for GGAS members, $150 for non-members.

Once this class is full, you may sign up to be on a waiting list.

MDAS members pay the same rate as GGAS members!
Registration opens: July 1, 2021

Limited to 12 participants

Advanced Beginning Birding – Evening Lectures
2021-09-22 10:30 - 12:00 | Online and Field Trip
Instructor: Anne Hoff
5 sessions on Wednesdays and Sundays
Venue: Zoom plus field trips
Did the Covid lockdown spark or renew your interest in birding? Want to move beyond being able to tell a robin from a jay and be able to sort out the sparrows? Moved across the country and finding new birds? Or maybe you’re finally retired and have time to do what you love? Outdoors person who wants to enhance the experience? Or maybe you took a beginning birding class and want more?

White-tailed Kite by Mark Rauzon
This Advanced Beginning class is geared to people who meet all those descriptions and more. Participants must have and use binoculars confidently. Field trips will be to East Bay shoreline, woodland, riparian, and grassland locations. This class will help you understand the various bird families and work on tricky IDs. It will also introduce you to community science (bird counting/monitoring) activities and current bird conservation issues.
Recordings of the lecture presentations will be available to class participants for a limited period of time. Please note that we are also offering a version of this class with Zoom lectures in the evening. Choose whichever fits your schedule! The content is the same in both classes.

Five Wednesday evening classes by Zoom on September 22, 29, and October 6, 13, 20, from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30p.m.
Five three-hour field trips to a different site every week, on Sundays September 26 and October 3, 10, 17, 24, from 9 a.m. to 12 noon.
Lectures are via Zoom. Field trip locations will be announced in class. Field trips meet at the field trip site. Carpooling is encouraged if you are comfortable sharing a ride.
Must have binoculars and use them competently.
$125 for GGAS members, $150 for non-members.

Once this class is full, you may sign up to be on a waiting list.

MDAS members pay the same rate as GGAS members!
Registration opens: July 1, 2021

Limited to 12 participants

Feathered Hunters – Identifying Raptors with Bob Lewis
2021-09-28 18:00 - 19:00 | Online
Raptors include hawks, falcons, eagles, vultures, and owls. They are efficient hunters, catching a variety of prey from small mammals and birds to snakes and large insects, using razor-sharp talons. Although identification may seem a bit difficult at first, with a little experience it is possible to identify many raptors in flight as well as when they are perched. We’ll look at raptor taxonomy to understand differences between the various families and learn identifying characteristics of Bay Area species. The talk will be illustrated with many interesting images of these birds.
Bob trained as a chemist and worked in the energy industry for 33 years. He’s taught birding classes in the San Francisco Bay Area for over 25 years and is the past chair of Golden Gate Audubon’s Adult Education Committee. His life bird list is over 5000 species, and he loves to travel. He’s an award-winning photographer, focusing on birds. Bob was honored with American Birding Association’s Chandler Robbins Award for Education and Conservation in 2016 and GGAS’ Paul Covel Award for Education in 2017.
Register with your email to attend live and the Zoom information will be sent to you on the day of the event. The event will be closed captioned.

Avian Adventures In The Bay Area
2021-09-30 18:00 - 19:30 | Online and Field Trip
Instructor: Miya Lucas And Wendy Beers
6 sessions on Thursdays and weekends
Venue: Zoom plus field trips
Fall is an avian wonder in the Bay Area. Our location on the Pacific Flyway brings many migrants through as they head south for the winter. This class will introduce you to some of these visitors, both their visual field marks and their songs and calls. Of course we’ll also include our large and diverse resident bird population. We will also introduce you to the miracles of avian physiology in small, focused vignettes.

Sora by MIya Lucas
This class welcomes both beginning and intermediate birders, and those who want to hone up on their bird identification skills. Lectures will not be recorded.

Six Thursday evening classes by Zoom, on September 30, October 7, 14, 21, 28, November 4, from 6 to 7:30 p.m.
Five weekend field trips to a different habitat each week on Saturday or Sunday. For the last weekend (November 6 and 7) we’ll take an overnight trip to the Sacramento Delta and Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge. This trip will last from Saturday morning through Sunday noon, and participants are responsible for their own lodging. (Although we will provide recommendations about where to stay.)
Start times for most field trips will be 8 a.m. but some will start around noon, due to tides. Two field trip sites involve steep uphill climbs.
Lectures are via Zoom. Field trip locations will be announced in class.
$175 for GGAS members, $200 for non-members.

Once this class is full, you may sign up to be on a waiting list.
MDAS members pay the same rate as GGAS members!

Registration opens: July 1, 2021

Limited to 30 participants

Birding By Ear
2021-09-30 19:00 - 20:30 | Online and Field Trip
Instructor: Denise Wight
6 sessions on Thursdays and Saturdays
Venue: Zoom plus field trips
Autumn is a great time to start slow and learn some of our local bird sounds. This class will introduce you to 20 common birds found in the East Bay in fall. We will cover a wide variety of techniques used for learning bird sounds, as well as prepare and review bird sounds we might expect on each location. Field trip will focus on all the bird sounds we hear as well visual important visual comparisons.

Northern Mockingbird with toyon berries by Steve Zamek
This 6-week course will take place between September 30 and November 13, with a possible week off in the middle to the instructor’s need to travel for a special family celebration that is still being planned. Due to the interactive nature of this course, class presentations will not be recorded.
Please visit the instructor’s website for more information: DENISEWIGHTBIRDS.COM/

Six Thursday evening classes by Zoom, between September 30 and November 11— from 7 to 8:30 pm.
Six Saturday morning field trips, 2 days after the lecture—from 8 to 11 a.m.
Lectures are via Zoom. Field trip locations will be announced on the instructor’s website.
Limited to 20 participants
$150 for GGAS members, $175 for non-members

Once the class is full, you may sign up to be on a waiting list.
MDAS members pay the same rate as GGAS members!

Registration opens: July 1, 2021

Limited to 20 participants

Birding In Marin—Abbotts Lagoon and the Inverness Tennis Area
2021-10-02 08:30 - 14:30 | CA
Birding with Jim White and Bob Battagin
Abbott’s Lagoon on the Pacific Coast in the Point Reyes National Seashore is one of Marin’s premier birding locations sporting an eBird sum of 283 species. Fall migration south along the coast brings many birds to this area. Some that we hope to see include Ferruginous Hawk, Baird’s and Pectoral Sandpipers, Red-necked Phalaropes, Lapland Longspur, Horned Lark, and Pipits. Hundreds of ducks of a dozen species, geese, herons, Peregrines, and Ospreys are also likely visitors. Plus you get some exercise; out and back is about 3 miles (some in sand) and Jim likes to do a full 5 mile loop. So pack a lunch for a picnic on the beach and bring a couple of layers for the fresh ocean air and help us spot a rarity.
We have tried to show people 200 species each year and this year’s late start makes that goal a very big challenge. To help bolster our lists, we plan to stop along Tomales Bay near the Inverness Tennis club to look for Pine and Alder woodland birds. A surprising number of species have been seen here and there is a nice little beach where we usually find several kinds of gulls.

MDAS/SMD Field Trip—Curry Canyon
2021-10-03 08:00 - 12:00 | Curry Canyon Ranch
Join us on a flat hike through Curry Canyon, Save Mount Diablo’s signature property on the eastern slope of Mount Diablo. We will look for some lingering fall migrants, early-arriving wintering birds, and raptors along this beautiful riparian corridor. This is a joint MDAS/SMD hike, and registration is through SMD’s Discover Diablo Event page. Leader: Jerry Britten, MDAS President
Photo by Save Mount Diablo

Register for this field trip HERE.
Hike rating: Moderate
4–5 miles round trip
Elevation: A few hundred feet
No parking fee
20 person limit

MDAS Field Trip—Elsie Roemer Bird Sanctuary
2021-10-04 09:00 - 13:00 | Elsie Roemer Bird Sanctuary, Shore Line Drive, Broadway, Alameda, CA, 94501, United States
Elsie Roemer Bird Sanctuary. A visit to the Alameda shoreline as the tide rises should produce good views of shorebirds. A viewing platform and trails will give us excellent opportunities to study these birds at close range. We may drive to other nearby locations for additional birding. Fifteen participants maximum.
Category 1: Easy, little or no walking, smooth paths.
Leader: Hugh Harvey
Register for this field trip HERE.
Long-billed Curlew at Elsie Roemer Bird SanctuaryPhoto: Rosita Harvey

Fall Rarities: Searching For The Unexpected (Session 2)
2021-10-07 19:00 - 20:30 | Online and Field Trip
Instructor: Alex Henry
For Bay Area birders, finding rarities in the fall is part of the fun. Our location on the edge of the Pacific Americas Flyway brings many species of birds through our area on their way south. Birds that normally migrate over the ocean get blown off course and land in the Bay Area, while off-course birds that normally migrate over the North American continent may stop in the Bay Area to avoid going out over open ocean. In many species, the adults begin migration before the juveniles, so young birds may get lost and spend a few days here. By studying when and where these off-course migrants are seen, and what weather patterns are associated with their arrival, we can attempt to predict their occurrence and increase our chances of crossing paths with them.
Join Alameda County birder Alex Henry for a Zoom lecture presentation and field trip to sharpen your skills and hunt for fall rarities.
To maximize opportunities, we’re offering two separate sessions of this class: This one in October and another one in September. Choose whichever class works best for you. (The material in each session is the same.) Field trip locations and directions will be announced in class.
Recordings of the lecture presentations will be available to class participants for a limited period of time. These two classes are the first of a series. We plan to offer similar winter, spring and summer rarity classes.

Zoom lecture on Thursday October 7, from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m.
Field trip on Sunday, October 10. Time to be announced.
Lectures are via Zoom. Field trip locations will be announced in class.
Each class is limited to 20 participants.
$40 for GGAS members, $60 for non-members.

If the class is full, you may sign up to be on a waiting list.

MDAS members pay the same rate as GGAS members!
Registration opens: July 1, 2021

Limited to 20 participants

Monthly Program: October 2021
2021-10-07 19:00 - 21:00 | Zoom, CA, United States
Main Program:
Twenty Seasons of Nest Box Monitoring
Lee Pauser
As a volunteer, Lee Pauser has been building, installing, and monitoring nest boxes (a nest box is an artificial cavity) for twenty nesting seasons. The presentation includes photos and videos of the eighteen species of cavity nesting birds that have graced his nest boxes. His effort have resulted in 16,858 birds fledging of which 6,670 are Western Bluebirds.
Lee is a member of the California Bluebird Recovery Program (CBRP), Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society (SCVAS), and North American Bluebird Society (NABS). Data is collected during the nesting season, and provided to the Cavity Nesters Recovery Program (CNRP) and Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s NestWatch Program. The latter makes detailed information available for scientific research.
The goal of the presentation is to excite and induce others to participate by providing and monitoring nest boxes to aid the cavity nesters. Natural cavities do exist, but can be lost due to development or natural disasters.

Bobcat on nest box

Photos: Lee Pauser

Birding at Olompali State Historic Park
2021-10-09 09:00 - 12:00 | Olompali State Historic Park, 8901 Redwood Blvd, Novato, CA, 94945, United States
It’s always an exciting time to birdwatch at Olompali State Historic Park! October can bring fall surprises. This year, with the fires in the northern part of the state, Olompali Park may become home to species typically not seen in the park seeking shelter. Beginning and experienced birders are invited to join leaders Rich Cimino and Janet Bodle to bird the park. We will walk the old ranch road to the park’s reservoir. We hope to see a wide variety of species that thrive in the park’s oak savanna and open grasslands. The field trip will start at 9 AM meeting in the front of the visitor center.

Shorebird Identification with Bob Lewis
2021-10-12 18:00 - 19:00 | Online
Shorebirds flock to the Bay Area in the fall. Many are coming from their breeding sites in the Arctic, others from the prairies. They take advantage of the rich food resources in the Bay to recover from their migration, to molt their feathers, and to prepare for their trip back to their nesting grounds. A few shorebirds breed here and so are here throughout the year. Shorebirds include sandpipers, oystercatchers, stilts, avocets, and plovers. We will study their behaviors and identifying characteristics to enable us to identify them as they gather along our shorelines.
Bob trained as a chemist and worked in the energy industry for 33 years. He’s taught birding classes in the San Francisco Bay Area for over 25 years and is the past chair of Golden Gate Audubon’s Adult Education Committee. His life bird list is over 5000 species, and he loves to travel. He’s an award-winning photographer, focusing on birds. Bob was honored with American Birding Association’s Chandler Robbins Award for Education and Conservation in 2016 and GGAS’ Paul Covel Award for Education in 2017.
Register with your email to attend live and the Zoom information will be sent to you on the day of the event. The event will be closed captioned.

Birding For Fledglings
2021-10-13 19:00 - 21:00 | Online and Field Trip
Instructor: Dawn Lemoine
6 sessions on Wednesdays and Saturdays
Venue: Zoom plus field trips
If you’re ready to dip your wingtips into the world of birds, the Birding for Fledglings class is for you! No experience is necessary. The class will focus on birding tools; keys to bird identification; and finding and IDing the Bay Area’s Fall birds. As a bonus, you will learn the difference between Birdwatching and Birding!

Anna’s Hummingbird by Noreen Weeden
The lecture presentations for this class will not be recorded.

Six Wednesday evening classes by Zoom on October 13, 20, 27 and November 3, 10, 17, from 7 to 9 p.m.
Six three-hour Saturday field trips on October 16, 23, 30 and November 6, 13, 20, from 8 to 11 a.m.
Lectures are via Zoom. Field trip locations will be announced in class.
$150 for GGAS members, $175 for non-members.

Once this class is full, you may sign up to be on a waiting list.

MDAS members pay the same rate as GGAS members!
Registration opens: July 1, 2021

Limited to 20 participants

First Annual Berkeley Bird Festival
2021-10-17 08:00 - 18:00 | Berkeley Bird Festival, Berkeley, CA, United States
On Sunday, October 17, Bay Area residents are invited to enjoy the first annual Berkeley Bird Festival, a free community event organized by Golden Gate Audubon and the California Institute for Community Art and Nature (California I CAN). The event will offer guided birding field trips throughout the city, bird chalk art on the UC campus and downtown, family-friendly arts & craft activities including Origami bird folding instruction, bird-related information and action tables, and a very special virtual and in-person program – “Winged Wonderment” — an afternoon of bird stories, images, poems, songs, and demonstrations by writers, poets, birders, scientists, activists, artists, and bird-lovers broadcast live from the David Brower Center on Allston Way—the location for arts and crafts activities and information tables.
The event will take place all day, with some field trips starting as early as 8 a.m. and others ending as late as 6 p.m.. Some activities will require pre-registration. Brower Center activities will run from 12 p.m. – 4 p.m. Indoor activity participants at the David Brower Center must show proof of vaccination and wear masks. To register for individual activities or to learn more about the festival please visit berkeleybirdfestival.org/.

Bringing Back the Burrowing Owl
2021-10-21 19:00 - 20:30 | Online
Once thriving in the East Bay, the Burrowing Owl has been forced to move inland and the consequences for many have been fatal. Conducting long-term research on these colonies, Shawn Smallwood and Doug Bell have observed the rate of mortality for Burrowing Owls living within the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area, as wind turbines within the area continue to contribute to avian bird deaths. During this presentation they will speak on their findings and the management efforts being conducted on East Bay Regional Park District lands, including volunteer-based habitat restoration programs.
Shawn Smallwood earned his Ph.D. in Ecology at the U.C. Davis and has studied wildlife impact from wind turbines for 20 years. Doug Bell serves as the Wildlife Program Manager for the East Bay Regional Park District and has engaged in long-term studies of Golden Eagles, Prairie Falcons and other raptors with an emphasis on assessing and lessening impacts from renewable energy development.
Burrowing Owl nest by Shawn Smallwood

Winter Sparrows Workshop 2021 - Day 1
2021-11-01 18:00 - 20:00 | Online
Workshop Dates:
Nov 1 & 3, 2021
6:00pm – 8:00pm
$100 total per person for both sessions
This workshop will be a basis to identify the wintering sparrows in California, with a focus on the Bay Area. We hope to also give you a background to understand a bit about the biology, evolutionary history, migration, and behavior of our sparrow fauna. With regards to identification, we will give more details on the trickier species. Although this is not a bird sound workshop, we will dabble in the vocal aspects of sparrows, particularly those useful for identification or that are particularly interesting, such as the recent song change that is racing through populations of White-throated Sparrows. Apart from the classic field guide, “field mark” approach to identification, we will try to short-cut to holistic ways to identify sparrows by looking at the entire bird, shapes, impression, and facial expression to aid in identification. We are lucky to have a really varied set of sparrows in California that remain with us through much of the winter or move south towards us during this season. Unlike the warblers where most of them are gone in winter, the sparrows are often more abundant and diverse in winter in many spots in the continent, so take this workshop to prepare for the Christmas Bird Counts and a winter full of sparrow watching!

Raptors In Winter
2021-11-02 19:00 - 21:00 | Online and Field Trip
Instructor: Maureen Lahiff, With Anne Ardillo on Field Trips
3 sessions on Tuesdays and Saturdays
Venue: Zoom plus field trips
Year-round resident hawks, falcons, and eagles of the greater Bay Area and the Central Valley are joined by a number of wintering migrants (including Ferruginous and Rough-legged Hawks). We’ll explore the rhythm of their lives and discuss identifying juveniles and adult birds, including birds in flight. We’ll travel to eastern Alameda and Contra Costa, and to Napa, Solano, and Sonoma counties. One of the nice things about raptors is that we don’t have to be on scene at daybreak to get good looks at these birds, so we can travel a bit further afield.

Red-tailed Hawk
Recordings of the lecture presentations will be available to class participants for a limited period of time.

Three Tuesday evening classes by Zoom on November 2, 9, 16, from 7 to 9 p.m.
Three Saturday morning field trips on November 6, 13, 20.
Lectures are via Zoom. Field trip times and locations will be announced in class.
$75 for GGAS members, $100 for non-members.

Once this class is full, you can sign up to be on a waiting list.

MDAS members pay the same rate as GGAS members!
Registration opens: July 1, 2021

Limited to 20 participants

Winter Sparrows Workshop 2021 - Day 2
2021-11-03 18:00 - 20:00 | Online

Monthly Program: November 2021
2021-11-04 19:00 - 21:00 | Zoom, CA, United States
Birding Info:
Cabin Lake Bird Blinds Photos
Jerry Britten, MDAS President
MDAS President Jerry Britten will share some photos he has taken at the Cabin Lake Bird Blinds in Central Oregon.
Main Program:
Owls Through the Ages
Karla Bloem, Executive Director of the International Owl Center
Owls are omens of death. Owls are creator beings. Owl eggs can cure serious diseases. These are all views that are currently held in different cultures on different continents.
Why is it important to understand these different cultural beliefs? Because conservation efforts depend heavily on cultural attitudes. Where people have positive attitudes towards owls it is much easier to promote actions that are beneficial to owls. If people fear them, they will be more likely to want to kill owls than conserve them.
Education and personal gain have both been successfully used by several innovative individuals to make the world a better place for owls. This presentation will take you on a tour around the world throughout history to see how owls have been viewed, and hear inspiring stories of people who are creatively changing negative views.
You’ll also get to meet a live owl and ask questions. Karla Bloem is the founder and Executive Director of the International Owl Center.

Karla Bloem banding an owlet, photo by Chris Sargent

The Falconer – An Online Film Screening
2021-11-05 21:00 | Online
Join Peninsula Open Space Trust for a special free online screening of “The Falconer” in honor of the Fall Raptor Migration Season! The event is free but registration is required. Guests who register for the event will receive a viewing link and password to access the film anytime between 7pm Friday, November 5 through midnight on Wednesday, November 10th.
The Falconer is a documentary feature that captures beauty and hope in the story of master
falconer Rodney Stotts on his mission to build a bird sanctuary and provide access to nature for his stressed community. Under his organization Rodney’s Raptors, Mr. Stotts creates interactive and educational programming, allowing adults and children of all ages to experience the excitement that comes from holding a live bird of prey.
This is a story of second chances: for injured birds of prey, for an abandoned plot of land, for a group of teenagers who have dropped out of high school, and for Rodney himself. The Falconer weaves Rodney’s present-day mission with the story of his past, both of which are deeply rooted in issues of social and environmental injustice, and consistently orient the viewer to his worldview: nature heals.

MDAS Field Trip—Charleston Slough
2021-11-06 08:30 - 14:30 | Charleston Slough, Mountain View, CA, United States
We see a variety of birds on the water on this trip. Locations might include Charleston Slough, Shoreline Lake, Palo Alto Baylands, Alviso and Redwood Shores.
This hike is limited to 15 participants. All Field Trips are first-registered, first-served. Participants acknowledge the MDAS Liability Waiver (available during registration).
Rating: Moderate
Distance: We do some walking, but drive from location to location
Elevation change: N/A
Leader: Beth Branthaver, please call to confirm: 510-502-4869
Meet: Meet at Terminal Road in Mountain View at 8:30 AM.
Directions: Go south on I-680, take Exit 12, Mission Boulevard west. Continue through two traffic lights and take I-880 ramp south. Exit to SR 237, connect to US 101 north at Moffett Field. Exit at San Antonio Road, turn right (north) to Terminal Road, turn right and park. Entrance is on left. Drive time is about one hour from Walnut Creek/Danville.
Register for this event HERE.
(American Avocets photo by Maren Smith)

WOW Presents: Mount Diablo State Park Centennial
2021-11-10 14:00 - 15:00 | Online
Rising almost 4,000 feet from the valleys of Contra Costa County, Mount Diablo is one of the most recognized geologic features of the San Francisco Bay Area. This year, Mount Diablo State Park is celebrating 100 years since being established in 1921. Join Wonders of the World (WOW) for a webinar that will explore the human history of the mountain from its humble beginnings to present day including the historic Civilian Conservation Corps who built most of its infrastructure. Discussions include the history of early Native Americans, cattle ranching, horse racing, automobile racing, and tourism on the mountain. Learn how the park has grown in size thanks to visionaries like Mary Bowerman and Raymond Force. See how different organizations protect the mountain like Mount Diablo Interpretive Association (MDIA) and Save Mount Diablo (SMD). Our speaker will be Steve Smith, President of MDIA.
