Mount Diablo Bird Alliance

Songs from the Ashes: Wildfire and Bird Communities
2021-06-09 17:00 - 18:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Online
Our Sonoma County birds are real-life phoenixes, with many of them enduring one wildfire after another and adapting to a changed landscape each year. How does smoke and flame affect bird populations? What happens in a bird rescue center after a wildfire? Which species thrive after a burn? Join us to hear behind-the-scenes stories of bird rescue and unique avian observations from the last few fire-heavy years with Ashton Kluttz, Executive Director of the Bird Rescue Center in Santa Rosa.
Current Executive Director at the Bird Rescue Center, Ashton Kluttz completed her BA in Environmental Studies at Washington College (Maryland). She began her tenure with the Bird Rescue in 2010 and her career as a wildlife rehabilitator in 2009 with the Marine Mammal Center where she served in the Stranding Department. Striving to provide the best care for our local wildlife, she obtained her Registered Veterinary Technician certification in 2018, has co-authored a chapter on towhee care currently included in a wildlife care book for facilities around the world, and serves on the board of the California Council for Wildlife Rehabilitators that provides community, protocols, and information to all California wildlife facilities.

For the Love of Hummingbirds
2021-06-10 19:30 - 21:00 | Online
Hummingbirds amaze and intrigue us. Their high-speed enigmatic lifestyles are a blur; their startling colors and exotic behaviors are delights. Hummingbirds also inspire us—they are like tiny ambassadors with the power to usher people into a deeper interest in and appreciation for the natural world. Author John Shewey taps into the intrigue in this program based on his new book, The Hummingbird Handbook. Join John for this fun-filled program and learn more about hummingbirds, how to attract them, how to cater to them, and how to be a great hummingbird host in your yard.
Lifelong birding enthusiast John Shewey is a veteran writer, editor, and professional outdoor photographer, with credits in Birdwatching, along with dozens of other magazines and he is co-author of Birds of the Pacific Northwest, a Timber Land Press Field Guide. John has photographed birds from the mountains of Alaska to the jungles of Central America to the islands of the Caribbean, and his website chronicles many of these travels in rich photographic detail. Visit him at birdingoregon.com.

Madagascar’s Fragile Magic
2021-06-17 19:00 - 20:30 | Online
Presented by Eric Schroeder
Eric Schroeder will take you on a tour of this amazing island, home to 308 species of birds, 108 of which are endemic. Endemism isn’t limited to individual species but, remarkably, extends to the family level; Madagascar has six endemic avian families: the mesites, the asities, the vangas, the tetras, the ground rollers, and the cuckoo roller (which has only one species—the Cuckoo-roller—in the family.)

Bird Photography 101
2021-07-15 17:00 - 18:00 | Online
Join San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory as wildlife and conservation photographer Sebastian Kennerknecht discusses the basics of bird photography, including settings, composition, equipment, how to get close to your subject, ethics, and his mental approach when photographing birds.
Sebastian Kennerknecht is a wildlife and conservation photographer with over fourteen years of experience visually covering wildlife and environmental issues internationally. He has produced high quality editorial photographs, time-lapses, videos, and web content featured in and by the New York Times, Washington Post, BBC Wildlife, Smithsonian, The Economist, Science, and Conservation International, among others. Sebastian graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Ecology and Evolution from the University of California – Santa Cruz, won NANPA’s emerging photographer award, and is an associate fellow with the International League of Conservation Photographers.

Listen to Her Sing
2021-07-15 19:00 - 20:30 | Online
Only male birds sing, right? Wrong! In fact, this widespread notion has a lot more to do with human cultural and geographic biases than it has to do with nature. In this talk, Nathan Pieplow explores the often-overlooked songs of female birds. You’ll hear the pair duets of meadowlarks and blackbirds, the musical songs of female cardinals and orioles, and the distinctive song of the female Canyon Wren. In which species do females actually sing more often than males? How do you know when you’re listening to a female Blue Jay? And where did we even get this crazy idea that only male birds sing? Answers to these questions and more in this presentation.
Nathan Pieplow is author of THE PETERSON FIELD GUIDE TO BIRD SOUNDS, a two-volume set that is the most comprehensive guide to the sounds of North American birds. He lives in Boulder, Colorado, where he teaches writing and rhetoric at the University of Colorado. Nathan is a former editor of the quarterly journal Colorado Birds and one of the developers of the COLORADO COUNTY BIRDING WEBSITE and the COLORADO BIRDING TRAIL.

Raptors of Wavecrest Open Space
2021-08-07 10:00 - 11:30 | Online
Alvaro Jaramillo of Alvaro’s Adventures returns to share more about our local raptor population, living at the Wavecrest Open Space. Wavecrest is the single most important site on the San Mateo Coast for wintering raptors, which can be seen hunting in the property’s broad fields. Raptors and other species rely on its expansive grasslands, wetland areas, and roosting sites, all of which are an integral part of the coast’s ecological health. Famous for its variety and numbers of resident and migratory raptors, Wavecrest is the place to see them all, including White-tailed Kite, Northern Harrier, Turkey Vulture; Sharp-shinned, Cooper’s, Red-shouldered, and Red-tailed Hawks; American Kestrel, and sometimes Merlin, and Peregrine falcons. Occasional sightings of Swainson’s and Rough-legged Hawks; and Prairie Falcon.

Bird City (San Francisco) 7 sessions on Mondays and Sundays
2021-08-09 18:30 - 20:30 | Online and Field Trip
Instructors: Whitney Grover And Keith Maley
7 sessions on: Mondays and Sundays
Birds are living their fascinating lives all around us even in this second most densely populated city in the U.S. Join Golden Gate Audubon Society to learn about bird identification, behavior, migration, habitat, song and more, and increase your appreciation for nature here in San Francisco. This course is for you if you’ve always wondered about the birds around you, but have not been sure how to take the first steps to learn more.
Red-shouldered Hawk at Crissy Lagoon
Photo by David Assmann

Seven Monday evening classes by Zoom: August 9, 16, 23, 30; September 13, 20, 27 — 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Six three-hour Sunday field trips, August 15, 22, 29; September 12, 19, 26 — 8 to 11 a.m.
Lectures are via Zoom. Field trip locations will be announced in class.

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

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

Limited to 20 participants

California Shorebirds - 3 sessions on Wednesdays and Sundays
2021-08-11 18:30 - 20:30 | Online and Field Trip
Instructor: Eddie Bartley
Fall shorebirding in the San Francisco Bay Area is world class. By mid-August, hundreds of thousands of “wind birds” have winged their way from their northern breeding grounds to the globally significant San Francisco Bay – a key portion of the WESTERN HEMISPHERE SHOREBIRD RESERVE NETWORK .
Shorebirds by Bob Lewis
In three two-hour Zoom lectures, we will focus on the amazing evolutionary adaptations, life histories and identification techniques of the 30 plus species of shorebirds that reside, pass through in migration or overwinter in California. On three Sunday field trips we’ll have opportunities to view and focus on this order but not at all ignore the myriad of other fall migrants and resident birds that we will encounter.

Three 2-hour Wednesday classes by Zoom, August 11, 18, 25 from 6:30 to 8:30 pm
Three 3-hour Sunday field trips, August 15, 22, 29. Some may be in the afternoon.
Lectures are via Zoom. Field trip times and locations will be announced in class.
$75 for GGAS members, $100 for non-members

Inclement weather postpones field trips. Contact instructor for additional information: EDDIE@NATURETRIP.COM If the class is full, you may sign up to be on a waiting list.
Recordings of the lecture presentations will be available to class participants for one week following each class.

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

Limited to 20 participants

Islands And Avian Evolution
2021-08-19 19:00 - 21:00 | Online
Featuring Bob Lewis
Thursday, August 19 – 7 p.m.
Eastern Crested Berrypecker,
a New Guinea endemic, by Bob Lewis
Islands play a key role in both the evolution of new avian species and the extinction of others. Because of their isolation, birds that arrive on islands evolve separately from their parent group and eventually become unique… thus a new species is born! But that isolation also makes them vulnerable to threats like hurricanes, volcanoes, rising seas, and introduced diseases or predator species. Although over 80 percent of bird species live on continents, 92 percent of extinctions since 1500 have been on islands. Join Golden Gate Audubon Society to view some marvelous island species and learn about the conservation issues unique to islands.
Please click the link below to join the webinar:
HTTPS://ZOOM.US/J/91784420140?PWD=[REDACTED]
Passcode: [REDACTED]
A video recording of this presentation will be available for three weeks after the talk.
About the speaker:
Bob Lewis has taught birding classes in the Bay Area for over 25 years and loves to travel, especially to islands in search of birds. He is a board member of the Farallon Islands Foundation, created to foster life on islands. Bob has visited many of the larger islands populated with unique species, including Madagascar, Borneo, Hawaii, Indonesia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Cuba etc. The talk will be illustrated with his photos of birds from these places.

Seasons of the Southern Coast Range and Birds!
2021-08-21 09:00 - 12:00 | Rancho Cañada del Oro Open Space Preserve, 4289 Casa Loma Road, Morgan Hill, 95037, United States
Join Saved By Nature along with their community partners Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society (SCVAS) among the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains on a gentle 2.2-mile adventure!
Stroll around a meadow along the Llagas Loop Trail where encounters of wild turkey, deer and seasonal wildflowers are common. We’ll take in views along the Longwall Canyon Trail where we can catch a glimpse of an acorn woodpecker granary and see other birds such as oak titmouse and white-breasted nuthatches pointed out by SCVAS!
Please bring a lunch, water, hat and/or sunscreen and be ready to have a good time! Binoculars will be provided.
Limited to 20 participants.

“Every Bird has a Story” with Judy Kramer
2021-08-21 13:30 - 14:30 | Online
Learn about local birds and their stories through a presentation and accompanying photography all provided by guest speaker Judy Kramer.

Join Judy Kramer and the Environmental Volunteers to learn about the stories of local birds, told through their photographs in “Every Bird Has a Story”. Explore their fascinating lives and behaviors; with a focus on babies, hunting for food, dabblers and divers, beaks, and one Judy calls “the one that got away.”
About the speaker:
Judy is a local, award-wining nature photographer living in Palo Alto. She is a past president of the Palo Alto Camera Club and is now a member of Gallery House on California Avenue in Palo Alto. Her work has been published in three books and seen in various local venues. Organizations that use her photos include the California Native Plant Society, Peninsula Open Space Trust, North American Nature Photography Association, and Environmental Volunteers.
When the wildflowers dried up last June, and unable to travel because of the pandemic, Judy and her husband, Tony, started taking photos along the bay. She discovered that birds were very interesting, and she became a bird photographer. You can see many samples of her bird photography on her web site, www.earthwitnessphoto.com.

Sleuthing Into The Secret Lives Of Wood Ducks
2021-08-26 19:00 - 21:00 | Online
Sleuthing into the secret lives of wood ducks – new research reveals a complex underworld of a unique California bird.
Please join Dr. John Eadie, Dennis G. Raveling Professor in Waterfowl Biology at UC Davis to hear about the natural history, ecology, and conservation of this interesting and beautiful local bird!
This lecture will be ONLINE in a Zoom meeting. You must register on this page (be sure to include your email address) and download Zoom. (There is no need to create an account.) After registering, participants will be sent an email with the meeting ID and password. After the lecture, you will be able to ask questions via Zoom’s chat feature.
Questions? Contact Bill Grabert at bgrabert@tuleyome.org
This lecture is part of the monthly “Nature and You” lecture series sponsored by Tuleyome. Tuleyome is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit conservation organization based in Woodland, California. The word “Tuleyome” (pronounced too-lee-OME-ee) is a Lake Miwok Indian word that means “deep home place”. And that term “deep home place” exemplifies our deep connection to our environment, our communities and our regional public lands.
Note: All participants agree to abide by the terms and conditions of Tuleyome’s waiver of liability which can be seen and downloaded HERE. All participants also understand that photographs will be taken at the event. If you do not wish to be photographed, you must tell the photographer and avoid the cameras’ line of sight.
A $10 donation to Tuleyome is suggested, but is not required to participate in this event.

Memorial Service for Jimm Edgar
2021-08-30 13:00 - 14:00 | First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, 2407 Dana St, Berkeley, CA, 94704, United States
A memorial service for Jimm Edgar, who passed away on July 14, 2021, will be held on Monday, August 30, at 1 pm, at First Pres. Click here to RSVP.
Click here to go to the livestream service. In-person attendance is limited to 150 people.
Jimm Edgar, longtime MDAS leader, passed away peacefully on July 14th in Alabama with his wife Bettie by his side.
Jimm served as MDAS president multiple times during his long tenure with the Chapter. Most recently, he was president from 2005 -2016. At general meetings, his easy manner, engaging smile and humorous style made audience members feel welcomed and appreciated. He loved to tell stories about birds, often repeating his favorites. One of his most beloved birds was the Harlequin Duck and he seemed to thrill at explaining the meaning of Histrionicus histrionicus. Personally, I believe I heard the story at least three times during our travels together. At the meetings, if someone shared a very notable bird sighting, Jimm would often respond, “Oh, is that right,” lending even more significance to the report.
Jimm annually led field trips for MDAS. His favorite outing was to his beloved Mt. Diablo where he emphasized the beauty of the wildflowers as well the variety of birds.
Clearly, Jimm loved birds and birding, and he was especially devoted to organizing and coordinating the MDAS Christmas Bird Counts. After the CBCs, it was always a fun event to compile all of the groups’ sightings over dinner. Jimm obviously took much satisfaction and pride in hosting these events. Beyond MDAS, he volunteered to do counts for several other Chapters as well.
At the June, 2017, MDAS General Meeting, Jimm was presented with the National Audubon Society’s Great Egret Award for his significant long-term contributions to Audubon. Shortly thereafter, Jimm moved to Alabama. Jimm will be long-remembered and dearly missed.
There will be a Celebration of Jimm’s life at his home church – the First Presbyterian Church in Berkeley on his actual birthday August 30th 2021, at 1PM PST. Reception to follow. The Celebration for Jimm’s life will be live-streamed. As a teenager, Jimm met Christ through Young Life Ministries and his Young Life leader, Spokane resident Dick Silk, who was his mentor and lifelong friend. In lieu of flowers, please consider a contribution to Young Life Jimm Edgar Memorial Fund, 420 N. Cascade Ave., Colorado Springs, CO 80903.
-Paul Schorr

MDAS Field Trip—Jewel Lake
2021-09-02 | Jewel Lake, Tilden Nature Area, California, 600 Canon Dr, Berkeley, CA 94708, Berkeley, CA, 94708, United States
Tilden Regional Park. Birds are migrating already and will be walking near the Nature Center and Jewel Lake in Tilden Regional Park. A short morning visit may allow us to see Wilson’s, Black-throated Gray and Yellow Warblers, Red-breasted Nuthatches and more.
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: Category 2 – Moderate
Distance: 2 miles
Elevation change: N/A
Leader: Hugh Harvey
Register for this field trip HERE.
Wilson’s Warbler Photo: Maren Smith

Monthly Program: September 2021
2021-09-02 19:00 - 21:00 | Zoom, CA, United States
Main Program:
Birds (and Other Wildlife) of Zambia
Jerry Britten, MDAS President
Zambia may not be one of the first countries in Africa one thinks of as a safari destination, but perhaps this lends to its appeal. Zambia in fact is a politically stable country about the size of Texas, with many parks and safari areas teeming with diverse wildlife in a variety of subtropical habitats, offering a true wilderness experience far from crowds. Jerry Britten, currently MDAS President and Christmas Bird Count Compiler, has traveled to Zambia twice, in 2014 and again in September 2019, the latter being his last overseas travel prior to the current pandemic. He will present highlights of the many birds and animals he was able to photograph, and offer his perspective on the sights and sounds of this part of Africa.

When not birding or engaged with MDAS goings-on, Jerry is an independent contractor/consultant in the fields of optical coatings and diffractive optic design and manufacture. He retired from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 2016 after a 30+ year career as a chemical engineer.

Sulphur-breasted Bushshrike
Photo:Jerry Britten

Birding Info:
MDAS Field Trip Reservations
Marc Desin, MDAS Newsletter and Website Editor
MDAS Field Trips are back! Our new field trip RSVP system will enable you to reserve your spot on one of our field trips. Marc will provide an overview of how to use the new field trip reservation system on the MDAS website.

Magic & Mystery Of Migration - 4 sessions on Tuesdays
2021-09-07 19:00 - 20:30 | 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
