If henhouses have foxes, vineyards have starlings -- European starlings, an invasive species that first appeared in Northern California in the 1930s. As the vineyards grew, they spread out like a picnic lunch for the birds.
A powerful seabird, renowned for compressing its svelte body to make torpedo-like dives for fish, the northern gannet is an Atlantic species. In spring, it nests in massive colonies along the rocky coast of Newfoundland up to the Arctic reaches of Spitsbergen. But five years ago this April, a male arrived on the Farallon Islands, becoming the first northern gannet ever recorded in California.
https://baynature.org/article/atlantic-bird-makes-home-california-maybe-melting-arctic-ice/
A new study shows the amount of flooded habitat available during peak migration for the birds has decreased every year for the last 30 years.
“We estimate on average that we’ve lost an area of about four times the size of Central Park in each year,” says Danica Schaffer-Smith, a doctoral student with Duke University who conducted the study.
The Audubon Society sued a Northern California conservation district for approving expansion of a commercial oyster farm in Humboldt Bay, claiming it will hurt Canada geese, Western sandpipers and other migratory birds.
https://www.courthousenews.com/audubon-society-fights-oyster-farm-humboldt-county/
As a state-protected “species of special concern,” cormorants have enjoyed migratory squatter rights on the Bay and Richmond-San Rafael bridges since they showed up here in 1984 from places like Alaska, Mexico and Nova Scotia.
The deal and dates: Not all parks charge entry fees, but those that do will be free Saturday and Sunday (Easter), and April 22 and 23. You have more than 400 national parks, monuments, recreation areas and historic sites to choose from too.
http://www.latimes.com/travel/deals/la-tr-deal-national-parks-west-free-days-20170331-story.html
Yes, birds are legally considered wild animals and feeding them is illegal under California law, although I’d be among the thousands of backyard feeders that would be convicted if the law was strictly enforced.
http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/04/18/senior-community-management-bans-bird-feeders/
In September 2015, Noah Strycker entered the Guinness Book of World Records by besting a British couple, Ruth Miller and Alan Davies, who in 2008 tracked 4,341 species of birds in a year. Mr. Strycker tracked 6,042 species and told his story on the Audubon Society blog, Birding Without Borders.
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/04/20/travel/noah-strycker-finding-rare-birds-species.html
The reason we’re standing in the dark 1,300 feet up in the mountains next to burbling Sonoma Creek is because we’re with Bernie Krause, a globe-trotting Glen Ellen audio specialist who has a passion for capturing the secret sounds of animal life. We’re hoping to hear something special: the dawn chorus, the waking cacophony of wild birds on a spring morning.
http://www.sonomanews.com/lifestyle/6910036-181/songs-of-wild-birds-tell?artslide=0
They study the birds and the bees and the flowers and the trees and the moon up above.
They love bugs and frogs.
They know that vaccines have saved tens of millions of lives and that climate change is not only real and worsened by people, but that it threatens our homes and livelihoods.
