Quick: What's the one bird you see and hear most every day, day in and day out, without fail?
We're willing to bet that for most of us in the Bay Area, there's one avian species that predominates in our daily bird experience: Corvus brachyrhynchos, better known to most of us as "the crow."
https://www.kqed.org/news/11752268/crows-are-crowding-your-bay-area-skies-why
Davis students, community members can appreciate native wildlife, nature right outside their doors
Besides the students, professors and faculty who can be seen on campus, there are also fox squirrels, yellow-billed magpies, gopher snakes, burrowing owls and more that can also be spotted around UC Davis. Over 150 animals call this campus their home, just as any student might.
The San Francisco Bay Area is bordered on the west by the California Current, one of five upwelling-driven “boundary currents” on Earth where the vast majority of the world’s fishery harvests occur. These boundaries are the edges of major oceanic gyres, like the North Pacific Gyre in the case of the California Current. The incomparable productivity of these stretches of ocean are generated by strong, persistent winds that bring the upwelling of nutrient-rich water from the depths into the sunlight where phytoplankton, the base of the food web, can thrive.
https://baynature.org/2019/06/14/how-people-saved-the-seabirds-of-the-california-current/
The popular ducks showed up in the Bay in astonishing numbers in winter 2019, pausing a three-decade decline and puzzling scientists.
https://baynature.org/2019/06/17/surf-scoter-decline-interrupted/
Rescuers hope this black powder-puff will eventually be released in the wild.
https://patch.com/california/walnutcreek/amp/28143434/cormorant-chick-rescued-after-fall-nest
For the first time since the late 1980s, a pair of golden eagle chicks have been spotted in a nest in the Santa Monica Mountains, officials announced Wednesday.
Researchers with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife have closed the case of the poisoned songbirds. Their conclusion: the birds died after eating elm tree seeds exposed to a pesticide synthetically derived from nicotine.
Why does it matter now? The answer is fireworks. Specifically, the noises that accompany fireworks and pose a threat to birds, according to Ray Brown, host of the Talkin' Birds podcast.
