Salt ponds in Redwood City where the new Saltworks development is proposed. Photo: Lauren Sommer.

What do Bay Area airports and some big Silicon Valley companies have in common? They sit right on the edge of San Francisco Bay, where sea level rise is expected to have a big impact by the end of the century.

That may seem far in the future, but state agencies are preparing for climate change now by writing new rules for construction along the bay's shoreline. As you can imagine, developers and environmentalists aren't exactly seeing eye to eye.

That's evident on a patch of land at the edge of the bay in Redwood City. For more than a century, it's been home to one thing: salt.

"As you look out, you can see it looks sort of like a frozen pond," says David Smith, a Senior Vice President with DMB Associates. He's standing next to flat, industrial ponds filled with crystallizing salt. "On a typical season, you would hope to establish a layer of 8 to 12 inches."

Cargill Salt owns these ponds as part of their salt-harvesting operations. Smith is with a developer that's working with Cargill on a different vision for these more than 1400 acres.

"Welcome to the Redwood City Saltworks site," he says. Saltworks is DMB's proposal for 8,000 to 12,000 new housing units. "Half of the site would be dedicated to open spaces uses including tidal marsh restoration and then the other half would be this integrated, transit-oriented development."

Smith says it's housing that's sorely needed in the Bay Area. "You have had the explosion of economic success of Silicon Valley. We should be ashamed of our inability or unwillingness to provide housing to support those workers and that economic activity."

David Lewis, Executive Director of Save the Bay, is on the other side of the issue. "This site is not a site for housing," he says.

"Salt ponds in Redwood City are actually one of the last unprotected areas that could be restored to tidal marsh for San Francisco Bay."

It seems like a pretty typical story: a developer wants prime land to build on and environmental groups want to see wildlife habitat restored. But there's a twist, as David Smith points to on one particular map.

Bay Waters Rising

"What we're looking at is a blue inundation zone and it depicts the projections for sea level rise for the region around Redwood City," Smith says, pointing to map showing the low-lying parts of the bay's shoreline at risk from sea level rise – which includes the land we're standing on.

Smith says their plan calls for a three mile levee to protect the development from the bay. Projections from state scientists show sea level could rise by nearly six feet by the end of the century.

"We'd like to ignore it. But if we ignore it, we're ignoring it at our own economic peril," says Will Travis, Executive Director of the Bay Conservation and Development Commission. BCDC is the state agency with jurisdiction over the bay.

"We're building things now that will be around for a hundred years. And we should, we believe, think about how those cities, how those communities will remain viable and sustainable," he says.

BCDC is writing new regulations for development along the shore, which they'll use in future permitting decisions. They've been guided by a state plan from the Schwarzenegger administration called the California Climate Adaptation Strategy. It discourages building in low-lying areas and encourages wetland restoration.

"Wetlands are wonderful for dealing with climate change. Wetlands soak up flood water. So the wider the wetland in the front, the lower the levee can be in the back," says Travis.

Battle Over Shoreline Rules

But when BCDC released the first draft of its new development policy two years ago, the agency faced a wave of protest, especially from folks who see bay front property as prime real estate.

"It tried to do too much too fast," says Jim Wunderman, president of the Bay Area Council, a group representing business interests.

"We should be absolutely concerned about sea level rise, but we shouldn't allow the concern about it to say let's just stop doing everything," he says.

A number of bay-front cities had the same complaint. Public meetings got ugly. "People said things that they probably weren't proud of when the meeting was over and I know we've had epithets hurled at us," says Wunderman.

So BCDC backed off a little, saying that new development would be considered on a case by case basis. David Lewis of Save the Bay says those changes concern him, because the policy is leading the way for others.

"Most small cities don't have the resources to change the way they plan and permit developments with a big change like sea level rise. I think BCDC's at the forefront and it should be brave about doing the right thing," says Lewis.

Will Travis of BCDC says the changes were necessary, so the plan works for the dozens of cities it involves. "We want to achieve environmental protection. We have to, but not at the expense of regional prosperity. So we're trying to achieve that balance."

The challenge, Travis says, is making a global issue like climate change part of regional planning.

"A society likes dealing with climate change at the abstract. It's when you actually get down to doing something about it that people have concerns."

In October, BCDC expects to finalize the sea level rise policy that will govern development along San Francisco Bay for years to come.

Additional Links

• More about BCDC's Sea Level Rise Plan
• San Francisco Bay Sea Level Rise Map

Gulls making fast work of AT&T Park leftovers. Credit: Flickr, Malingering.

In a QUEST radio story on Monday, I cover the Bay Area's California gull population becoming a major concern for the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project. Thousands of acres of industrial salt ponds are being restored for shorebirds and other wildlife. And that restoration work is creating a big opportunity for some very aggressive gulls.

While reporting the story, I stumbled upon a mystery that's well-known to San Francisco Giants fans: Some gulls have an uncanny way of showing up at AT&T Park during the eighth or ninth inning of a ballgame.

Day game or night game, the gulls bizarrely seem to know when the game is close to ending, pouncing on leftover hot dogs and garlic fries. As Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow said, "if you were a gull, where would you be?"

There are a lot of popular theories about how the gulls time their arrival so well. Do they recognize the illustrious beard of Giants closer Brian Wilson? Do they know “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” a tune that's always sung during the seventh inning stretch?

I spoke to a few local experts to get their take…

Dan Murphy, Volunteer with Golden Gate Audubon:

It's a crime of opportunity. They're very well attuned to our behavior and our trash. When there are large numbers of people in the stands, gulls don't come into the ballpark. But they can sense when things are starting to wind down. A lot of people leave the game before it's over, so they might be clued in by people moving out of the upper deck toward the eighth inning. That makes sense since they seem to settle on the left field side first.

If a game goes into extra innings, the gulls still seem to know when the ninth inning is. You'll see them sitting on the roof or on the big glove in the outfield, waiting for the game to end. That may still be due to the fans that leave early, but they seem to have a sense of how long games normally go. It's likely that a few birds are always watching and as soon as a few birds go in, others will follow. They're really good at what they do. They find food sources and use them to the max.

David Shuford, Biologist with PRBO Conservation Science:

Gulls spend their day cruising around a lot. But once they figure something out, they tend to come back. So even though the ninth inning doesn't happen at the same time each day, once a few gulls pick up on it, you'll soon have a crowd. It's possible that they can recognize the sounds, too, like songs that are played during the game. Gulls are pretty good about sound.

In general, they're really good at figuring things out. Like when local dumps are closed on the weekends, the gulls seem to know that and don't show up on those days. It's hard to know if they truly know what Saturday is. They may just be cruising by and not see any action, so they don't land. But they seem to recognize the pattern.

Gulls have an advantage – they're total generalists. They're smart and they're tough. They can eat just about anything too. They go after fish, garbage, and other birds. Some of our work on the Farallon Islands has shown that gulls can actually recognize certain individual people as well.

Josh Ackerman, Research Wildlife Biologist with USGS:

They do exactly that same thing at the landfills in the Bay Area. We've done studies on gulls where we've tagged them with transmitters and tracked them daily for two years. California gulls depend on a few of the landfills in the South Bay for food. They arrive exactly when the dumps open and leave right when they close, since the trash piles are covered up when the landfill isn't operating. From our studies, we know that the gulls cover a lot of territory during the day, so it's not a big deal for them to travel to find food.

George Costa, Senior Vice President of Ballpark Operations at AT&T Park:

We've seen an uptick. There seem to be more gulls lately. They always time their arrival to an inning or two innings before the game ends. They're creatures of habit. They know where the food is and that crowds mean food. They're never here except for game days, but if there's a game, they crash the party every night.

It's a series of triggers that tells them it's time. They see the lights and the crowds. There are food smells, like the garlic fries. It's a combination of all those things. You'll see the gulls line up on the left field roof before the game ends. We see the scouts come in and they cue the rest of the gulls.

It's a nuisance really and the fans don't enjoy it. So we're looking at a variety of possibilities to deal with it, including having a falcon on site. They've used them at other ballparks and they seem to work there. You won't get rid of the gulls completely, but we think it would get rid of about 80 percent. We have to retrain these gulls.

A California gull tagged by USGS scientists. Credit: Josh Ackerman/USGS

One of the most ambitious wetland restoration projects in the country is underway in San Francisco Bay. For more than a century, the South Bay shoreline has been home to industrial salt ponds. Now, thousands of acres of those ponds are being restored for shorebirds and wildlife. But that is creating an opportunity for a very problematic bird.

The Bay Area's gulls are well-known to San Francisco Giants fans. At one recent game, as the Giants staged a late comeback during the ninth inning hundreds of gulls appeared out of the night sky. Like clockwork, they show up just before the game ends.

"Don't ask me how. They just know," says Mike Krukow, a broadcaster with the Giants. "They come in and it's always with two outs to go in the ninth inning and there they are."

The attraction, of course, is the food. "It's pizza. They've got garlic fries. They really love the garlic fries by the way," he says.

How gulls time their arrival so well is a little bit of a mystery. But their numbers have grown so high that the ballpark is considering bringing in a falcon to scare them away. But that's not possible everywhere…

South Bay Shorebirds on the Menu

At the southern end of the bay near Alviso, a crew from the US Geological Survey is working on a small island in the middle of a former salt pond. It's home to a colony of Forster's terns.

"Hey, what was the band number on that chick?" asks Garth Herring, one of the scientists on the project. The team measures and bands the small, speckled tern chicks. A few of them get radio transmitters.

"When that transmitter is attached to a live chick, the transmitter beeps at a very specific rate," says Herring.

If the chick dies, the beep slows down. But you might wonder – why do they need to know if a chick is dead?

"Just to the north of us roughly about a mile, there's one of the largest California gull colonies. They'll come in, grab the chick. And they get back to the gull colony and they regurgitate to their chicks," he says.

At which point the tern chick – and transmitter – is inside the gull – until it passes through, that is. That's when Herring and his team go looking for it.

"It's pretty common that we find just a small pile of bones, the radio transmitter and the band that was associated with that Forster's tern chick," says Herring.

Herring says they've found that gulls only prey on the terns at certain times of day. "It's timed pretty well with when the local landfill sites are closing down. They're flying back to the colonies and are picking up chicks probably around 6 o'clock on average."

Last year, 40 percent of the tern chicks they tagged were eaten by gulls. "It certainly does suggest that California gulls do have the potential to have a big impact on these breeding water birds here," he says.

Gulls Gone Wild

"They're the big bully," says Cheryl Strong , a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "They're very opportunistic and they do really well with humans."

California gulls didn't always call San Francisco Bay home. In the 1980s, a small group began nesting on one of the salt ponds. Now, that population has exploded.

"California gulls are one of the earliest nesting species and they're also probably the most aggressive. So they show up first that they can easily take over an area," says Strong.

The South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project has spent millions restoring pond habitat for Forster's terns, American avocets and the threatened western snowy plover.

But it's a conservation Catch-22. As more habitat is restored for shorebirds, it also creates more habitat for gulls. And as former salt ponds are flooded during the restoration, the gulls are looking for new places to nest.

"With 40,000 gulls, there's not a lot of room for other birds," says Strong.

Strong says the Fish and Wildlife Service is writing a plan to manage the gulls. One option is killing the birds. But gulls can live up to 25 years and with an endless food source at landfills nearby, she says there's only so much they could do.

"If you're talking about removing birds lethally, it's just not feasible. They are a part of our landscape, like it or not," she says.

For now, they're trying something else.

Gull Hazing Underway

"So up ahead there are some gulls doing some courtship behaviors on the levee which is definitely a bad sign," says Caitlin Robinson-Nilsen of the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory. She's looking at a large flock of gulls on a salt pond near Fremont.

"This is one of the areas where we definitely don't want them to nest. One of the salt ponds we're standing right next to is a historic nesting site of the western snowy plover."

So, Robinson-Nilsen's job is to haze the gulls. She uses a whistle and walks down the levee. The gulls aren't happy about it.

"They'll dive bomb you and hit you in your head. They're very good at pooping you. They have pretty good aim that way."

Robinson-Nislen says they're hazing gulls twice a day to keep them from nesting next to sensitive shorebirds. So far, it looks like it's working. But with millions of tax dollars being spent on restoring more habitat, biologists expect they'll be doing a lot more gull management in the years ahead.

Additional Links

• South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project
• Help Track the California Gull

QUEST Science on the SPOT takes a close up look at the Peregrine Falcon.

We walk through the Nature Trail near the San Francisco Zoo’s Koret Animal Resource Center. Owls, vultures, hawks and falcons sit perched on a grassy rise, admiring the people who walk by admiring them. The Animal Resource Center, or A.R.C., is home to the zoo’s educational outreach animals. And outside, a teen volunteer is talking to a group of younger kids and their parents about the Great Horned owl.

The zoo’s youth volunteer programs are training local teens to handle live animals from the educational outreach program and in addition the volunteers help educate zoo visitors about the life history of these animals and the conservation threats they face in the wild. For many of these kids this is a first step to a lifetime of environmental stewardship and a new-found love of science.

Each year over 130 local youths go through the zoo’s volunteer programs. The programs are designed to teach kids about conservation but most importantly they train the volunteers to pass on that knowledge. “Teaching city children about nature and the importance of habitat health not only to wild areas but to themselves as well.” said one volunteer program alumni, “I’ll never forget the faces of awe on both children and adults as they got to see, touch and learn about animals such as opossums, chinchillas and ferrets. It felt great to be able to provide such an experience to the visitors of the Nature Trail.”

Jessa Barbelay, the zoo’s Education Department Supervisor, got her start here as a teen volunteer. “I had an appreciation for animals,” says Barbelay, “but I wasn’t very interested in science. But just the act of volunteering helped me break out of my shell and after being immersed in it, I realized that I really liked science and I liked sharing the information, which led me to a career in science education.”

Noelle Bidegainberry, the A.R.C. Intern and another former volunteer herself, takes us to meet one of the stars of the educational program, the San Francisco Zoo’s resident Peregrine Falcon, “Bella.” As we step into her aviary, Bella immediately becomes inquisitive, studying the new people who have entered her enclosure. For an animal that can claim to be the fastest in the world, I’m surprised at how calm and comfortable she is being handled. Bella is tasked with going out and representing her species as an ambassador bird. And one gets the sense that she is very good at her job.

It was not long ago that Peregrine Falcons were precariously perched at the edge of extinction. The widespread use of the pesticide DDT rippled up and down the food chain. For some raptors such as Bald Eagles and Peregrine Falcons, the results were nearly catastrophic. DDT in their systems led to these birds laying thin shelled eggs. The chicks could not survive to hatching and without new generations replenishing the species, population numbers crashed. The falcon became the one of the first animals placed on the endangered species list.

Once DDT was banned in the 1970s, conservationists and bird lovers worked diligently to help save the falcon. And the work continues. Through captive breeding programs and other conservation efforts Peregrine Falcon numbers have rebounded in California and throughout much of the United States. In one of the great environmental success stories, the Peregrine Falcon was taken off the endangered species list in 1999.

“The story of the Peregrine Falcon helps us illustrate how conservation can work and have a direct influence and positive results,” says Bidegainberry, “Bella does a great job as an ambassador bird. Our hope is that when people meet Bella and hear her story, they are inspired to take conservation into their own hands.”

Watch our video segment "Science on the SPOT – Falcons Up Close" below:

QUEST on KQED Public Media.

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Peregrine Falcon. Photo: Glenn Nevill at kqedquest.

This time of year, you may see birds of prey, with their wings outstretched, circling overhead. It is nesting season, and raptors will nest in trees, on cliffs and, in our urban environment, on the ledges of tall buildings. But the shared history of humans and raptors is far older than the concept of urban wildlife. Humans have been practicing falconry—caring for and hunting with raptors—for close to 4000 years. This week’s Science on the SPOT story, Peregrine Falcons Up Close, is about a falcon named Bella, a retired falconry bird who now lives at the San Francisco Zoo.

In falconry, a human cares for a bird of prey, and trains it to hunt. The bird hunts on behalf of the human. This relationship has created some controversy, but first, a bit more about how falconry works.

To learn more about the practice of falconry, I spoke to my friend Rikki Shackleford, an apprentice falconer. Rikki got interested in falconry when he was working at an environmental education school. The school was caring for a Red-tailed Hawk that had been hit by a car. Unsure of how to care for the bird, Rikki contacted a local falconer. Rikki got hooked.

Falconry is tightly regulated at both the state and federal level. To own a bird, you need a license, and you need to apprentice with an experienced falconer for two years. Once you’ve completed your apprenticeship, you can get a general license and own up to three birds, of almost any species. With a master license, you can own up to 5 birds. After you’ve had a master license for 7 years, you can own an eagle. The California Hawking Club and the North American Falconers Association have more information about the licensing and practice of falconry.

Red-tailed Hawk. Photo: Ron Wolf at kqedquest.

Rikki has a Red-tailed Hawk, named Nut, which he trapped in the wild last year. There are strict rules about how and when falconers can catch birds. Only passage birds—sexually immature birds less than a year old and on their first migration— can be caught. And falconers can only catch certain species. Many species, including endangered birds, are off-limits. However, falconers can get rare birds, like Peregrine Falcons, from captive breeding programs. Rikki intends to free Nut when she is three years old, when she’s old enough to breed. Because she was caught in the wild, and learned to hunt on her own before she hunted with Rikki, he can return her to the wild. Birds from captive breeding programs cannot be released. When captive-bred birds get old and can no longer hunt effectively, they can go back into captive breeding programs, or be cared for a by a zoo, like Bella.

Rikki flies Nut every day at a local park, and she hunts a few times a week. Each time Nut catches prey, she brings it back to Rikki. He rewards her with food—most of the time, prey that she has previously caught. The idea that the raptor is hunting for the human is controversial—anyone who is against hunting would probably be against falconry. And the concept that a wild animal is kept in captivity can definitely ruffle some feathers. Rikki counters these arguments: Nut would hunt without him, he says, and would probably hunt more often, because she can’t store the leftovers in the freezer. And Rikki contends that his relationship with Nut is the same as any relationship a human has with an animal—a dog, a cat, a horse—it’s just a little less common. However, Red-tailed Hawks haven’t been domesticated for generations like dogs and cats; Nut was born wild.

A Peregrine Falcon named Gracie flies by the Bay Bridge. Photo: Glenn Nevill at kqedquest.

While there are many objections to the practice of falconry, the Peregrine Falcon has falconers to thank for its continued existence. Peregrine Falcons were on the edge of extinction in the 1970s, because the pesticide DDT made their eggshells perilously thin. However, falconers had healthy Peregrine Falcons in captive breeding programs; offspring from these captive-bred falcons were carefully raised without human contact and were introduced to the wild. Because of these efforts and the ban of DDT, Peregrine Falcons were removed from the Endangered Species List in 1999.

Learn more about falcons in the Science on the SPOT story, Peregrine Falcons Up Close, and the QUEST story Falcon Fascination. Also, check out the falcon Nest Cam at San Jose City Hall.

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Oil on the surface of the San Francisco Bay in November 2007. Photo: NOAA.

We have no idea how much oil gushed out of BP’s Deepwater Horizon well into the Gulf of Mexico—estimates vary from 92 million gallons to over 320 million gallons, according to the NewsHour’s widget. By comparison, a much smaller amount of oil—53,000 gallons—was spilled into San Francisco Bay when the container ship Cosco Busan ripped its hull open on the Bay Bridge in November 2007. The volume of oil spilled in the Gulf is several thousand times what was spilled in San Francisco Bay, and obviously the environmental consequences of the Gulf spill will far exceed what we’ve seen here. But the ecological studies conducted in the wake of the Cosco Busan spill give us an idea of what we can expect in the Gulf.

After the Cosco Busan spill, scientists looked at the effects of oil on different coastal habitats, and on individual species. A year after the spill, the QUEST radio story Oil Spill Anniversary discussed a study that revealed the negative effects of oil on Herring embryo development. Other studies looked at the impact of oil on intertidal areas, eelgrass beds, native oysters, Brown Pelicans, Marbled Murrelets, and more—a full list of studies that assessed damage to natural resources is at this NOAA site (click on “Case Documents” on the right to download the list as a PDF). Not all organisms fared poorly; the snowy plover, a bird that lives on beaches and is already a threatened species, was fine. They build their nests far enough from the water to be buffered from oil contamination.

Research about impacts and restoration in the Gulf is just getting started. The official US government website about the oil spill switched from a mindset of emergency response to one of restoration, reflecting the huge challenge that lies ahead—provided the oil doesn’t start flowing again. Some government agencies, like the EPA, are sharing the data that is being collected as you read this. My hope is that these research efforts will involve extensive long-term monitoring; the effects of oil spills can last for decades, and we need to understand how ecosystems function over time, with and without oil. We have the opportunity to learn a lot from this disaster, and hopefully we’ll have the money to fund it. The company that operated the Cosco Busan was fined $10 million, $2 million of which is slated for environmental efforts. If BP is fined in proportion to the volume of oil spilled, billions could go towards ecological research.

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A Willet at the Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline park.

Squeezed between the Oakland International Airport and the Coliseum lies one of the best kept secrets of the bay – the Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline Park, a birding hot spot. I had no idea.

Luckily, my eyes were opened this week on a guided hike with Golden Gate Audubon Society volunteer Cindy Margulis. What previously seemed like a pleasant marshy area to me was transformed into a beautiful and fascinating oasis for local wildlife.

Most of the wildlife we saw were actually local visitors and participants in a marathon migration originating in the arctic! The San Francisco Bay is part of the Pacific Flyway and hosts these migrating shorebirds as they head to South and Central America. Flying halfway around the world takes immense energy, and it blew me away that they chose Oakland as a staging area. Protection of these mudflats and salt marshes is therefore critical to their survival and the Golden Gate Audubon Society has been a heroic player in the story of this bay.

Before the building of highways, airports and venues, the 1800 acres of tidal marsh in the San Leandro bay was a paradise for wildlife. The construction that ensued resulted in only 72 remaining acres. Threatened with continued building and habitat loss, Golden Gate Audubon and other environmental groups led the litigation to have these acres protected and additional acres restored.

The success of this endeavor was illuminated when a female Black Turnstone that was banded in western Alaska found her way to this exact restoration site. Pleased with all it could provide for her, she has returned for four winters in a row. The success of this shoreline is also exemplified in the abundance of shorebirds and ducks we saw on our short walk: Canvasbacks, Scaups, Brown Pelicans, Willets, Stilts, Avocets, Killdeers and California Least Terns, Common Golden Eye ducks, Ruddy Ducks, Buffleheads and Pintails, feeding and diving, floating and flying and glistening as we looked through our scopes.

Golden Gate Audubon continues to protect this habitat through public educational opportunities. Their Field Trips program offers more than 100 guided field trips annually for birders of all levels and explores all the phenomenal birding areas in the area and beyond.

According to Cindy, and I agree, this is shoreline is our great wilderness, our savannah or jungle, and our biodiversity hot spot to revere and protect.

See you out there!

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The Galapagos of California: The Farallon Islands.

Every so often the fog retreats from my neighborhood in San Francisco, moves out to sea and we are blessed with a world-class sunset. Adding to the oranges and reds, yellows and spiraling indigos of the evening sky, it also gives us a special chance to see the silhouette of the strange jagged fist of rock breaking up the crisp line of the horizon. I have gazed out upon the Farallon Islands for years. The archipelago is clearly the wildest part of The City-seemingly always just out of reach. (Many people don’t realize that these little islands are actually part of the City of San Francisco.) Since they are a federally protected wildlife refuge, they’re completely closed to the public. So to get a chance to actually set foot on South Farallon Island was an absolute honor.

We’ve tried to share the experience in as many ways as we can. I encourage everyone to really explore the islands through Quest. In addition to the television story, we have a radio presentation with reporter’s notes, a web exploration with video and stills, a unique audio slideshow, an interactive history timeline (also embedded below) and a Flickr set. We’ll also be adding another web-only video story and education guide. The only things we couldn’t bring you are the smell and chill of the wind. But we’ll get on that.

Farallon Islands History: Interactive Timeline

Watch the The Farallon Islands – "California's Galapagos" television story online.

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Doug Nomura in action on the Bay Trail.

Something about San José photographer Doug Nomura’s pictures of birds in flight, or attempting to get off the ground to fly, grabs you.  I think it’s the sheer energy and effort that the photos convey.

It’s especially timely to be broadcasting our profile of Nomura as the Your Photos on QUEST 2-minute segment on our Oct. 13 television episode, since the Bay Area is inundated with migratory birds starting in October.  The Bay Area is on the Pacific Flyway, a major north-south route of travel for migratory birds in the Americas, extending from Alaska to Patagonia.  As a result, close to 700,000 ducks are usually counted in the San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta during October, said John Takekawa, research wildlife biologist with the US Geological Service. Raptors like hawks and falcons also stop over in the Bay Area in fall and winter.

Doug Nomura looks forward to the beginning of the migration in October because it multiplies his opportunities to photograph birds in flight.  He stalks his subjects along the Bay Trail, a shoreline trail that will eventually hug the entire circumference of the San Francisco Bay.  When the Bay Trail is complete, it will be 500 miles long.  Currently, the public can enjoy almost 300 miles of paths.  Nomura, whose day job is as a computer network security specialist, is an avid fan.  “This allows me to turn the cell phone off and go out there for a couple of hours,” he said.  “It’s some of the best therapy one can give oneself and it doesn’t cost anything.  I’d like my photographs to inspire people to visit the Bay Trail to look at the wildlife and appreciate what we have in our backyard.”

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Every fall, 30,000 raptors and hawks migrate across the Bay Area in a fantastic display.

In celebration of the 25^th anniversary, there are a number of interactive events and talks scheduled over the next month.

Hawk Talk and Banding Demo

Where: Hawk Hill

When: Sat 9/12, Sun 9/13, Sat 9/19, Sun 9/20, Sat 9/26 12 Noon – 2 PM

Cost: Free

Details: At these Hawk Talks, a GGRO volunteer gives an hour-long talk about hawk monitoring, migration, and identification using photos and other props. Then at 1 PM a newly banded wild hawk is shown to the crowd, a volunteer talks about GGRO's banding program, and the hawk is released.

GGRO Open House and Raptor Fest!

Where: Ft Cronkhite at Rodeo Beach

When: October 24^th and 25^th, 10 AM-4 PM

Cost: Free

Details: Scientific Displays, Radiotelemetry Demonstrations, Live Non-releasable Raptors, Kid Crafts, GGRO 25th Anniversary Product Sales, Visits to Hawk Hill, Banding Demonstrations, and Raptor Art. On Sunday only – Speakers from UC Davis, SF State University, UC Berkeley presenting results of their research with GGRO.

Celebrate Raptors—A Series of Raptor Biology Talks

Satellite-Tracking Peregrines throughout the Americas

Where: San Francisco Zoo

When: Thursday, September 10^th 7-9 PM

Cost: $3-$5 suggested donation

Falconiformes Discovery: Field, Lab, and Conservation

Where: California Academy of Science’s Nightlife

When: Thursday, October 15^th 7-9 PM

Cost: $12

Eagle Quest:  To See All the World’s Eagles

Where: Mission Blue Chapel, Cavallo Point

When: Wednesday, November 18^h 7-9 PM

Cost: $3-$5 suggested donation

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