Habitat Restoration on a Golf Course

Ok, I’ll admit it. My job takes me to some odd places sometimes.

In this case, a work trip took me to the Eureka Municipal Golf Course in the city of Eureka, CA. This was not the wild stream or the degraded river or the pastureland that make a more typical setting for a Stream Flow Enhancement Program site visit.

One of the holes on the Eureka Municipal Golf Course. Photo: Aaron N.K. Haiman.

But, one thing about golf courses is that they use a fair bit of water to keep their greens, well green, so there is a connection. This golf course currently gets a of its water from a waterway called Martin Slough that flows through the middle of course.

Martin Slough is home to federally endangered Tidewater Goby and federally threatened Coho Salmon. There are also many other species that live in or around this small watercourse. The limited amount of water that flows down Martin Slough means that there is not much left for all the fish and wildlife species after the golf course has taken what it needs. And that is why I was there.

The Wildlife Conservation Board is funding a project that is developing all the needed plans and permits to install a well for the golf course so that they can use groundwater (of which there is a lot in this region) to irrigate their lawns, and leave the surface water in Martin Slough for the fish and other species. The work of this project is being done an organization called the Natural Resources Services Division – Redwood Community Action Agency (RCAA) and several subcontractors they have hired.

I met with the team to look over the project area, see the work of previous phases of restoration that have occurred on the golf course, and see how the current work will increase the impacts of that previous work.

Kristin Schmidt of RCAA (right) and Steve Allen of GDH Inc. (left). Photo: Aaron N.K. Haiman.

Several ponds and side channels have been created along Martin Slough to provide habitat for fish, and the edges of all the waterways have been planted with corridors of native plants that will grow into a terrific riparian buffer. The current work is focusing on removing some rocky riprap armoring on some of the banks, fixing an old bridge, installing the new groundwater well I mentioned, and creating a holding pond that will temporarily hold the water that is drawn up by the well.

Riprap armoring along the bank of Martin Slough was partly removed during a previous phase. The current phase includes plans to remove the rest. Photo: Aaron N.K. Haiman.

While on site, we were treated to a lot of amazing wildlife! A pair of Osprey have claimed a large nest in a Sitka Spruce at the edge of the course and gave us amazing looks, a River Otter swam up the length of the slough and we watched it catch what looked like a sculpin of some kind and then a lamprey, a Mule Deer came jogging past and then nibbled on some of the native vegetation, and a Western Pond Turtle was basking on a log at the edge of one of the ponds!

Monitoring effort has shown that fish responses to the previous work have been strong. These surveys have found increased numbers of Coho Salmon, Steelhead, Tidewater Goby, and other species. So, it looks very promising that these benefits will be increased once the plans that are being developed get turned into actions improving more habitat.

Female Mule Deer on the Eureka Municipal Golf Course. Photo: Aaron N.K. Haiman.

All in all, it was a really terrific visit to an unusual (at least for me) location. I look forward to seeing this project expand and to see the ecological benefits continue to increase.

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A lonely golf ball on the driving range of Eureka Municipal Golf Curse. Photo: Aaron N.K. Haiman.

Book Manuscript Submitted!

The title says it all on this one!

A couple of days ago, I submitted the full manuscript of my book: “Birds of the California Delta” to the editor I have been working with at Heyday Books.

My manuscript includes the profiles of 25 species of bird that are found within and really exemplify some aspect of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. It also has an introduction to the Delta, an introduction to birding, and assorted other sections on what the book is, resources for birds and birding, etc.

Incomplete illustration of a Yellow-billed Magpie (Pica nuttalli) by Martha Espinoza.

Each of the species profiles will be accompanied by an illustration. Since I am not that much of an artist, myself, I am working with a woman named Martha Espinoza who is in the process of creating some stunning works to go along with my writing. If you are curious to see the kind of work Martha does, check out her website, Espinoza Illustrator. Also, the images in this post are a few of the incomplete works she is creating, and even those are beautiful. Just wait until you see the final works!!!

Incomplete illustration of a male Blue Grosbeak (Passerina caerulea) by Martha Espinoza.

Now I wait for my Heyday editor to look over the manuscript and get back to me with comments. That should happen in the next month or two. I will admit to being fairly nervous about this step. Creating the manuscript up until this point was work, but it was under my control. I could set my own pace, decide which parts of the book I was going to work on in any given week or month, and continue tweaking the text until I was happy with it.

But, now is when it goes beyond me. Will the editor like what I have written? Will my work be close to what Heyday is looking for, or am I going to have to really change my writing voice to create the book they are looking for? Will the editing process be relatively short and painless, or will it be long and grueling? I don’t know yet, and I am finding that to be a bit nerve wracking.

Incomplete illustration of a couple of White-faced Ibis (Plegadis chihi) by Martha Espinoza.

But, my hopes are high, and I am sure that no matter how painless or grueling, I will figure out what needs to be done to bring this book into reality. The editing/publishing process is scheduled to take about 12 to 18 months, so the book should come out in 2025.

One of the next big steps (after all the editing) is to start planning the launch of the book. Do you have any ideas on this? Would you be more likely to attend a bird walk or a book signing? Would you want to go to a nature area outside or meet somewhere indoors? Do you like book readings by authors? Do know of any ways of getting the word out about books (birding groups, book stores, news publications, radio programs, etc.)?

I would definitely appreciate any input you care to share.

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A Birding Naturalist Turns 12!

I posted my first blog post on this blog twelve years ago, today! In those years, I have written a total of 353 posts, and those posts have been collectively viewed a total of 104,218 times by 82,145 visitors who came from 183 countries all around the world, 103 of which decided to become followers of the blog! I am so grateful that each of you decided to spend some of your time with me here on this blog, and I hope you continue to find the information here to be valuable.

This past year saw me continued to explore and learn about bird photography, and I hope you enjoy some of those images making their way into blog posts. I have continued to create content for my social media platforms that include YouTube (613 subscribers), Instagram (2,018 followers), and I also added Threads (1,057 followers). I am really enjoying the communities I am finding and that are developing around me on those platforms.

As part of those efforts, and on the suggestion of my wife, I have set up a monthly nature challenge! Each month of 2024, I am setting myself a nature-based goal. I have designed these challenges so that they can be done from just about anywhere and by just about anyone and should not be overwhelmingly time-consuming, so I hope you are inspired to join in and complete these challenges. And don’t worry about jumping in now (in April)! you can go back and retroactively fulfill challenges, or just start this month! Since this month includes Earth Day (on the 22nd) I thought a stewardship-themed challenge would be good so for April, my challenge is to go out to a park or other open space and pick up the trash I find there.

The list of monthly nature challenges for 2024 that I will be aiming to fulfill and that I invite you to, as well.

The other really big development this year is that I am writing a book! I signed a book deal with a publishing company called Heyday Books to write a book tentatively called “The Birds of the California Delta.” I am incredibly excited about this project! Heyday has published three other books on birds of very specific areas, namely Berkeley, Lake Merritt, and Point Reyes. My book will be the fourth in this burgeoning series. While I am writing the text of the book, I am working with an incredibly talented artist to create the illustrations. Martha Espinoza is a scientific illustrator from Costa Rica, and I am thrilled that she is creating this book with me. Check out her website and tell her I say hi. The full draft of the book is due to the Heyday in about a month, and then there is the whole editing and printing process. If all goes according to plan, the book should be on shelves in late 2025.

The other three books published by Heyday that mine will be joining.

And this next year of A Birding Naturalist is going to be an exciting one. I will take you on trips to learn about birds and nature in many interesting places across California, and I will be going on my first trip to the Northeastern US with a visit to Maine! I have plans to form new partnerships and lead more birding walks, and I will bring you along on all of it. And my commitment to sharing the knowledge of the natural world is as strong as ever! I hope you continue to join me on this journey.

Stay tuned! And enjoy the natural world!

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Please Don’t Plant These!

Invasive species are one of the major threats facing biodiversity around the globe! Invasive species (particularly invasive plants) frequently force out native species, use up natural resources, tend to form monocultures, and offer little to no habitat value.

And yet, humans keep planting many of these species! Some of these invasive plants are attractive to look at with interesting leaves and pretty flowers. Some of these invasive plants have functions that humans like such as holding sandy soil in place or forming fast sources of shade.

However, none of the benefits of invasive plants outweigh the high, high costs.

Iceplant (Carpobrotus edulis) growing in dense mats in California. Photo: California Invasive Plant Council.

To help inform people of some of the dangers of invasive plants, reduce how many are planted, and to offer up native alternatives, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has a website as part of its Native Plant Program. One particular page on the Native Plant Program website has a really terrific list of species on plant to avoid planting.

It is the Don’t Plant Me! page! This page highlights nine plant species that are especially harmful: Big Periwinkle, English Ivy, Giant Reed, Iceplant, Onion Grass, Pampas Grass, Red Sesbania, Russian Olive, and Tree-of-Heaven. The page gives some characteristics about each of the invasive plants themselves, and explains some of the facets of the harm that they cause. It also provides native California plant species that can be planted instead of each of these invasive species: Douglas Iris, Alumroot, Willow, Purple Sage, California Aster, Giant Wildrye, Western Redbud, Valley Oak, and Big leaf Maple!

Red Sesbania (Sesbania punicea) is spreading in California. Photo: Eric Hunt.

By carefully considering what plants to buy and put in our yards, gardeners can make important impacts on the spread of native plants and the limiting of invasive species. By purchasing natives, we can vote with our dollars to send a clear message to nurseries and hardware stores that stocking invasive plants will not be a viable financial decision for them.

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Western Kingbirds Eat Drones!

A few months ago, I was thrilled to be given a set of “The Birds of California” by William Leon Dawson (1923)(aka the Dawson guides) by Allen Fish (the director of the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory and a good friend). I have been really enjoying leafing through the beautiful writing and illustrations of this four volume set. In so doing, I stumbled upon an intriguing comment. In the entry for the Western Kingbird (Tyrannus verticalis), there is a mention that when these birds feed on bees, they only eat the drones (male bees).

The Birds of California (aka The Dawson Guides) are a four volume set of books wonderfully written by William Leon Dawson and illustrated by Major Allan Brooks, Donald R. Dickey, Wright M. Pierce, William L. Finley, and the Author. Upper left image shows the spines of the four volumes, lower left image shows the endpaper of one of the volumes, and the image on the right shows the title page. Photos: Aaron N.K. Haiman 

This claim struck me a rather quaint. It seemed like the kind of note that was often made in the late 1800s and early 1900s about some aspect of bird biology and that would later be found to be nothing more than idle fancy or something based off of a very small number of observations (often just one). But, it did pique my curiosity.

I did some poking around reading papers and book extracts and found, much to my surprise, that Dawson was right! Western Kingbirds select drone honeybees! And not only that, but other birds that at least sometimes feed on bees such as Cliff Swallows, Black Phoebes, Northern Mockingbirds, and even House Sparrows do the same!

Adult Western Kingbird perched on a barbed wire fence. Photo: All About Birds.

In 1926, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released a their Farmer’s Bulletin #630 which included notes on birds eating drones that stated: “Six hundred and sixty-five stomachs of the Eastern Kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus) were examined and 22 contained 61 honey bees of which 51 were drones and 8 workers; 62 stomachs of the Western Kingbird contained 30 honey bees of which 29 were drones and one a worker.”

In 1945, Chapman Grant published a paper in the Condor (linked here) with the title “Drone Bees Selected by Birds” in which he describes that Cliff Swallows and Western Kingbirds were suspected of favoring drones. As a side note, Grant mentions that some people refer to Western Kingbirds as “bee martins” which I think is a pretty fun name even if martins are actually more closely related to swallows.

In 1990, a paper (linked here) was published in The American Bee Journal that discussed Western Kingbird and House Sparrow activity around bee hives, and noted that the birds seemed to be selecting drones, and that the period of day with the highest bird activity around hives (11am to 5pm) matched the times of highest drone activity.

Finally, I found a 2023 paper (linked here) titled “The Birds and the Bees: Western Kingbirds (Tyrannus vertcalis) prefer drone honeybees” that was published in the Wilson Journal of Ornithology in which the authors observed Western Kingbirds watching the entrances of beehives and sallying out to capture drones when they emerged from the hive, but not pursuing worker bees. The authors also looked at the Kingbird’s pellets and found that: “Analysis of regurgitated pellets collected under the perch site revealed head capsules of 149 drone bees and none of worker bees.”

Adult Western Kingbird alighting on a plant stalk. Photo: Sharif Uddin.

I have been absolutely delighted by this knowledge! I think that the ability of a Western Kingbird to identify honeybees to caste (drone vs. worker) is pretty impressive, and that evolution has favored the strategy of preying on stingless drones is awesome! I am also impressed by Dawson’s observations and that he was, in fact, on to something. This experience has also reminded me how much I enjoy learning about birds, nature, and science. Here I came across a tidbit of information that then led to a wonderful journey of discovery (at least my own personal discovery). Wonderful! So, thank you, Allen, for sending me down this rabbit-hole! It was a fun trip, and I learned a lot!

I hope you also get to go on your own journeys of discovery and that you enjoy them as much as I did.

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The A Birding Naturalist 2024 Nature Challenge!

I am trying something new this year that I hope will be fun. Fun for me, and also fun for you as well!

I have listed below a nature/birding-based challenge for each month of 2024. These challenges are intended to keep me learning and exploring, and I hope they might do the same for you. I am quite looking forward to them! If these strike you as interesting, I hope you join along!

I am laying them out one per month because I don’t want these challenges to be overwhelming or too difficult. They are meant to grow our knowledge, not tax us. So, feel free to participate in all the challenges or just one or any number in between.

I hope you come along and join me in a year of monthly challenges to learn more about the natural world!

January – Create an eBird list. This can be a single list for a single time birding trip. It can also be more if you want it to be. eBird has several different categories of list (stationary, traveling, incidental, etc.) so pick the one that is right for you. Once you have created your list, post it to eBird, and share the link in the comments here or on YouTube, Instagram, or Threads!

February – Share Your Spark Bird. In honor of Valentine’s Day this month, share how your love of birds got started. A Spark Bird is the bird that first grabbed your attention or opened your eyes to birding or in some way got you started being interested in birds. What was your Spark Bird? What made you fall in love with these amazing creatures? Share your story in the comments here or on YouTube, Instagram, or Threads!

March – New Bird Call/Song. As spring approaches now is a great time to increase our ear-birding skills. Pick a bird with whose calls and/or songs you are not familiar with get familiar with them! Which species did you pick? What did you notice about its vocalizations? What helped you learn the call or song? Share your new knowledge in the comments here or on YouTube, Instagram, or Threads!

April – Trash Cleanup. In honor of Earth Day this month, go out and take care of the earth a bit! Picking up trash is something that we can all do and that helps keep pollution out of the environment. It also makes green spaces that much more pleasant to spend time in. So, this month grab a garbage bag, head out to any green space you like (a nature area, a city park, a bike path, etc.) and get some trash out of the environment. You can do this by joining a formal trash cleanup event, go out with a few friends, or just go it alone. Share a picture of your trash haul (and maybe a before and after photo) in the comments here or on YouTube, Instagram, or Threads!

May – Try a New Birding Spot. Spring is a great time to get out and explore, so this month go to a new birding/nature spot and see what you can see! Maybe there is a place you have been curious about for a while, now is a great time to try it out. Share your spot and what you found there in the comments here or on YouTube, Instagram, or Threads!

June – Create an iNaturalist List. iNaturalist is an amazing online, citizen science database filled with millions of nature observations. This month, try going out and spotting some non-avian critters. Once you have created your list, post your observations to iNaturalist, and share the link in the comments here or on YouTube, Instagram, or Threads!

July – Learn a New Native Plant. Plants are amazing and there are so many different species! This month, learn about a plant that is native to your area, but that you are unfamiliar with. Share the plant and some of what you learned about it in the comments here or on YouTube, Instagram, or Threads!

August – Where Does Your Water Come From? We all drink water, but it is not always obvious where that water comes from, and the answers can be quite surprising. Does it come from a river or a reservoir or an aquifer? This month try and figure out where your drinking water comes from. Share what you discover in the comments here or on YouTube, Instagram, or Threads!

September – Top 5 Species. With fall migration in full swing, what were five of your favorite species you saw this month? They can be favorites for any reason you like. Maybe they were the rarest or the prettiest or the hardest to find or something else entirely. However you decide, list your top five favorite species in the comments here or on YouTube, Instagram, or Threads!

October – Add a Recording to Xeno-Canto. Xeno-Canto is an online, citizen science database that collects the sounds of nature. These include bird vocalizations, but also noises of mammals, frogs, insects, and just about anything else. This month make a recording of a nature sound. This can be done with your cellphone or some other microphone if you have one. Once you have created your recording, post it Xeno-Canto, and share the link in the comments here or on YouTube, Instagram, or Threads!

November – Share a Birding Story. With the holidays approaching, now is a great time to share stories with friends and family, and why not make those stories about birds and nature! This month, share a favorite birding or nature story with someone. They can be a friend, a family member, a complete stranger. What story did you share? What was the conversation like? Share your experience in the comments here or on YouTube, Instagram, or Threads!

December – Read a Book on Birds or Nature. As the year comes to an end, it is a great time to curl up with a book. This month, read a book (audiobooks absolutely count!) that focuses on birds, nature, science, the environment, or other related topic. What book did you chose and why? Was it a good read? Share your book in the comments here or on YouTube, Instagram, or Threads!

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The Endangered Species Act Turns 50!

The USA federal Endangered Species Act was signed into law on December 28th, 1973, so tomorrow is its 50th birthday!

The title page of the Endangered Species Act of 1973.

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) is one of the most powerful and effective laws in the USA for protecting species and their habitats.

Part of the ESA was the creation of a list of species (plants and animals) that are near extinction. Threatened Species are those that face population declines and that are likely to become endangered. Endangered Species are those that face high likelihoods of going extinct.

A male Ash Meadows Amargosa Pupfish (Cyprinodon nevadensis mionectes), which is a species listed as Endangered under the ESA. Photo: Aaron N.K. Haiman

Once a species is “listed” as either Threatened or Endangered, funding is authorized to determine the threats that the species face, put together a recovery plan to address those threats, and fund on-the-ground actions to counter them.

The ESA also makes it illegal to “take” a listed species. In the ESA, “take” means to: harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect, or to attempt to engage in any such conduct.” This broad definition means that people and organizations can be fined if they engage in activities that result in the “take” of any individuals of a listed species.

The ESA has also been further broadened to include critical habitats. Critical habitat is “the specific areas within the geographic area, occupied by the species at the time it was listed, that contain the physical or biological features that are essential to the conservation of endangered and threatened species and that may need special management or protection.”

These features of the ESA have made it into an incredibly powerful and effective tool for preventing species from going extinct. To date, only a small fraction of the species that have been listed have then disappeared, and many more have been actively recovered to the point where they have been taken off the endangered species list!

To check out a different medium, here is a video I made on the ESA turning 50! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIEKPE0sHsE

So, thanks for all that you have done for this country and the species that live here, and Happy 50th Birthday ESA!!!

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Big News in Bird Names!

The American Ornithological Society (AOS) just announced that they are starting a process to change the names birds that are currently named after people (Townsend’s Warbler, Gamble’s Quail, Wilson’s Warbler, etc.) to better reflect the traits of the birds themselves!

The Say’s Phoebe is one of the birds that will have a new name that better represents itself, and not Thomas Say who was an entomologist and conchologist. Photo: American Ornithological Society.

I have written in support of this idea several times (such as Changing Bird Names for Social Justice and The Problem with Selling Names), and disagreement over this issue actually caused me to end my columns in a few small California magazines (you can read about that saga here).

I even wrote a piece on Bullock’s Oriole that I planned to include in the book I am working on (Birds of the California Delta) where I discussed bird names, who many of them are currently named after, and some of the issues with that.

Well, I have not been alone in expressing these views! Other individuals such as David Allen Sibley, and organizations such as Bird Names for Birds have been advocating for changing the names we use for birds. And that has lead to the AOS announcement that they are going to change the names of all birds within their jurisdiction to no longer include names of individuals! They are planning on forming a naming committee in 2024 and will begin exploring alternative names that better reflect each bird’s biology, ecology, behavior, etc.

I am delighted about this change, even though it means that I have to write a new species profile! The Bullock’s Oriole will have a new and better name before my book is published (late 2025), and bird names will be more reflective of the birds themselves and no longer pay homage to some very questionable individuals.

So, since this piece will not be included in my book, here is what I was going to write:

Bullock’s Oriole

Scientific Name: Icterus bullockii

Uncommon in summer and absent in winter

The Bullock’s Oriole is a beautiful bird with a dubious name. William Bullock was by some accounts an amateur naturalist and wealthy supporter of exploration into the natural world. However, by other accounts he was a conman who sensationalized the natural world and exploited colonized cultures for his own financial gain and used his wealth to silence those who disagreed with him. He exemplifies an issue that exists in who birds are named after. Most of the birds who bear a person’s name have that of a wealthy, heterosexual, white male. Not a very inclusive or representative club. So, what to do. One option is to broaden the scope of those individuals after whom birds are named, but this has the downside of future generations changing how they view those individuals, whoever they might be, and also not representing anything about the birds themselves.

Rather than attempting to balance representation in bird names, let us let birds be our guides. Instead of naming a bird after even the best of all possible people, let’s name birds for what they are.

There are so many amazing features to the orange-and-black bird we now call the Bullock’s Oriole. We could call it the Orange-browed Oriole or the Western Oriole or any number of other names that reflect what this bird actually is.

“Bird names for birds” is how this idea is often referenced, and support for these changes is growing which I think is a good thing for all of us.

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Happy Halloween! California has a State Bat!

California has a state flower (California Poppy), a state tree (Redwood), a state metal (gold), a state rock (serpentine), a state bird (California Quail), a state land mammal (Grizzly Bear), a state marine mammal (Grey Whale), a state freshwater fish (Golden Trout), a state marine fish (Garibaldi), and many other state symbols.

This month, California got a new state symbol and it is well themed for the spooky Halloween season. The Pallid Bat (Antrozous pallidus) is now California’s official state bat!

Pallid Bat (Antrozous pallidus) in flight. Photo: Oregon Conservation Strategy.

Pallid Bats have golden colored fur that represents California as “the golden state,” it is found across California’s many landscapes and ecosystems, it is omnivorous (quite unusual for a bat) with a wide and varied diet that represents the varied foods found in California, and it is a social species which seems fitting for a symbol of the state with the largest human population. All in all, a very fitting embodiment of the State of California in bat form!

So, happy and safe Halloween to you all from A Birding Naturalist! I hope you see a bat or two while out trick-or-treating (or whatever else you may have planned for the evening), and if it is golden in color, it might be our new state bat!

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Close-up of a Pallid Bat’s face. Photo: Northern California Bats

Green Thought Thursdays: Vampire Energy

Once a week, I am offering up a tip or action or idea that we can all engage with to work towards living in ways that allow for more health and wellbeing for all aspects of the planet.

This week the green thought is about vampire energy!

Even though this devise is off, the power light stays on sucking energy every minute of every day. These energy vampires are lurking in our homes! Photo by A Birding Naturalist.

Using electricity involves burning fossil fuels (unless the power is generated by solar or another sustainable energy source which happens, but is still in a distinct minority of energy production). And the burning of fossil fuels releases carbon into the atmosphere which is one of major causes of global climate change. Using electricity also costs money as we all pay for electricity based on the amount we use. To avoid these impacts to climate and wallet, I was always told to do things like turn the lights off when I leave a room and turn computers off when I was done using them. I suspect you were taught do those things as well. These are good things to do, no doubt. However, that is not the whole story. Many devises continue to use ]electricity even after they have been turned off! This continuing power drain from turned-off-appliances is called “phantom load” or “vampire energy,” and this hidden power drain accounts for a lot of energy waste. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates as much as 75% of the electricity used to by home electronics is consumed while the electronic devises are off!

A solution is to unplug household electronics when not is use. When not using a coffee maker, stand mixer, charging station, printer, speaker, game console, power stripe, etc. pull their plug! This does add an extra step of plugging them back in when you want to use them, but compared to the savings, it seems to me that a small extra step is well worth it. So, in honor of the upcoming Halloween holiday, lets all unplug more devices and stop the vampires!

What do you think of these ideas? Do you have any other solution ideas?

Thank you for visiting my blog! Please check back next week for another Green Thought Thursday!

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