Team Ornicycles Thanks You
October 24, 2022
What an epic day! We covered over 28? miles on our mountain bikes and identified 98 different bird species in their natural habitat in and around Bolinas Lagoon, California. What were the highlights and lowlights? I could recount how amazing it was to share the bird-by-bike stoke with our new team members, Aidan and Amy, or how we were thwarted by the afternoon fog from reaching our goal of 100 species, or how we nearly collapsed by climbing two massive ridges in pursuit transcendent descents.
The Common Mers’ Bird-A-Thon Day Mer-ventures and Fin-tastic Finds
October 9, 2022
Spoiler alert: we didn’t end our day in a swim as planned due to weather and timing, but we definitely scaled up our collective knowledge and excitement about the amazing birds and other animals and plants that share the land, wetlands, and water with us. The mermaid pod gathered at Point Blue’s headquarters along the
Update from the Field: Fire Management in the Illilouette Creek Basin, Yosemite
October 4, 2022
Our days in the Illilouette Creek Basin began in early twilight, crawling out of a sleeping bag to start bird surveys. Mornings involved 3 to 4 miles of route-finding off trail through a gauntlet of fallen logs, thorny shrubs, steep slopes, and the otherwise unpredictable.
How Uniting People, Data, and Technology Conserves Wildlife
September 4, 2022
The journey from a pie-in-the-sky data management idea to the moment where Point Blue is managing ALL bird data for every one of the Department of Defense’s installations, covering 27 million acres of land. (Originally published in our Summer 2022 issue of the Point Blue Quarterly) When Dr. Grant Ballard helped bring together more than
Hope is Green and Soggy in the Sierra Nevada
August 28, 2022
It was July 28, 2021, I was sitting in my living room overlooking Lake Almanor in the Northern Sierra Nevada, having spent the morning raking fir needles and covering attic vents, I was hunched over the air purifier sucking in as much fresh air as I could get. It was 3 weeks into the Dixie Fire, and the sky, much like what the San Francisco Bay Area experienced in the fall of 2020, had looked an eerie orange for weeks from wildfire smoke with little relief. I was alone, having sent my family out of harm’s way the week before.
Science News: Guiding Renewable Energy, Celebrating Climate Legislation, and much more
August 19, 2022
Biden Signs Landmark Climate Bill On August 16th, 2022 President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law. Although it’s not perfect, it is the biggest, most important piece of federal climate legislation to date. It encompasses clear and actionable policy to drive the needed investment to decarbonize our economy emissions. Importantly, the bill clearly prioritizes
Antarctica, An Expedition of a Lifetime!
June 17, 2022
Point Blue is excited to offer its supporters a once-in-a-lifetime adventure to a place that remains virtually untouched. An entire continent of windswept expanses, snow-shrouded peaks, wildlife in abundance, and ice taking on hues of turquoise and iridescent blue.
Una Mujer con Mucha Fuerza en Buena Compañía /A Powerful Woman in Good Company
May 13, 2022
I didn’t expect to be moved to tears when I sat down to interview Diana Eusse. Diana is the South American Lead of our Migratory Shorebird Project partnership and Biologist with Asociación Calidris. I met with her in early March 2022 during one of her visits to the United States. Her perspective and approach to collaboration is palpable.
CA Takes Major Conservation Step With Final 30×30 Plan
May 6, 2022
In October 2020, Governor Newsom made news with a bold executive order to fight climate change and conserve biodiversity. And Point Blue was among the many organizations to applaud Newsom’s efforts and pledge to work with his administration to help turn his commitment into an action plan. After 18 months of intensive collaborative planning, draft
Science News: Major advance in whale protection and much more…
April 29, 2022
Encouraging News for Whales We’re thrilled to report a major advance in our collaboration to protect whales. For over a decade, reducing deadly collisions between cargo ships and whales has been a priority for the Point Blue Oceans team. In 2017, we published a seminal paper showing that the actual number of whale deaths from
