Point Blue

East Bay Oystercatchers 2021

Team participants: Maya Hayden, Meredith Elliot, Julian Wood, Mani Oliva, Allison Ford and Abby Ogden. We decided to keep the team small due to continuing health concerns from the pandemic. Our team focused on the birds of the East Bay. We were hoping to exceed our count of 90 in our inaugural year last year,

Boarderline Birders 2021

by Josh Dieterich, Chief Development Officer After some hemming and hawing about the rain in the forecast, the Boarderline Birders went ahead with their count on Sunday September 19. Our perseverance was rewarded with a magically crisp late summer day in west Marin, just perfect for exploring a variety of bird habitat and wrapping up

Re-Balancing Act Making a Ranch Ecosystem More Resilient

Heather Bernikoff has been a changemaker in her community through the many roles she’s held—a volunteer leader on non-profit boards, a health educator, and an advocate for direct service programs, to name a few. Now on her ranch in the rolling foothills of the Central Sierra Nevada, she is effecting change on the land by

Birding with a “Fledgling’s Mind”

Written by Lishka Arata, Senior Communications Coordinator As a way to invite new birders into the conservation fold at Point Blue, we offered a beginning birder, family-friendly, in-person walk this year at the Laguna de Santa Rosa Preserve in Sebastopol, CA. It was on Saturday, September 25th from 9:30 to 11:30 am. With 14 satisfied

The Turnstones 2021 Bird-A-Thon

Written by Nancy Gamble, Point Blue Director of Philanthropy The day started a little after sunrise at the Stinson Beach parking lot with clear skies, bright sunlight, and a cool crisp breeze. We scanned the creek, tress, and bushes for songbirds, crows, ravens, and anything else that flew by or called out to us. We

Drake’s Beach Sanderlings 2021 Bird-A-Thon

Written by team captain Aaron Haiman The 2021 Drake’s Beach Sanderlings Bird-a-thon began in the early morning darkness at the entrance to Muir Woods. The group of young birders (which this year was comprised of Max Benningfield, Eddie Monson, Connor Cochrane, Mark Schulist, Joseph Zeno, Lucas Corneliussen, and Aaron Haiman and accompanied by John Monson)

Virtual Vultures Bird Three Lagoons at Once!

Written by Lishka Arata, Point Blue Senior Communications Coordinator It was a calm, cloudy late September morning. Some tink tinks of the California Towhee, high pitched barks of the Song Sparrow, and a few chatters from Bushtits and Chestnut-backed Chickadees. I grabbed my backpack with layers and water, slung my camp chair over my shoulder,

Science News: How Our Science Protects Wildlife

Do Protected Areas Actually Protect? We need effective conservation measures that will help threatened bird populations recover, survive, and thrive alongside human communities. Many of us assume that protected areas, such as local, regional, and national parks, are one such measure and Point Blue Avian Ecologist Mark Dettling recently published a study to explore our

Oil Spill Response and Point Blue Deployment

By Mani Oliva, C.E.O. As you have likely heard by now, on Saturday morning an oil spill occurred off the coast of Huntington Beach in Southern California in which 127,000 gallons of oil leaked into the ocean. This spill, the largest in the area in three decades, has already impacted wildlife and poses significant risk

Cool City Challenge in Petaluma

The population at large is becoming increasingly aware that the climate crisis is not something that will happen in the future. It is happening now, and there is not much time left before many of the irreversible environmental tipping points have been passed. Though the challenge can feel daunting, there is hope. But we need

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