Featured events- 03/10/2012 - Ton Koopman & The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir
- 02/27/2012 - Classical at the Freight: Rossini Birthday Celebration
- 02/23/2012 - Michio Kaku: Physics of the Future, How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100
- 02/23/2012 - 2012: a Turning Point? And If So, Which Way?: A Talk by Robert Reich
- 02/19/2012 - Takacs Quartet
Category Archives: Nature
Codornices Creek: Happy ducks in place of concrete
Update, 01.31.12: Susan Schwartz, President, Friends of Five Creeks, provides an informative clarification on the history of this section of Codornices Creek. (This is why we love the Berkeleyside community so much — our expert readers always bring the latest intelligence to the table!):
We’re always delighted to see articles about nature, but the Codornices Creek reach between 6th and 8th referred to was not in a pipe, nor were the reaches downstream.
Since 2000, three projects have carved new channels … Continue reading »
Tagged Berkeley nature, Codornices Creek
The wild turkeys of Berkeley: Out and about again
Is it our imagination, or are the wild turkeys of Berkeley becoming bigger and more prevalent? It was only a couple of weeks ago that we reported on two clusters of the fabulous fowl roaming the streets of Berkeley and Albany. And yesterday a photograph of a group of them happily exploring someone’s roof crossed our radar.
The photos here were sent in by Ty Alper, who was driving down San Pablo Avenue this morning around 8:45 am, and spotted this … Continue reading »
Tagged Wild turkeys, Wild turkeys Berkeley
Botanical illustrators straddle line between art, science
Before photography, scientists relied on the work of botanical illustrators to document and record plants. Today botanical art is prized for plant portraits that are both elegant and technically accurate.
An exhibition at UC Botanical Gardens that runs through February 3rd showcases the intricate skills of botanical artists.
The Third Annual Plants Illustrated exhibition, held in conjunction with the Northern California Society of Botanical Artists, includes a talk and a two-day class by artist Catherine Watters. Notecards featuring some of the illustrations … Continue reading »
A freezing morning in Berkeley
The temperature gauge read 29 degrees this morning in Berkeley. Citizen reporter Aaron Glimme took a shot of a determined runner on the frost-covered track at King Middle School.
The cold, clear weather that has parked itself over the Bay Area for the past six weeks should be moving on soon. Weather forecasters have predicted rain for Wednesday and Thursday.
Tagged Aaron Glimme
Small temblor shakes Berkeley
A 2.7 magnitude earthquake shook Berkeley at 9:18 pm Thursday, with its epicenter in the Berkeley hills near Berkeley National Laboratory, according to the USGS.
The shaking was felt all over town. @nmsanchez tweeted “Earthquake shook hard in West Berkeley.”
No damage has been reported.
LeRoy Steps: Source of pride and local controversy
Five years ago the steps leading from Hilgard Avenue down to LeRoy were a tangled mess, ill lit, broken in spots, and dotted with graffiti. Scraggly trees and brambles grew unrestrained along the steps’ borders.
Then a group of neighbors got together, and, with hard work and the assistance of funding from the city and UC Berkeley, transformed the steps into an inviting path. New lights now illuminate the walkway, and every March hundreds of daffodils push their way to the surface, creating a yellow burst of color.
“Several years ago it was just a dump,” said City Councilmember Susan Wengraf. “It was overgrown, strewn with garbage, basically abandoned by the city. Over time it really became transformed from a very unattractive place to quite a beautiful place.” … Continue reading »
Quakes: All you wanted to know but were afraid to ask
Last week’s series of earthquakes in Berkeley had Berkeleyans, including Berkeleyside readers, all a-twitter about the possible significance of the rash of tremors, their concentration and location. We spoke to geophysicist Paul Caruso at the National Earthquake Information Center to sort out fact from fiction.
What can you tell us about the recent quakes centered in Berkeley?
The magnitude 4:0 quake [which was felt at 2:41 pm on Thursday October 20] was followed by several aftershocks in the area of rupture over the next few days as the earth tried to come back into equilibrium. Aftershocks are defined as being smaller than the original quake.
Some Berkeleyside readers said they thought a series of small quakes was a good thing because it indicated a “release of pressure” on the Hayward fault line; others said it indicated a “build-up to a big one”. Are either of these ideas valid?
Both are legitimate theories. The truth is we don’t know whether earthquakes like these are relieving pressure or whether pressure is building. … Continue reading »
Berkeley’s 4th quake of day a 3.8 at 2307 Piedmont Ave
Update, 10.22.11: This just in from Lisa Carlson: Thursday night at Rita Moreno’s one-woman show about her extraordinary life as a performer at the Berkeley Rep, about 10 minutes into her opening, we had a strong earthquake, around 3.9, the second one of the day here — an aftershock, we were told. Loud and deep. I was sitting high up in the mezzanine, 5th row back, with three friends, George, Beth, and her husband David, and we all held hands … Continue reading »
Loss assessment: Building anew after devastation
By Kurt Lavenson
Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Rainer Maria Rilke
The fire missed me that day. I was alone in my fiancée’s kitchen, up near the ridge line of the hills, drinking coffee and reading the Sunday paper. The heat and winds were unusual. Pine needles blew from the trees and whipped sideways past the windows. I noticed smoke in the distance, in a corner of the view to the north, comfortably far away and just mildly interesting.
But it didn’t stay that way for long. Soon I was packing family photos and boxes of files into my truck for an evacuation. When we returned hesitantly the next day, the house and neighborhood were fine. The winds had stopped before pushing the fire into our canyon — and that was all it took to separate us from the others. A mile or so north, there were 1,500 acres of blackened devastation. … Continue reading »
Tagged Oakland-Berkeley Firestorm
Look who’s on Hillcrest
Berkeleysider Lee Aurich sent in some vivid photos of a family of barn owls roosting in a palm tree on Hillcrest Road in the Claremont Uplands neighborhood.
(We thought “Hoo’s on Hillcrest?” would be a great headline, but birders know that barn owls don’t hoot, they shriek.)
Do other Berkeleysiders have families of owls in their yards? Let us know.
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