In Berkeley: NatGeo Society photography fellow talks about his breathtaking new book
Before his Feb. 1 appearance at the David Brower Center, we talked to Joe Riis, as well as a contributor to his new book, UC Berkeley's Arthur Middleton.
Elaine Miller Bond is an author and photographer whose work celebrates the natural world. She is the author/photographer of Running Wild and Living Wild, lively children’s board books from Heyday Books in Berkeley. She is also the photographer of The Utah Prairie Dog, a scientific book by Theodore Manno. Her writing and photography have appeared on the Discovery Channel and in Science, BBC Earth News, NPR online, and her favorite local news site, Berkeleyside. One of her recent Berkeleyside photo-essays, about monarch butterflies, went “viral” and was shared 21,000 times on Facebook. Another photo-essay, Sweetness & Light: Diary of a Hummingbird’s Nest, has been adapted into a children’s book, forthcoming from Heyday Books. See her website.
When the new dogs in town are coyotes: Expert Camilla Fox on co-existing with them
With more local sightings, we quizzed coyote expert Camilla Fox who believes if we can shift the way we view and treat coyotes, we can shift the way we view and treat all wildlife.
Exotic flowers bring startling color to UC Botanical Garden
Their color is spectacular, sublime, almost otherworldly. And it’s rarely seen in flowers. The teal-blue Puya berteroana are blooming again.
Monarch butterflies and great ways we can help them
Last November, Berkeleyside published an article about a spectacular natural phenomenon seen in Berkeley for the first time: hundreds of monarch butterflies were clustering in the trees of Aquatic Park.
First time observed: Hundreds of monarch butterflies cluster in Berkeley’s Aquatic Park
In late October, Berkeleyside received a tip that thousands of tiny fish were jumping in the waters of Aquatic Park.
Making a splash: Fish jumping in Berkeley’s Aquatic Park
Dark clouds gathered last Tuesday morning, and many of us hoped for a storm. Yet, the not-so-still waters at Berkeley’s Aquatic Park didn’t roil from raindrops; they bubbled from thousands of small jumping fish.
Sweetness and light: Diary from a hummingbird’s nest
Have you ever had one of those days in which everything sparkles?
Flying high again: Golden eagle returns to East Bay skies
Last September, while working on an article for Berkeleyside, I took a short trip to the Lindsay Wildlife Museum in Walnut Creek. My mission there was purely amphibious: to photograph western toads that the museum keeps on display.
Going green: Frog conservation finds new HQ in Berkeley
For a long time, I’ve wanted to write an article on frogs for Berkeleyside. In fact, my first “kiss” came from a frog in Tilden Park. It jumped to my lips as I drank water from a fountain on a scorching-hot day at summer camp.
All aflutter: Berkeley insect lovers celebrate 40th year counting butterflies
A hummingbird whirrs by, as a squirrel flicks its tail, flirting. A robin fluffs its feathers after bathing in the stream. Leopard lilies, columbines, even the cacti are in full summery bloom. But today, at the Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Tilden Park, we’re here for the butterflies.
Friends in high places: Peregrine falcons soar above us
Not long ago, Berkeleyside reader Patrick Hickey kindly sent in a photo of a beautiful bird of prey, perched on a tall building near his home in downtown Berkeley. I had my own suspicions (and sense of elation) over what kind of bird it might be. Then Rusty Scalf, teacher and trip leader for the Golden Gate Audubon Society, confirmed it: the bird was a peregrine falcon — the fastest animal on Earth. In California, not long ago, it was also one of the most endangered. (more…)
Darlings, not Draculas: Meet the bats of Berkeley
Once you know what to look for, you might catch glimpses of California’s native bats, even around cities like Berkeley. I see bats near Tilden Park, flittering off into the dusk like tiny airborne scraps of leather. Others notice their pointy silhouettes in the light of the moon, sunset-painted sky, pond reflections, streetlights.
In a Berkeley park, a bluebird displays unusual behavior
Last year, Rusty Scalf, teacher and trip leader for the Audubon Society, introduced me to a family of western bluebirds living and nesting in Berkeley’s San Pablo Park. This year, Scalf called me back. Apparently, a “mad man” had flown onto the bluebird scene.
Lynxes of the bird world: Cooper’s hawks nest in Berkeley
They’re secretive, stealthy and quick. Allen Fish, director of the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory, calls them “feisty.” Cooper’s hawks, he says, are “the lynxes of the bird world” that pounce on pigeons and swoop between buildings. And, though Cooper’s hawks are hard to find, we know, at first fleeting glance, that we’ve seen something wild and unusual.
The mystery and thrill: Shorebirds enjoy winter in Berkeley
A wide variety of shorebirds winter in the San Francisco Bay waters, and in Berkeley in particular. A few, like the whimbrel (a type of curlew), migrate from as far away as the Arctic. Elaine Miller Bond, whose work on local wildlife we have been delighted to publish before, recently spent time photographing shorebirds at the Berkeley and Emeryville tidal zones and mudflats in the company of Rusty Scalf, a teacher and trip leader for the Audubon Society.
Rare bluebird sightings bring happiness in a Berkeley park
Birds are singing. Children are laughing and playing in patches of sunlight. And I am strolling through large fields of grass here at Berkeley’s San Pablo Park, aiming my camera at flocks of finches, sparrows — anything with wings — looking for flashes of sapphire blue.
