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magic! where to look for it
The thing about magic is that not everyone knows where to look for it, but anyone can see it. Just like the show business magicians who create distractions to focus your attention elsewhere while they create their illusions, the real magic among us is hidden behind things that seem to be everyday occurrences. We are in the midst of magic and often don't even see it. And every bit of this magic is beginning to make life better for wildlife and people.
habitat restoration
Last month we talked about the plight of a Burrowing Owl that needed a place to be released (click to see video of his story.) Habitat loss is number one on every list of threats to every species of wildlife, and it is easy to dwell on that, but the fact is that statistics indicate that human population growth is leveling off in North America, and, like the work done in Cesar Chavez park to provide a place for that owl, the great job of restoration is beginning in many other places.
You have only to look at efforts like the Giacomini Marsh restoration reported last month by Bay Nature, the restoration of eelgrass and Olympia oysters in San Francisco Bay that we reported in our August enews, or the great work that SPAWN is doing to restore the creeks in Marin to support the Coho Salmon runs.
The Marin Audubon Society (MAS) is restoring upland habitat at Bahia in Novato by removing invasive non-native plants and planting native plants.
raptors and landfills
Several months ago, we reported on the dire consequences to raptors of methane gas at many landfills. Methane gas burners over landfills are used to burn off dangerous gasses; vultures and raptors that hunt rodents there are frequently burned, and people rarely find them.
Landfills themselves are environmental hazards that have been expanding for the last century. But here comes the magic: people like you are beginning to make a difference, and landfill managers are finding ways to solve the problems. Marin Sanitary has been an effective leader in recycling.
The Redwood Landfill in Novato has some innovative plans to change the way we deal with waste management. Landfill Manager Jessica Jones commented in an article in the Marin IJ "Marin County has zero-waste goals, and we want to be a part of that."
Redwood Landfill will soon also begin recycling food and yard waste as well as concrete and building materials. Solar panels will power most of the site, and methane gas will be captured and sold to PG&E. Redwood is also seeking certification from the Wildlife Habitat Council for their habitat restoration and enhancements. This is great news for wildlife and for us!
recycling
Just a few years ago we had no options for responsible disposal of toxic and persistant materials like batteries, paints, pesticides, television CRTs, plastics, and other chemicals that leeched into landfills and groundwater and polluted our oceans. The movie "Synthetic Sea" explored the problem of plastic ocean debris that has been killing animals in the oceans (click to view the video.) This movie is very powerful and helps explain some of the reasons Coastal Cleanup Day is so important. At first it was reported there was nothing we could do about plastics in our oceans, but now scientists are assembling teams of specialists to see what can be done to address the problem.
Today, options for recycling are everywhere, from the surge in consignment shops for furniture and clothing, to the plastic, glass and paper recycling picked up weekly by our sanitary services. Composting is becoming more commonplace-- the process of recycling our food and garden scraps into fertile soil and reducing the concentration of food refuse that is so attractive and detrimental to local wildlife.
The Berkeley City Council has just introduced prohibitions on the release of balloons at special events permitted by the City issues. Keeping plastic hazards out of the environment prevents the need to clean them up.
The City of San Rafael and the Canal Alliance have begun a pilot program working with the residents of the Canal area in neighborhood clean-up efforts. Instead of simply enforcing no-parking zones on street-cleaning days, they are engaging the neighborhood in keeping their own neighborhood free of trash.
housing development, power and energy
The urban sprawl that displaced so many wild animals in the 1950s is now evolving into planned communities that provide a balance of living spaces and habitat for wildlife.
Options for green buildings, unheard of just decades ago, are becoming commonplace. The new California Academy of Sciences displays a living roof, solar panels are becoming more affordable and even offer the promise of future income in putting power, collected at homes and offices, back into the grid. The College of Marin Center for Regenerative Design is working to educate present and future decision-makers on alternatives that support a sustainable future.
pesticides and toxic substances
In the 1950s, DDT foggers rolled through neighborhoods where children played in the streets, killing thousands of songbirds. Today, we understand the consequences of indiscriminate poisoning. While much work has yet to be done in this area, great changes have been made in public places like San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, as well as in Marin County's parks and open spaces to stop the use of toxic and dangerous pesticides. WildCare is especially proud to have been instrumental in helping to generate some of this progress, by alerting people to what happens to raptors when they consume poisoned rodents.
economic implications
While we are all distracted by the dire statistics of the job market, great work is being done, and jobs are being created. The jobs are changing from ones that rely on the exploitation of our natural resources, to ones that find profitability in conservation, resource management and recycling. According to Anders R. Edwards, author, founder and president of EduTracks, a firm specializing in green building and sustainability education programs, "sustainabillity has become the springboard for millions of individuals throughout the world who are forging the fastest and most profound social transformation of our time - the Sustainability Revolution.
"This is an exciting time!"
There is still much work to be done, but good positive changes are happening at an exponential rate. Those listed here are just a very few of the wonderful steps being taken to help our environment. Like magic, once you know where to look, you'll see it everywhere.
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Students of the Wade Thomas School pull invasive Scotch Broom from Phoenix Lake. Photo courtesy of MMWD
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Coastal clean-up is needed here
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Volunteers are needed to help wiht habitat restoration at Creekside Park.
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Are you concerned about endangered species? The Mission Blue Butterfly depends upon Silver-leafed Lupin. Habitat restoration will help support this unique local insect. Photo from National Park Service
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Conservation Corps North Bay takes on a variety of projects and offers education and job training. Photo courtesy of the National Park Service
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make your own magic
For those of us who chose to follow what some called "frivolous" careers like art, history, literature, botany, sports and the like, our instructors -- well, the good ones, anyway -- gave us some valuable advice: "Do what you love and the money will follow." We came to be landscapers, physicists, graphic designers, teachers, writers, veterinarians, swim coaches and managers. The thing that unites us all is that we love our work because we chose it.
It was good advice, based on the idea that if you love what you are doing, you will excel at it, and in the process, discover resources and contacts that you would never have known about if you hadn't "just done it." This advice is ageless, and volunteering is one of the surest ways to begin. If you are seeking work, fullfilment, or just want to make a difference, there are hundreds of opportunities in your area.
air and water quality
Are you concerned about the water quality in the Bay?
Save the Bay (San Francisco)
Marin Rod and Gun Club
California Coast Commission
do you love bicycling?
The Marin County Bicycle Coalition (MCBC) and other nonprofit organizations have volunteer oportunities where you can help make a difference to the quality of the air we breathe by promoting bicycling.
habitat restoration
Do you enjoy gardening and working outdoors?
The California Native Plant Society has volunteer opportunities doing habitat restoration, invasive plant control and projects in their native plant nurseries.
Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy seeks volunteers to help with invasive plant removal, planting of native plants and seed collection.
Marin County Department of Parks and Open Space has dozens of projects for volunteers who want to help improve our parks.
The Salmon Protection and Watershed Network (SPAWN) needs volunteers in their Citizen Training programs for monitoring water quality and native plant propagation and to work as creek naturalists.
At Point Reyes National Seashore, the National Park Service is working to restore habitat for the Mission Blue Butterfly
The Ocean Conservancy needs help in coastal clean-ups.
hands-on fur and feathers
Do you want to work hands-on with animals?
Here at WildCare we offer volunteers a unique opportunity and training program to work hands-on with wildlife or to help children learn to love and appreciate nature.
The Marin Humane Society offers volunteer opportunities with domestic animals for all ages.
Guide Dogs for the Blind volunteers welcome dogs into their homes; they act as program ambassadors; they help stuff envelopes and stay caught up on filing.
think outside the box
Conservation Corps of the North Bay (CCNB) offers all sorts of enjoyable ways to donate your time, and make the best use of your skills and interests, and even some opportunities for paid job training.
If you have specific skills you'd like to offer, or ones you'd like to learn, a consultation with the Center for Volunteer and Nonprofit Leadership of Marin may be helpful.
Volunteering tricks the magic into showing itself. Many nonprofit organizations have evolved in response to the need for environmental change. Anything you do to improve life for wildlife will also improve life for people.
What are you waiting for?
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| Nature Guide Don Humphreys on the trail. Photo by Holly Manley |
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| WildCare's Wildlife Hospital Volunteers do amazing work! Above: preparing diets, feeding a baby quail, cleaning an orphaned fawn |
Volunteering at WildCare
January is the perfect month to begin volunteering at WildCare. Both our nature education programs and our wildlife hospital programs offer comprehensive hands-on training classes starting this month. The quieter months of January and February give us the opportunity to prepare our new volunteers for our busy Baby Season and for perfect Field Trip weather in the spring.
Terwilliger Nature Guide Training
Our Terwilliger Nature Guide Training Orientation will be held on on January 9, 2010 (click to register) followed by our comprehensive Nature Guide training series starting on January 23, 2010.
This training, taught by experienced WildCare naturalists and expert guest lecturers, will provide a full 20 hours of instruction in teaching techniques that prepare you to share your love of nature with eager schoolchildren on outdoor hikes full of exploration and learning.
Terwilliger Nature Guides commit to three three-hour hikes per month during the school year. All hikes are scheduled in the mornings during the week.
Click here to register to attend the Terwilliger Nature Guide orientation on January 9, 2010.
Questions? Contact Anya Pamplona, Education Coordinator at 415-453-1000 x12 or anya@wildcarebayarea.org.
Volunteering in WildCare's Wildlife Hospital
Orientations for adult volunteers (18 and older) will be held January 23 and 24, 2010. Click to register for one of these orientation dates now. Please note: these will be the ONLY orientations for adult hospital volunteers in 2010.
Wildlife Hospital volunteers commit to an extensive hands-on training program (a full 16 hours of instruction) and then sign up for a regular 4-hour shift each week in the wildlife clinic. A minimum commitment-- from February through the end of October-- is required. Our animal patients rely primarily on our volunteers for most of their cleaning, feeding and care, so the commitment is significant, as are the rewards.
Click to register for one of the orientation dates. Questions? Contact our Volunteer Coordinator at 415-453-1000 x21 or volunteer@wildcarebayarea.org.
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Humpback Whale breaching. Photo courtesy of National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Dept of Commerce
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| Humpback Whale. Photo by Dr. Louis M. Herman, courtesy of National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Dept of Commerce |
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California Gray Whale. Photo courtesy of straitwatch.org
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| Blue Whales in the Gulf of the Farallones. Photo by Dan Shapiro, courtesy of NOAA Photo Library. |
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baja california: a whale's paradise
by Juan-Carlos Solis, Director of Education
Residents of the Bay Area are often surprised to discover that roughly 30 miles west of San Francisco lies a sea oasis where one can find several species of whales feeding throughout the summer and fall. These whales are migratory and come here for the seasonal abundance of food. One whale may eat three to five metric tons of food per day and gain one-third of its weight during this time of plenty. But as the seasons change with the onset of winter, their priorities change and the whales must move on.
whales On the Move
One of the most common whales found along the California coast during the summer and fall is the Humpback Whale. Humpbacks, like most of the baleen whales found off the coast of California, head south to coastal waters in Mexico for the winter months. It is in these warm coastal waters, away from predators, where they find the perfect sanctuary to mate, give birth and prepare newborns for their first journey to the feeding grounds up north.
There is only one catch: the coastal waters off the coast of Mexico lack the plentiful food supply of the northern latitudes. For humpbacks, like many other baleen whales, this is not a problem, and they thrive with little or no food during migration and while at their breeding grounds, surviving on their own blubber (fatty tissue found in most marine mammals) for several months.
Humpback Whales are not alone in this journey. Blue Whales (the largest animals on earth) follow the same pattern, and after feeding along the west coast of North America during the summer and fall, head toward their breeding grounds in Mexico, and further south in Central America.
a whale sanctuary
The waters surrounding the Baja peninsula in Mexico become a whale sanctuary during the winter and early spring. Thousands of whales converge here for their annual breeding season, making it one of the best places on the planet to see whales. It is here where the big whales become more social and often display behaviors such as breaching, spyhopping, tail flapping and, in the case of male humpbacks, singing. Humpback Whale songs can be heard and also felt underwater, an incredible experience for anyone who has ever been near a singing whale.
california grays
Another common whale found along the Baja peninsula during the winter is the California Gray Whale. The Gray Whale's annual migration from the edge of the ice pack in the North Pole to the temperate waters along the Baja peninsula is the longest migration for any mammal on earth.
The Gray's unique breeding behavior is one of nature's best shows. Grays enter shallow coastal lagoons in large numbers and become very active during courting and mating. "Single" whales chase each other and when mating occurs one can see whales rolling and thrashing about on the surface for two hours or more. Females with newborns are also amazing to watch. After giving birth literally on the banks of tidal channels right next to mangroves, Gray Whale cows and calves will venture in the lagoon's open areas where one can see them up close from small skiffs run by the local fishermen. Curious Gray Whale calves will often come close to the skiffs and lift their heads just above the water to look at the people on the boat.
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baja whale-watching adventure
Join WildCare's Director of Education Juan-Carlos Solis for a Baja Whale Watching Adventure in March
Space is very limited. Registration is required.
Please call Anya Pamplona at (415) 453-1000, ext. 12
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Male deer, called bucks, shed their antlers every fall, sometimes just minutes apart from each other.
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Shed hunting in Wisconsin means hours of hiking on snowy fields and deer trails looking for "shed" antlers.
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This big buck is at least five years old, and displays unusual drop tines along with normal points.
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While you might be lucky enough to find two sheds in a day's hunt, they will usually be from different bucks.
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| Mitch displays his lucky find of a pair of very rare sheds from the same well-known buck. |
shed hunting
Mitchell Goecks, a fifteen-year old Wisconsin reader, sent us this story and photos.
Central Wisconsin still has a lot of family farms in our area, spaced out over the flat terrain, and separated by country roads that crisscross the landscape. In fall, the cornfields have been cut, and one of our family's favorite passtimes is to drive these quiet, straight roads, looking for wildlife where the fields back up to woodlots. We've seen turkeys, deer, lots of hawks, quail and pheasant, and once, my father was able to photograph a bald eagle feeding on a deer carcass. Hunting is popular in this area, so the deer are shy, and spotting one is a treat.
Each year the buck deer shed their antlers in late winter and then re-grow them bigger the following year. In late winter or early spring, if you walk enough corn fields or enough deer trails you will surely find deer sheds. Shed hunting is a hobby that most people don't find too exciting. All it usually means is walking for miles over acres of deer-traveled land, hoping to see a slight curve or tine of an antler, sticking above the snow-covered ground. My father started taking my brother and me out when I was five and Nick was three.
You have to get out there in fall, as the sheds are full of calcium and are a favorite food source of mice, squirrels, and other little creatures. Before too long, the little guys will eat the entire shed, and by late spring there will be no trace of it.
a surprising find
Last February my dad was scanning the fields as he drove, and spotted a deer antler protruding from the ground. It was the huge left antler of a five-year-old buck with the four typical points, and then the amazement: a 9.5-inch drop tine right below the second normal point (also known as the G2).
A friend of ours has been taking trail-camera pictures of a huge whitetail buck the past two or three years. This huge buck has handlebar drop tines (a drop tine on each side). Our friend's photos confirmed that this antler was indeed from "his" buck. He thought we should go back to try to find the right antler that matched ours. He pointed out that the third normal point on the right antler (known as the G3) had some webbing and extra points along with it. Deer sometimes drop the antlers on both sides within minutes of each other, but you almost never find a matching set. Instead, we decided to hunt near our friend Marty's place.
an afternoon in the field
We picked up Marty and started searching. After about four hours, Marty had found two right antlers, one from an eight point buck (four-point antler) and the other from a 10-point buck (five-point antler).
On the way back, we got to talking about whether or not we should return and ask permission to find the other shed of the monster buck. Even though we only had about a 1 in 20 chance of finding the other side of the rack, we decided to give it a try.
We knocked on the owner's door, and a nice older man said, "Oh sure, go ahead." We headed toward the field. My dad was going to search the spot where he had found the first antler; Marty and I spread out.
I crossed an iced-over creek, and walked along the far side, keeping pace with Marty on the other side. All of a sudden, I looked ahead, and there it was. I removed the antler from the frost-covered alfalfa field. It indeed had an 8.5 inch drop tine near the same side as the other antler. In total, it had 10 points on the one right antler that I had found. The rack had 15 points in total, with seven abnormal points, including two drop tines. What a great reward to a long day.
in california
Mitch's story shares some great natural history about Black-tailed Deer. Of course in most of California we won't be searching snow-covered fields for deer sheds, but Nicole Carion, our California Department of Fish & Game representative, confirms that shed hunting is legal in California. However, WildCare recommends you leave the sheds in the fields, because, as Mitch pointed out, they are an important part of the diet of small rodents.
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| Winter Camp at WildCare is great fun! |
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| Join WildCare naturalists for a hike in the Redwoods on December 12! |
Holiday Nature Camp
Nature Detectives
December 21-23, 9am-3pm, grades K-1
Who nibbled this plant? Who left that track? Let’s look all around us and see if we can discover what animal did that. Have fun with animal tracks, fur, feathers and more. We’ll meet some of the creatures that leave those clues behind.
Fee: $150 (scholarships available)
Winter Wonderland
December 28-30, 9am-3pm, grades 1-2
What do animals do when winter makes its chilly debut? Some like to snack, while others may nap. Many travel a short or long way, and then there are some that like to stay. Get up close and personal with our animal friends, and discover how they survive until winter ends!
Fee: $150 (scholarships available)
Spots are still available in WildCare’s Holiday Nature Camps for Kids from 9am to 3pm during the holidays. Through arts and crafts and some outdoor adventures (weather permitting) we’ll explore....
Download the registration form and fax (415-456-0594) or mail it to WildCare, or contact Anya Pamplona at anya@wildcarebayarea.org or 415-453-1000 x19 to register today!
Family Adventures
December 12: Giants, Fungi and Slugs
Meet the tallest species of tree in the world and search for ancient forest inhabitants such as Banana Slugs, mushrooms and Trap Door Spiders. Meet at the (unmarked) entrance to Roy’s Redwoods on Nicasio Valley Road near the town of San Geronimo.
Join WildCare naturalists for a Saturday out in nature the whole family can enjoy. We’ll look for butterfl ies, flowers, birds and much more. All programs are led in both English and Spanish, and are free to the public.
Programs start at 10:00am at the trailhead. If you prefer to caravan to park locations, we’ll meet at 9:30am at the Canal Alliance at 91 Larkspur Street in San Rafael.
For more information call (415) 453-1000x17 or email juancarlos@wildcarebayarea.org.
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Great Gift Ideas for December
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WildCare logo-wear makes a great gift! Choose from a cool selection of caps, tees and sweatshirts on our Shop page, or visit WildCare and choose from an even larger selection!
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When you give a WildCare gift membership, your gift recipients will receive all the benefits of WildCare membership as well as the knowledge that, as WildCare members, they help create a healthy and sustainable habitat for humans and animals alike.
What a perfect gift!
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Adopt a Spotted Owl
Or choose another extraordinary wild animal to adopt for that someone special! Your gift recipient will receive an art-quality photo of your chosen animal, a personalized certificate of adoption and a page of informative natural history.
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