San Francisco Estuary Project

Alllll Aboard!!!!!!!!!!

heidi08 Creek Seekers Poetry Contest May 27, 2009

This was one of those deceptive days when it felt like FINALLY the beavers will be recognized as valuable and the city will wisely become their biggest advocates. The most respected environmental names in the bay area were in attendance, waterboards, estuary and state parks. You know the saying “preaching to the choir”? Well this was the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Their vocal range runs the entire Bay Area and beyond. There was a host of media and authors amongst them. Poor Igor wasn’t able to join us because of a sudden heath issue. A colleague from the urban creeks council filled in instead.

My favorite part of the day had to be THIS from the Oakland Museum. A pleisticine era beaver skull from the ice age when beavers were the size of BEARS. I looked at that and thought that is soooooooooo how the city imagines our beavers. Meddlesome and larger than life.

Sweetest part of the day? It had to been when music and beaver affianado Roy Jeans of Armando’s displayed the lovely chair he had painted for the occasion, with the words Worth A Dam, and Igor and Heidi emblazened on the surface. He gamely proclaimed he was selling it for 50 dollars and would donate the entire proceeds to Worth A Dam.

Exquisite day. Very tired, must rest now. Thanks Lisa for organizing it and Cheryl, Jon and Linda for being stalwart volunteers. Thanks also to our lovely beavers for being so photogenic.

NEWS FLASH

heidi08 Beaver News, Creek Seekers Poetry Contest, kits May 30, 2009

Confirmed sighting of FOUR new kits near the lodge. Footage here from Moses Silva.Have a cigar, Martinez. It’s a beaver!

Christening Party at the beaver dam and everyone’s invited! Worth A Dam’s core gathered at the water last night to see if it was really true. We were treated to a beaver display of grand proportions, Mom, Dad, three yearlings and two very persistent muskrats. There were even two tail slaps by Dad, although we never figured out what he was warning about.

Stalwart and intrepid videographer, Moses Silva, sought us out bearing a camera brimming with news. In the wee hours of the morning he had donned waders and strode through the water to find four new kits in a cove near the beaver dam. He filmed them with a flashlight taped to his camera. They had obviously been left outside in a protected area to get used to their surroundings. Click on the video above to see what he saw.

The group was giddy and celebratory. After all the “sheet” these beavers have been through this year, we wondered if there would even be kits, or if there would only be a few. Instead there is photographic evidence that there are four chubby and healthy little fuzzballs. In the video you can see them practicing grooming and nuzzling each other. Their teeth are very prominent, possibly because they haven’t yet started gnawing much to wear them down.

For those of you keeping track at home, this brings our current colony total to 9: two adults, three yearlings, and four new kits. Somewhere out there are two dispersers trying to set up life on their own. That makes a total of 9 healthy offspring mom and dad have brought into the world, and I got to watch. The notion that this is the third time I’ve been here makes me a little misty-eyed.

What better way to welcome wednesday’s creek-seekers train journey than with brand new babies?

Hope to see you there!!!

heidi08 Creek Seekers Poetry Contest, Earth Day, Educational, Environmental, Festival April 17, 2009

ma-bday-eday-flyer

You are going to have SUCH a great time if you come to this event. Bid on the silent auction, listen to the bagpipes, talk with John Muir’s grandson, hear Gary Bogue and make a beaver home out of clay. You might also tuck some dollar bills into your wallet to enter the CREEK SEEKERS EXPRESS raffle for two first class tickets aboard the Amtrak journey narrated by the marine curator of the Oakland Museum and hosted by the San Francisco Estuary Project. (Raffle benefits Worth A Dam) If you’re a lucky winner you will be able to see new footage of our beavers at a dynamic presentation at Armando’s and meet some remarkable people.

Whether you enter or not, come to the event and learn about Muir’s legacy, meet your neighbors, and have a grand time. You don’t want to miss the first viewing of the remarkable beaver habitat diorama! See you there.

Creek Seekers Express!

heidi08 Creek Seekers Poetry Contest, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers March 18, 2009

Don’t miss this unique opportunity to learn more about our estuary, see rare original footage of our beavers, support local habitats and make some fantastic new friends! Join us!

Scaup-less

heidi08 New Species January 7, 2010

I was just looking up dates and realizing that this time last year we had flocks of scaup flying up over the dams to feed in Alhambra Creek. I think one morning Cheryl counted 30. I was assuming it was later in the year but this picture of mine was taken at the dam and dated February 14th (and don’t I have a romantic life!) Yesterday I did another scaup search. Where are they?

Scaup are an interesting, carnivorous duck that feed on mussels or clams and have the dubious distinction of being able to “play dead” if caught by a predator. We were never sure if they were Lesser or Greater Scaup, because the two species look very alike are are typically differentiated by the presence of absence of salt water. With Alhambra Creeks brackish tidal mixed drink it is anyone’s guess. Last years’ highwater (before the flow device was installed) and then the sudden lowering in January created a bigger mussel population, so maybe that’s why they came then and were less enticed this year. Or its possible the broad barren dredging project discouraged them.

Or maybe they just don’t like sheet pile.

Still, the increase in scaup last year was something of an estuary “coup” since the San Francisco Estuary Project’s State of the Estuary Report described declining scaup every where in the bay area, and didn’t realize the Martinez had gotten lucky!

Keep your eye out for our missing feathered friends, and write if you see anything swimming that looks like an oreo cookie.

UPDATE:

Reader CM writes “Saw one scaup swimming alone just north of starbucks on Monday”. Hear that team? Go find some others….Thanks CM!