He May Not Be Pavarotti, But…

By Tina Mitchell | August 22, 2019 |

Anyone who enjoys bird song dreads summer’s end as a bit of an auditory desert. But if you live near California Thrashers, you can take heart. These songsters will actually begin ramping up their voices again in late August. Slightly larger than a California Scrub-Jay, a California Thrasher features a long, heavy, and distinctly…

Saving America’s Wild Birds (David Younkman) – Monthly General Meeting

By Logan Wiedenhoffer | May 15, 2019 |

The American Bird Conservancy (ABC) is a leading bird conservation organization that works throughout the Western Hemisphere to protect rare and endangered bird species, conserve habitat, and address threats that affect all birds. Across the Americas, more than 500 native bird species are threatened with extinction — 12 percent of 4,230 species. In the United…

It Takes a Village: San Diego’s Acorn Woodpecker

By Tina Mitchell | April 20, 2019 |

In the 1920s, an American ornithologist called this bird “our native aristocrat—unruffled by the operations of the human plebs…” In that same decade, an avian researcher proclaimed that these birds practiced communism. More recently, their social behavior has been likened to a noisy avian Keystone Cops routine, featuring loud calling, bobbing, wing displaying, and jockeying…

Mosquito Education Presentation

By Logan Wiedenhoffer | April 6, 2019 |

Nature Guides Monthly Meeting: Open to All!

By Natalie Shapiro | December 7, 2018 |

NOTE NEW DATE STARTING IN SEPTEMBER. Nature Guides are the group of BVAS educators who work with local schoolchildren during the school year. Elementary schools that participate in the Nature Guide Program bring their classes to the BVAS Nature Center during school hours for a 1 1/2 hour tour of the museum and trail, as…

Nature Guides Monthly Meeting: Open to All!

By Natalie Shapiro | November 2, 2018 |

NOTE NEW DATE STARTING IN SEPTEMBER. Nature Guides are the group of BVAS educators who work with local schoolchildren during the school year. Elementary schools that participate in the Nature Guide Program bring their classes to the BVAS Nature Center during school hours for a 1 1/2 hour tour of the museum and trail, as…

Nature Guides Monthly Meeting: Open to All!

By Natalie Shapiro | October 5, 2018 |

NOTE NEW DATE STARTING IN SEPTEMBER. Nature Guides are the group of BVAS educators who work with local schoolchildren during the school year. Elementary schools that participate in the Nature Guide Program bring their classes to the BVAS Nature Center during school hours for a 1 1/2 hour tour of the museum and trail, as…

A Bird For All Seasons – The Western Meadowlark

By Tina Mitchell | September 19, 2018 |

While scouting the Great Falls Portage along the Missouri River in 1805, Merriweather Lewis heard an unexpected vocal fanfare from an otherwise familiar bird from the East—a bird then called the “oldfield lark” and now known as the Eastern Meadowlark. Studying it closely, though, Lewis noted a differently shaped tail; a longer, more curved beak;…

Nature Guides Monthly Meeting: Open to All!

By Natalie Shapiro | September 7, 2018 |

NOTE NEW DATE STARTING IN SEPTEMBER. Nature Guides are the group of BVAS educators who work with local schoolchildren during the school year. Elementary schools that participate in the Nature Guide Program bring their classes to the BVAS Nature Center during school hours for a 1 1/2 hour tour of the museum and trail, as…

The Song Sparrow – San Diego’s Reliable Crooner

By Tina Mitchell | August 20, 2018 |

Outdoors on late summer mornings, I strain to catch any hint of bird song. For those who relish the avian breeding season symphony, the end of summer represents a bit of an auditory desert. As breeding season wraps up, with no need to attract mates or defend territories, the birds quit singing. Some even head…