Ted Sommer is the retired Lead Scientist for California Department of Water Resources. He is currently an Adjunct Fellow with Public Policy Institute of California. My most inspiring bike ride this ...

We’re surrounded by a world of insects that we barely notice. Put on your goggles and get immersed in the riot of colors and ...

For 25 years, Bay Nature has connected people to the natural world of the San Francisco Bay Area—inspiring curiosity, stewardship, and action. Now it’s time to celebrate what this community has built ...

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Instinct does play a role in nest-building, but so much more seems to be involved. Entwined with instinct are reason, learning, experience, insight, and perhaps even a sense of aesthetics. And when ...

Tiny by volcano standards. The Sutter Buttes are 10 miles wide and poke up 2,000 feet. In classic butte fashion, they are steep on the sides. Nearly all of the rocks out here (and a considerable ...

A crow funeral can happen at any time. Farmers bear witness after shooting unwanted crows in their fields. Powerline workers see them should an unlucky bird zap itself and drop. Occasionally, the ...

Pastures are visible from a derelict milking barn at the historic D Ranch, founded in 1870 and abandoned after the creation of Point Reyes National Seashore. There’s an ambitious plan to restore these ...

Rocky outcroppings and serpentine barrens in the southern Diablo Range, near San Benito Mountain. Joaquín Murieta, both literary hero and historical figure, thrived in California’s rugged Inner Coast ...

A mom and pup in the wild. Southern sea otters were hunted out for their furs, and are making a comeback in central California with human help. (Photo by Erin Underwood) In a small kitchen inside the ...

State Route 12 cut to the horizon line of Solano County. Somewhere out of sight lay the small town of Rio Vista and the Delta. But about an hour northeast of San Francisco, midway through southern ...

Joseph Grinnell was one of California’s preeminent twentieth century zoologists, responsible for a good part of what we know today of the historic ranges of the state’s native fauna. But even Grinnell ...