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March 28, 2011
Sunrise at Cavallo Point was beautiful this morning. After so much rain, it was great to finally see a sunny day. I've been wanting to go to Cavallo Point and the bluffs above Fort Baker for several weeks now, after attending a lecture at the Bay Model about the return of harbor porpoises to San Francisco Bay. Sponsored by the American Cetacean Society, the lecture focused on the best times and places to see harbor porpoises, which until recently had been absent from the Bay for decades. Bill Keener, former director of the Marine Mammal Center, also gave some great pointers on identifying the porpoises and how to distinguish them from dolphins.

What I learned was that Cavallo Point is one of the best places to go, and right around high tide is the best time. The point juts out into the Bay, right along the natural migration route of the porpoises, which follow the fish runs up through the Racoon Strait alongside Angel Island. The ebbing tide that follows the high tide sweeps the fish out toward the ocean, making this a prime mealtime. Sure enough, as soon as I got to the top of the bluff and looked out at the water, a pod of harbor porpoises came swimming by. There were about three or four of them in the pod, slowly making their way along the shoreline, surfacing every few seconds in undulating unison. They were followed by another pod and still another, passing by continuously for about half an hour.

Harbor porpoises used to be regular visitors to San Francisco Bay, but sightings began to decrease around the time of World War II, when a massive anti-submarine net was stretched under the Golden Gate. Increased ship traffic, water pollution, and the practice of gill net fishing all contributed to the downward trend in harbor porpoise numbers. Their return to the Bay is a hopeful sign that we are starting to clean up our environment in a meaningful way. It was difficult to get a good photograph of the porpoises, which only surface for a few seconds at a time, so I settled for a panoramic shot of the sunrise over the East Bay hills.

Sunrise from Cavallo Point

A Media Panel Addresses Park Advocacy Day Attendees

March 23, 2011
I took part in Park Advocacy Day in Sacramento yesterday, lobbying for our state parks. This annual event was sponsored by the California State Parks Foundation and was a full day of walking the State Capitol building, testifying at a hearing of an Assembly committee, meeting with legislators, and lobbying them to support our efforts to protect the 278 state parks of California. After breakfast and meeting with our teams at the Elks Tower Ballroom, we walked over to the Captitol Building and made our way up to the fourth floor to the Assembly committee room. There we sat in on a hearing of the Water, Parks and Wildlife committee, which was considering AB42, authored by Jared Huffman (D-Marin/Sonoma). I had the chance to testify in favor of the bill, which would make it easier for state parks to work together with non-profit organizations. Later in the day, we had meetings with state legislators, talking to them about a number of bills before the legislature that effect the future of our state parks. We ended the day back at the Elks Tower Ballroom, with a reception and awards ceremony for park heroes. We were exhausted but feeling a strong sense of accomplishment. More to come about Park Advocacy Day in the next Way Out There Press Newsletter, which will be sent out March 31.

March 17, 2011
I love the way Saint Patrick's Day coincides with the days before spring starts officially, when the hills and canyons of Mount Tamalpais are bright green. A green hike seems an appropriate way to honor the day, and it was especially nice to get a brief respite from the rain. I started at sunrise and went over to the western slopes of Mount Tam, above Muir Beach. I started up the Coastal View Trail, which ascends the mountain at a gradual pace, looking out over fields of bright pink heather, another nice reminder of Ireland. At the junction of the Deer Park Fire Road I turned to go downhill, making a loop through the redwood forests of Muir Woods to the Redwood Creek Trail. It was really muddy alongside Redwood Creek and the usually placid creek was raging with all the rain we've been getting. A couple of wooden bridges provide good vantage points to look for spawning salmon, but I didn't see any today. I crossed the road and took the aptly named Heather Cutoff Trail to get back where I started. The entire loop was 7.4 miles, with lots of ups and downs. It was a little chilly and hazy, but the wildflowers are out in force now. Indian paintbrush is startlingly red when it first comes into bloom, a vivid contrast to the bright yellow and green of the ubiquitous footsteps of spring.

Footsteps of Spring

An Elephant Seal Pup

March 12, 2011
Elephant Seal season is in full swing at the Marine Mammal Center in the Marin Headlands. Three more pups arrived last night, bringing the total to nine. Most of them were brought in due to maternal separation, often a result of human interference. I did my first restraint last night, holding and straddling the 120 pound baby so my co-worker could tube feed him. The "Ellie" was very feisty and not too happy about a tube being pushed into his stomach. He was a "roller," meaning that he rolled over completely from his stomach to his back while we were feeding him. Quite a challenge.

Another highlight of the evening was the arrival of another harbor seal, only the third one of the season. This one was bigger than the first two, which were so tiny that their chances of survival were not good. They were found abandoned on a beach with their placentas still attached. The new one seems much more energetic and healthy, so he has a much better prognosis. I restrained him at the 8:00 feeding, while crew supervisor Pat Holt tube fed him. Then we stayed in the Harbor Seal Hospital until the midnight feeding, when Pat restrained him and I tube fed him. The next few weeks are going to be very busy.

March 8, 2011
I went to the Presidio today to work on very creative and interesting volunteer project. The Winged Wisdom art installation, part of the Presidio Habitats exhibit, needed a little restoration work, so the Presidio Trails crew volunteered to help out. This was my first time working with the Presidio Trails crew, but it had some of the same people who work on the Presidio Forest crew. Presidio Habitats is a year-long art exhibition that combines the concepts of art, wildlife, and environmental awareness. The exhibit features 11 art installations focusing on a theme of wildlife habitat, that are scattered throughout the Presidio. Presidio Habitats is a temporary installation, scheduled to end in May of this year, although we learned today that it might be extended for another three months. Any extension would require the approval of the Presidio Trust, and it sounds like discussions about this possibility are still in the formative stage.

Each of the 11 installations in Presidio Habitats is an artistic or symbolic rendering of the habitat of a particular species or group of species. Winged Wisdom evokes the habitat of the American robin, which is depicted by words spelled out in a quiet forest of Monterey pine and Monterey cypress. Each letter is about three feet high, constructed of a wire mesh container stuffed with straw, similar to the robin’s nesting material. Over time, the straw has compacted down into the letters, and we speculated that some it may have even been taken by birds for nesting material. Our job was to add more straw so that the letters are filled out once again.

Philippe Becker, the artist who designed the Winged Wisdom installation, was on hand to talk about the work and the process involved in creating it. The words spell out various aspects of robin behavior, such as adapt to change, nest from the inside out, or resolve conflict with song. Robins are an amazingly adaptive species, and have learned to live with humans in densely populated urban areas throughout North America. They build their nests starting with an inner layer, adding twigs, grass, and straw to build it up around the outside. Most amazingly of all, robins actually use their songs to resolve conflicts with other birds, communicating their territorial claims with melodic bravado.

Our Presidio Forest crew usually meets twice a month, working to enhance the beautiful forests of redwood, Monterey pine, Monterey cypress, and eucalyptus that form a unique landscape in the Presidio. These type of trees are not native to this area, but they are of historical importance to the Presidio, because they were planted by the Army in the 19th century. Many of them trace their roots back to the first Arbor Day celebration in San Francisco in 1886, when Bay Area schoolchildren joined Army troops to plant thousands of trees. Now that the forests have become such an integral part of the Presidio, it is hard to imagine that this area was once drifting sand dunes.

Winged Wisdom

Artist Philippe Becker Talks about the Winged Wisdom Installation

Volunteer Frank Miller Helps to Restore the Winged Wisdom Installation

A Crew of Volunteers Works on the Winged Wisdom Restoration

Wildflowers in the Marin Headlands

March 7, 2011
I went for a hike in the Marin Headlands today, looking for some of the early wildflowers of spring. I wasn't disappointed, finding quite a few beautiful blooms along the trail down to Kirby Cove. The trail starts next to Battery Spencer, with its striking view of the Golden Gate Bridge, and winds down to the beach through rocky red outcroppings of chert, forests of pine and eucalyptus, and marshy wetlands at the bottom of the hill. Along the way I spotted California poppies, Indian paintbrush, sticky monkey flower, coast manroot, lupine, California buttercups, miner's lettuce, and seaside daisy.

The campground was empty as I walked through it, which was surprising since this place is so beautiful and easily accessible from the city. A wide meadow is just above the beach, a spectacular vantage point with a close-up view of the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco skyline. In spite of the vast urban metropolis spread out before me, the only sound I could hear was the crashing of the waves on the beach below. After a rainy and even snowy winter, it feels like spring is here.

March 5, 2011
Preparations are under way to transfer Silent Knight from the Marine Mammal Center to his new home at the San Francisco Zoo, along with his roommate Henry. Silent Knight is a large male adult sea lion who was found on a beach in Sausalito with his head full of buckshot metal fragments. He has been at the Marine Mammal Center for three months now and is recuperating nicely. Because he is completely blind, he will never be able to be released back into the wild, so it is good news that a new home has been found for him. He is truly a noble beast and I feel honored to go into his pen and clean up for him. Henry is also a blind sea lion, who was found on Trinidad State Beach in Humboldt County. He is a yearling, much smaller than Silent Knight, and it is not known what caused his blindness. The two of them are now sharing a pen with Blackwolf, a female pup who was found abandoned by her mother on a beach on the Monterey peninsula. The three roommates are quite a sight together: one large (Silent Knight), one medium (Henry), and one small (Blackwolf) sea lion. Best of all, they have truly become best buddies. They chase each other around the pen, and Henry and Blackwolf have even developed a synchronized swimming routine.

Silent Knight Strikes a Regal Pose

March 1, 2011
A new update of the online book A Visitor's Guide to the Presidio of San Francisco is now available. The updated version includes new chapters on Andy Goldsworthy and the Public Health Service District, as well as expanded chapters on Lobos Creek, Fort Point, Flora and Fauna of the Presidio, and the San Francisco National Cemetery. Hike and bike ride descriptions have been updated to get around the ongoing construction projects taking place throughout the Presidio.

If you have already purshased a previous version of the PDF book, send an email request to hanrahan@wayoutthere.com to request a FREE copy of the updated version.

The new version of the book is 96 pages, still priced at $6.00. Updated versions are free when they become available. This is fairly often for a park like the Presidio, which is changing rapidly right before our eyes. Notification of new updates available will be in this Blog or in the quarterly Newsletter. $1 from every sale goes to support the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting our beautiful national park.