The lead item in yesterday’s NYTimes California Today column—The Plight of the Sea Otter—caught my eye for its mention of The Marine Mammal Center (TMMC), located here in the Marin Headlands. Several floating homes residents volunteer there on a regular basis. But what really grabbed my attention was the connection made between the vulnerability...
While out kayaking between Gate 6 1/2 and East and West Piers I saw some floating trash and paddled over to pick it up. It turned out to be a helium party balloon with a long thin ribbon that had gotten tangled around the feet and wings of a bird....
In our own version of “Which is cuter: puppies or kittens?” I’d have to say that the duckies have it over the goslings, at least on the first day out of the nest. A second clutch of ducklings recently hatched over at South 40. Must be something about that giant...
Bill Finn Hooks a Sturgeon — May 3 2017 | video by Court Mast We met behind my house on West Pier at 7am on Wednesday, May 3. East Pier neighbor Bill Finn climbed into my 13-foot Boston Whaler and we headed out on glassy water—past Strawberry, around Tiburon, under...
These are trying times. Canada Geese are nesting on our docks, in our planter boxes and on occasion on our rooftops. It can be particularly unnerving to be walking down the dock—lost in thought—only to be jolted to attention by the sudden hiss of a Canada goose. Rumors abound, which—even if...
Passels of ducklings, and goslings—along with their watchful parents—can be seen waddling and swimming about in various locations throughout the floating homes community. Over on South 40, Caroline Hall and Michael McNeill’s planter box provided the ideal set up for a pair of Mallard Ducks to build a nest. The just-hatched ducklings—who launch themselves straight out of the...
The Marin Audubon Invasive Sea Lavender Removal Project welcomes volunteers. To RSVP for a Sunday work session, please email Jude Stalker. You will receive notice of the date and location of any upcoming work sessions. All gloves, tools, supplies, snacks and instruction will be provided. This is the story of a plant that snuck...
Although the commercial herring season got off to a slow start, the Department of Fish and Wildlife has reported that a herring spawn started over the weekend of January 15, primarily in the mooring field and the waters adjacent to Dunphy Park. The DFW noted that a moderate sized herring...
The first herring of the 2016-17 season have finally arrived to San Francisco Bay. A spawn was first reported on Tuesday this week in Richardson Bay near Sausalito. A second spawn was reported Wednesday along the Bay Trail in Burlingame, centered around “Fisherman’s Park.” The spawn events were both small...
On June 17th Issy was released into the Pacific Ocean, at Chimney Rock, alongside 11 other very plump and healthy harbor seals with whom Issy had been spending lots of time—at the Marine Mammal Center —these past 3 months. As I opened the crate to let him out, he...