The crows are back. They arrived on time as usual, just when the black walnuts started dropping from the tree growing in front of the yellow bungalow across the street. First I hear them, croaking and clucking from atop a metal light post, wooden telephone... Continue

Don’t swat. That’s the advice. But when a yellowjacket starts buzzing around like a tiny whirling drone on a mission, all you want to do is swat. Get away from me! Primal instinct? Swatting just makes them mad.  These scary yellow-and-black striped torpedoes show up... Continue

By Teri Shore According to revelations in Fossils in the Asphalt, a “Human Footprint” episode on the PBS/KQED program Unearthing LA’s Ancient Past, there is new research that prehistoric extinctions of giant creatures, such as mammoths and short-faced bears, resulted from massive wildfires across California.... Continue

While walking along Sonoma Creek in Maxwell Farms Regional Park recently, Anna and Will Pier looked down and spotted two turtles sunning themselves on the big branch of a fallen tree extending into pooling water. Pleased to see again turtles they had spotted last year,... Continue

By Teri Shore When I took the California Naturalist course with the Sonoma Ecology Center (SEC) in March 2020, it was the early days of the COVID epidemic and shutdown. All in-person meetings and field trips were suddenly canceled. While we were all a bit... Continue

Endangered spotted owls soared into the national news and tree sitters claimed the Headwaters Forest along California’s North Coast during the timber wars of the 1990s. A group of Sonoma Valley residents were among the crowds that made the trek to march in Ft. Bragg... Continue