Five years after Brannan lost his beloved hot springs resort in Calistoga in 1875, a famous Scottish writer arrived in town (1880) and stayed in one of Brannan’s vacation cottages for his honeymoon. How that writer and his new wife Fanny ended up staying at an abandoned silver mine instead will be revealed in this story.

Sharpsteen Museum

A visit to Calistoga should begin at the excellent Sharpsteen Museum, located in the historic downtown area. Created by retired Walt Disney animator and producer Ben Sharpsteen, this award-winning history museum features dioramas, artifacts, antiques, and exhibits designed by Sharpsteen and his team of highly creative artists. The museum opened in 1978, and is one of the better history museums I’ve seen anywhere. Between talking with the friendly docent, and looking at the excellent exhibits, we spent about 90 minutes in the museum and only scratched the surface of what there is to see and learn there.

Calistoga walking tour

When setting off on a walking tour of a new city, the question often is where to begin? The Napa County Historical Society once published a walking tour on their website, which I printed out prior to our trip. Using that guide, we walked the streets of Calistoga, starting on Cedar Street, where a number of historic homes are located, including the circa 1873 Judge Augustus C. Palmer house, one of the few examples of the French Second Empire style in the Napa Valley. By following the guide and walking to as many houses as we could, it provided the framework of a nice afternoon of walking the quiet, pretty and historic streets and backroads of town.

No chains

Despite its growth and popularity over the years, Calistoga still maintains a relaxed, historic and small-town feel. The city generally prohibits or severely restricts “formula” chain businesses, including formula restaurants and visitor accommodations, to maintain its small-town, independent character. Considering how many towns across this country are practically indistinguishable from one another, this seems a worthwhile stand to take.

Calistoga does have an Ace Hardware store and a hotel affiliated with the Best Western chain, both of which were exempted after the ordinance took effect. The city doesn’t have jurisdiction over banks or oil companies, hence the presence of national banks and a 76 gas station. There’s also a small grocery store, Cal Mart. Overall though, this is a thriving town that has managed to keep the unique charm and atmosphere that attracted Sam Brannan and his hot springs visitors here over 163 years ago, and still does to this day.

A Scottish diamond in the rough

The Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) had not yet achieved fame or success when he arrived in Calistoga in the summer of 1880. His best-selling books Treasure Island (1883), and the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) were still yet to come, and Stevenson was living on a shoestring budget. Although Stevenson is a famous writer today, less well known is the fact that he spent his honeymoon staying at an abandoned mining camp in Calistoga during the summer of 1880.

After getting married in San Francisco on May 19, 1880, Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife Fanny, along with their dog Chuchu, set off on their honeymoon to Calistoga. In those days, they would have traveled by ferry and train, arriving in Calistoga via the Napa Valley Railroad. They spent the rest of May in one of Sam Brannan’s hot springs cottages, and then with money in short supply, they sought out more affordable accommodations. Now joined by Fanny’s 12-year-old son Lloyd Osbourne, the little group made its way by wagon up the St. Helena grade to the Toll House, where they climbed what is today the Mt. St. Helena trail up to the old, abandoned Silverado mine and its dilapidated bunkhouse. They did their best to clean up and equip this old mining building with a few bare necessities of life, and enjoyed a quiet summer “squatting” at their camp on the flanks of the mountain.

Silverado Squatters

I picked up Robert Louis Stevenson’s book Silverado Squatters while in Calistoga. In this travel memoir, published in 1883, Stevenson describes his unconventional two-month honeymoon squatting in an abandoned three-story bunkhouse set against a hillside, which contained an old assay office on the first floor, and a bunkhouse on an upper level. The levels weren’t connected by stairs inside; one had to go outside and climb up the hill and then over wooden planks to enter the upper floors. I would imagine that there weren’t many women, even in 1880, who’d enjoy such a rustic honeymoon, but Fanny Vandegrift Stevenson (1840-1914) must have been an adventurous soul indeed. The couple hauled water up from a nearby stream, dodged numerous rattlesnakes, hung cloth over the empty windows, and spent their days relaxing in their outdoor “parlor”– a makeshift wooden deck set on a large pile of mine tailings (waste materials left over after mining).

Stevenson describes his and Fanny’s first encounter with their new “home”:

“Fanny and I dashed at the house. It consisted of three rooms, and was so plastered against the hill, that one room was right atop of another, that the upper floor was more than twice as large as the lower, and that all three apartments must be entered from a different side and level. Not a window-sash remained. The door of the lower room was smashed, and one panel hung in splinters. We entered that, and found a fair amount of rubbish, sand, and gravel that had been sifted in there by the mountain winds; straw, sticks, and stones; a table, a barrel; a plate-rack on the wall; two home-made bootjacks, signs of miners and their boots.”

A time capsule

From this inauspicious start, Robert, Fanny, Lloyd, and Chuchu managed to pass a pleasant summer enjoying the Napa Valley weather, meeting a lot of local characters, sampling wine from local vineyards, and even using a telephone for the first time. With its vivid descriptions of living amidst the ruins of an abandoned mine, the gorgeous landscape, and early California life, Silverado Squatters is a time capsule left for us by one of our most gifted travel writers. By the end of July, the Stevensons would move back to San Francisco, then back to Scotland, England, and finally, Samoa in 1890. Stevenson died there in 1894, at 44 years old.

Café Sarafornia

On our last morning in the upvalley region, Edie and I decided to have breakfast out, instead of eating our usual cold cereal, fruit and yogurt in our campervan. The most obvious choice was the charming Café Sarafornia, a long-standing local institution that pays homage to Sam Brannan’s original slip of the tongue that named the town to begin with. After a hearty breakfast and friendly service, we set off to explore the last few historic sites on the Napa County Historical Society walking tour that we hadn’t seen yet, including the wonderful and mysterious circa 1870s Pioneer Cemetery, located north of downtown on Highway 128.

The old Pioneer Cemetery

There was no better time to visit this old, semi-maintained hillside cemetery than on a cool, foggy, and moody morning like the one we experienced. We were walking among  the graves of the pioneers of this area, many of whom came here before California was even a state. Lichen, moss, and overgrown trees all competed with the ancient gravestones, some of which were made of wood. Of particular interest was the gravestone of Lovina Graves Cyrus, a survivor of the Donner Party disaster of 1846. Lovina was 12 years old when the Graves family set off from Illinois to seek its fortune in California, only to be waylaid by an ill-chosen shortcut (the Hastings Cutoff) that left them stranded in the High Sierra over the brutal winter of 1846-47. Of the original group of 87 members of the Donner-Reed-Graves party who left the midwest that summer, only 45 survived and made it to California. Lovina lost both of her parents, two younger siblings, and her brother-in-law as a result of the tragic journey, and eventually settled in Calistoga where she married John Cyrus, who had made the cross-country journey shortly before the Graves family. Lovina went on to have six children, and lived to 72 years old. It was touching and meaningful to visit the final resting place of someone who had survived such an infamous and tragic event, and who went on to have a good and relatively long life.

Always more to the story

I never thought I’d be learning so much about Sam Brannan, Robert Louis Stevenson, Lovina Graves, Edward T. Bale, and a 180-year-old grist mill when I planned this trip to Calistoga. But that’s the nature of going out into the world with an explorer’s mindset; the amount of interesting stuff out there to see and learn about is almost infinite. For that reason, we’re going to stay on our theme of the north bay with a trip to Sonoma in late February. I get the feeling there’s also more to that history that I don’t yet know, and we’ll explore it here in the Alameda Post.

If you go:

Bothe-Napa Valley State Park has 47 tent/RV campsites, 10 yurts, and five cabins with bathrooms/showers, heat, and kitchenettes. Ten miles of trails, in 12 different loops, are available to hikers. Reserve sites at reservecalifornia.com.

The Bale Grist Mill is open weekends and on some Monday holidays, 10 a.m. – 4.p.m.

The Sharpsteen Museum is open Monday-Friday noon to 3 p.m., and Saturday-Sunday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free, but a $5 per person donation is appreciated.

Café Sarafornia is open for breakfast and lunch Monday-Friday 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and Saturday-Sunday 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Contributing writer Steve Gorman has been a resident of Alameda since 2000, when he fell in love with the history and architecture of this unique town. Contact him via steve@alamedapost.com. His writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Steve-Gorman.

The post Today’s Sarafornia Treasure – Calistoga, Part 2 appeared first on Alameda Post.

Native trees support birds, pollinators, and beneficial insects. If you plant a fruit tree, you’ve got access to free, fresh, delicious food right in your yard. Planting now is a legacy action, providing something future generations will enjoy. Studies show exposure to trees reduces stress. Tree-lined streets are linked to lower crime rates and higher property values.

There are lots of great reasons to plant trees!

How to plant a tree

It is important to understand how to properly plant a tree.

First, select the right tree for the space, preferably a native species. A nursery can guide your tree selection, given your space. Avoid planting a tree above a sewer lateral or too close to a foundation.

Before you dig a hole for your tree, call 811 to ensure you aren’t going to hit any utilities, at least two days in advance of your planting. Clear the area of weeds and sod. Then dig a hole about three times the width of the root ball,  and no deeper than the root ball.

Gently remove the container. Loosen the roots a bit on the bottom two-thirds of the root ball with a hand rake. Place the tree in the hole, ensuring the trunk flare is about one inch higher than ground level.

Fill in around the hole with a compost and dirt mixture, making sure there are no air pockets. Use the compost and dirt mixture to create a ring around the tree—without touching the tree trunk—to create a watering well. Then cover with mulch, again ensuring no mulch rests against the tree trunk. Place two wooden stakes on either side of the tree and secure loosely with rubber ties.

Remove the stakes after one year. Then water your new tree!

If you are interested in planting trees in parks and schools with 100K Trees for Humanity, get more information by signing up for their newsletter online.  The Rotary Club of Alameda also leads tree plantings in parks in conjunction with 100K Trees for Humanity and the Alameda Recreation and Parks Department. Check out their calendar for upcoming tree plantings.

To request a street tree in front of your property, complete a request on See Click Fix. Click New Request, then select Trees (Street Trees), and complete the online form. Once the tree is in place, you are responsible for watering it. The City of Alameda provides tree-trimming service for street trees.

Let’s work together to increase our tree canopy.

Joyce Mercado is the author of Save the Planet in Your Spare Time: A Climate Protection Handbook for the Busy Person, a member of Community Action for a Sustainable Alameda (CASA), and President of the Rotary Club of Alameda. Her columns are collected at alamedapost.com/Joyce-Mercado. She can be reached at jlmercado246@gmail.com.

The post Why We Need More Trees in Alameda—and How to Plant Them appeared first on Alameda Post.

California’s first millionaire

Samuel Brannan (1819-1889) was an American settler, journalist, businessman, and prominent Mormon who had an outsized influence on San Francisco and California history. As a young man growing up in Massachusetts and Ohio, Brannan worked as a printer, and then joined the Mormon Church at age 23. In the 1840s, with the Mormons facing rising persecution in the eastern U.S., Brannan, as the highest-ranking Mormon leader in New York at the time, convinced a group of church members to join him on an expedition to California. He chartered the ship Brooklyn, and set sail for California in January 1846. After a six-month voyage, the ship arrived at Yerba Buena Cove (today’s San Francisco) on July 31, 1846.

Using the printing press he had brought with him on the Brooklyn, Brannan established San Francisco’s first newspaper, The California Star, which debuted on January 9, 1847. He also began to open stores, including one at Sutter’s Fort, in what later became Sacramento. When gold was discovered on the American River in 1848, Brannan’s newspaper was unable to report on it because all of his staff had headed for the hills looking for gold. Some reports also suggest he held back the news until he was able to fully stock his store. Either way, he was able to capitalize on the Gold Rush by buying up all the picks, shovels, and pans he could find, and selling them to would-be gold-seekers at a significant markup. He promoted his store by running up and down the streets of San Francisco shouting, “Gold! Gold on the American River!”

Using his business profits, and possibly the tithings paid to him as an LDS Church representative, Brannan increased his land holdings in California, and even in Hawaii, where he purchased large amounts of land in Honolulu. Although there were some financial ups and downs along the way, Sam Brannan became California’s first millionaire, and was elected to the California State Senate in 1853, in the new state’s capital of Sacramento.

Sarafornia Dreaming

After visiting the hot springs in the upper Napa Valley in the late 1850s, Brannan was so enchanted with the beauty and peace of Napa’s “Upvalley” region that he purchased 2,000 acres of land and planned a hot springs resort. By 1862 his resort had opened, soon featuring 25 guest cottages with gingerbread trim, a hotel, bathhouse, racetrack, stable, distillery, telegraph office, and restaurant, all set among wide avenues, palm trees, and manicured lawns.

The story of how Calistoga got its name is in some dispute, but the most common and colorful account is that Sam Brannan, while standing up to make a speech at an 1866 dinner party, intended to announce that he was going to make his hot springs resort “the Saratoga of California,” after the famous Saratoga Springs in New York state. But with his lips lubricated by brandy, likely from his own distillery, his words came out instead as, “the Calistoga of Sarafornia.” The name stuck, but it wasn’t until 1876 that Calistoga was officially incorporated as a town, and then later as a city on January 6, 1886. The place had previously been called Hot Springs by the few Americans who were around, and Agua Caliente by the Spaniards and Indians. Long before the name Calistoga was ever uttered, though, the native people known as the Ashochimi called this place Nilektsonoma, which means “the Chicken Hawk Place.”

Railroad arrives

Despite the beauty and grandeur of Brannan’s resort, its remote location proved challenging in terms of enticing enough patronage to support his costly venture. Initially Brannan brought visitors to his hot springs via a 24-passenger horse-drawn stagecoach, and then in 1868 he built the Calistoga Rail Depot to serve trains of the Napa Valley Railroad, of which Brannan was a major backer. Passengers were able to disembark from their ferries at Vallejo for the train journey up to Napa, Oakville, Yountville, St. Helena, and Calistoga. The ferry/train route from San Francisco to Calistoga took up to five hours, but the reward was a stay at the luxurious Brannan’s Hot Springs at Calistoga, the “Saratoga of California,” or as Brannan would put it, the “Calistoga of Sarafornia.”

Bothe-Napa Valley State Park

Our home base on this trip to Calistoga was Bothe-Napa Valley State Park, just five miles south of the downtown area. In this forested and hilly park along the banks of Ritchey Creek, we had the campground mostly to ourselves on a midweek camping trip in January.

The park brochure describes the original inhabitants of this area as the Koliholmanok people, who lived here for thousands of years and numbered about 2,000 before the Europeans came to Alta California. The Spanish settlers called these people guapo for their bravery, daring, and good looks, and the Native People eventually became known as the Wappo. Mexican land grantees and gold seekers upset the Wappo way of life in the early 19th century, and diseases such as smallpox devastated their population.

Early pioneers

Dr. Edward T. Bale, an Englishman who came to California in the 1830s, married into the prominent family of General Mariano Vallejo in 1839, when he wed Vallejo’s niece Maria Soberanes. General Vallejo appointed Bale surgeon-in-chief of the Northern Mexican army in 1840, and Bale applied for Mexican citizenship. In 1841 Governor Juan Alvarado granted Bale over 17,000 acres of land in the upper Napa Valley, encompassing today’s Calistoga and St. Helena. Bale built an adobe home in what is now St. Helena, and, in 1846, built a large grist mill in what is now Bothe-Napa Valley State Park.

Bale’s grist mill became an essential part of the community, as locals brought their wheat, corn, oats and barley to the mill for grinding into flour. Though his mill was a success, he was caught up in the “gold fever” of 1848 and headed up to the hills to seek even greater fortune. He returned ill with a real fever the following year, and died in October of 1849 at just 39 years old. His young wife Maria was left with six children, along with debts, liens and mortgages.

Grist for the mill

By 1850, Bale’s 27-year-old wife Maria Soberanes Bale had only about 1,550 acres of land left, out of the original 17,000 acres granted to her husband less than a decade earlier. She hired Leonard Lillie to expand the grist mill, installing the larger 36-foot waterwheel still in use today. Maria managed to pay off her husband’s debts, and hold on to portions of her land as bequests to her children. She remarried, and the mill was later sold by her daughter Isadora Bruck in 1860. A succession of owners then operated the mill, along the way installing a steam engine to power it during times of drought. The mill was purchased by Reverend Theodore Lyman in 1871, and it continued to operate for decades before it finally ceased operations in 1905 – a victim of newer and more efficient mills, and possibly the availability of ready-made flour in the stores.

The Lyman family donated the mill to the Native Sons of the Golden West in 1923, and in the 1970s the California State Parks acquired the property and began a major restoration project. The historic mill was restored to operating condition and milled grain once again in 1988. This important and precious piece of early Napa Valley history is open on weekends and Monday holidays, with the last tour taking place at 3 p.m.

From riches to rags

Financial advisors often say that getting divorced can have more of a negative impact on your current and future financial well-being than almost any other event in your life. Of course, sometimes it’s necessary and unavoidable, and can lead to a happier life in the end. In the case of Sam Brannan though, he never recovered from his divorce.

In 1870, Brannan’s wife, Anna Eliza Corwin, filed for divorce. There was talk of philandering, and they had grown apart as Eliza lived in Europe for a time while Brannan stayed in California. A judge ruled that Eliza was entitled to half of their holdings in cash, and since the majority of Brannan’s holdings were in real estate, he had to liquidate the properties to pay the divorce settlement. By 1875, Brannan had sold his beloved hot springs resort, become a brewer, developed an alcohol problem, and moved south to Mexico. He eventually quit alcohol, settled all his debts, and died at age 70 in Escondido, California, on May 5, 1889, without even enough funds to pay for his own funeral. California’s first millionaire—a man who founded Calistoga and Yuba City, led a group of Mormons to California in 1846, and has a street named after him in San Francisco and an island named for him on the Delta—died in relative obscurity.

Up next

When this finishes up in Part 2, we’ll learn about a famous resident of Calistoga in the 1880s, a well-known writer you’ve surely heard of. How he came to spend his honeymoon at an abandoned mining camp in Calistoga ended up being the subject of his 1883 book, Silverado Squatters. We’ll also learn why the historic town of Calistoga has very few chain stores, what it’s like to wander through an old, barely maintained cemetery on a cool, foggy morning, and how a history walking tour printed from the internet was an excellent way to spend an afternoon in the old hot springs town of Calistoga. All of that, plus a connection to the infamous Donner Party, when our story continues.

If you go

Bothe-Napa Valley State Park has 47 tent/RV campsites, 10 yurts, and five cabins with bathrooms/showers, heat, and kitchenettes. There are 10 miles of trails, in 12 different loops, available to hikers. Reserve sites online at California State Parks’ Reserve California.

Bale Grist Mill State Historic Park is open weekends and on some Monday holidays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Contributing writer Steve Gorman has been a resident of Alameda since 2000, when he fell in love with the history and architecture of this unique town. Contact him via steve@alamedapost.com. His writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Steve-Gorman.

The post Today’s Sarafornia Treasure – Calistoga, Part 1 appeared first on Alameda Post.

Potatoes, while historically cheap, have been going up in price along with all other vegetables. Yukon Gold potatoes were recently $5.99 for a five-pound bag at Safeway. Potatoes are very easy to grow. They provide the most calories per square yard of any vegetable—which is why Irish farmers with a lot of mouths to feed and only a few acres grew them. Gourmet varieties of potatoes are just as easy to grow as supermarket varieties. And finally, growing potatoes is also a good project for children.

So, if you have some extra room, you might want to grow your own potatoes.

Potatoes 101

Potatoes form along the part of the stem that is excluded from light. They need a few inches of fertile soil to set roots in. The plant only needs a few inches above ground, so in order to grow more potatoes, the farmer pushes dirt, straw, or dry leaves around the plant, leaving the top few inches exposed. As the potato plant grows, the farmer tops up the mound around the plant. Inventive minds have figured out various ways to do this:

• Burlap sack. Set a sack on the ground and push stakes around it. Put four inches of potting soil in the sack. Roll the top over the stakes.
• Container or old barrel (plastic, metal, or wood). Drill a lot of holes in the bottom for drainage. Fill with four inches of potting soil. If you are growing on a deck or concrete surface, put a tray under the container and raise it up an inch to allow for drainage.
• Plant in the ground. Dig a trench, about eight inches deep. Push the soil to either side. Fertilize well with fish fertilizer.

Potatoes need full sun, but since you can grow them in a large container, you can locate your potato container on a concrete surface or a driveway, leaving your garden beds for other crops.

When to plant

You can plant potatoes year-round in Alameda, but good soil drainage is important during the winter months. Potatoes will rot if the ground is soggy.

The best time to plant is February or March, for a harvest in late spring and early summer. Potatoes will grow well later in the year, but you will have to water regularly for a good harvest. Potato plants like it uniformly moist.

Where to get potatoes to plant

Potato plants grow from “eyes” in potatoes. You can either buy your favorite kind of organic potatoes (try Alameda Natural Grocery or Dan’s Produce) or purchase “seed” potatoes (specifically grown to plant) at Plowshares or Encinal Nursery. The advantage of seed potatoes is that they are certified disease free. If you buy potatoes from a grocery store, make sure they are organic, have no signs of disease such as blotchy skin or rough spots, and have big, prominent eyes. Non-organic potatoes are often treated to retard growth.

How To Plant

You will need one potato eye per eight inches to one foot of row. If growing in a container, space eight inches to one foot apart.

Cut up your seed potatoes so you have one or two eyes per piece the day before you intend to plant. Spread the pieces out and let the cut sides dry out overnight.

The next day, lay the potato pieces on your prepared site, eye side up, eight to 12 inches apart. Cover with two more inches of dirt (doesn’t have to be potting soil) and water well. Keep moist and you should see sprouts in a week or so.

Continue watering (hopefully Ma Nature will provide at least some of the water) and when the plants get about 10 inches tall, start hilling (mounding soil or mulch around the base of the plants). Make sure whatever you use is clean and dry—wet leaves or straw will transmit disease. Cover the stem of each plant to about five inches from the top. Spray the leaves with diluted fertilizer once a month.

Harvest

Eventually the tops will start to die down. Stop watering at this point.

When the tops are totally dry, it’s time to harvest your potatoes. One great way to do this is to enlist any children in the vicinity for a treasure hunt. Lacking children, carefully dig down and brush the dirt off the potatoes you find. If children are helping, be sure to wash them (the children) immediately—they will be very grubby. As for the potatoes, only wash the ones you intend to eat within the next two or three days.

You will be pleasantly surprised with your home-grown potatoes. They will cook faster and be a lot tastier than the ones you buy at the supermarket.

Margie Siegal is a long term gardener in Alameda and a supporter of Alameda Backyard Growers. Reach her via editor@alamedpost.com. Her writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Margie-Siegal.

The post How to Grow Your Own Potatoes appeared first on Alameda Post.

The local count area is a circle 15 miles in diameter centered in the Oakland Hills and divided into smaller areas to be covered by teams of approximately 10 people each, who spend the day counting every bird they can find. Two of these areas are in the City of Alameda, including both the main island and Bay Farm Island. This year the main island team was led by Doug Henderson, and the Bay Farm team was led by Rusty Scalf.

The main island team had 17 counters this year, who divided into six groups with the intent to cover as much of the island as possible and turn up every possible bird. By surveying 37 different locations throughout the island, we were able to find and identify 9,329 birds of 110 species plus one hybrid. Being surrounded by water, it is not surprising that the species with the largest numbers are water birds and shorebirds. The most numerous bird—1,591 counted—was the bufflehead, a small black-and-white diving duck that spends the winter here. About 900 of them were in a single flock on Ballena Bay.

The second highest number of a single species was the western sandpiper with 1,274. This is a small brown shorebird which also spends the winter here and migrates north to its Arctic breeding grounds in spring. Of the land birds that you might be likely to find in your yard or local parks, the white-crowned sparrow was the most common with 406.

Although the purpose of the bird count is to survey all birds, we are always on the lookout for rarities. This year our rarest bird was a yellow-billed loon found at Crab Cove, where it was busy diving for crabs along the shore. This was only the second record of the species in California for 2025. It is the largest and rarest species of loon; it breeds in the Arctic and typically winters along the coast of British Columbia.

Another good find this year was a Eurasian wigeon, an Asian species which is a rare but regular visitor here, usually found with the more common American wigeon. The snowy plover is an endangered species that we usually find on Alameda Beach. This year we were able to locate 13 of them.

The Bay Farm Island parties found a remarkable 33 hooded mergansers, quite a high number for this uncommon—and uncommonly beautiful—little diving duck. The Corica golf course continues to recover from its complete redesign and in some ways is better than ever for birds, especially wetland birds. Both Virginia rail and sora were found among the cattails that now line the drainages.

A morning king tide caused one party to reverse its coverage from counter-clockwise to clockwise in the hike along the Alameda Estuary and Bay Farm canals. The result was a good number and diversity of shorebirds (sandpipers and plovers) along the estuary shoreline.

Doug Henderson has been birding Alameda and the surrounding area for many years and is a member of the Golden Gate Bird Alliance.

Rusty Scalf began birding in High School in the 1960s. He is a member of Golden Gate Bird Alliance and participates each year in several different bird counts.

This article is part of a series written by Friends of the Alameda Wildlife Reserve (FAWR) members, FAWR is a Conservation Committee of Golden Gate Bird Alliance. To find out more about birds and GGBA’s free guided trips visit Golden Gate Bird Alliance.

The post Alameda’s 2025 Christmas Bird Count appeared first on Alameda Post.

Although it is very, very unlikely that your beans will make you rich, bean plants will provide you with tasty dinners while improving your soil. Bean plants work in tandem with beneficial bacteria to make nitrogen in the soil available to growing plants. According to the American Heart Association, green beans are anti-inflammatory, a good source of protein, fiber, and vitamins, and are low in fat.

Types of beans

Humans have been cultivating beans for thousands of years, and in that time have developed many different varieties.

Fava beans, a different species from other types of beans, like cold weather. In Alameda, favas can be started in the fall for an early spring harvest.

Runner beans, also a different species, are more closely related to green beans. They require less light and colder weather than regular green beans, but will do their best in a warm, sunny spot. The tall vines—over six feet—have lots of bright red flowers. Train them up an arch for an ornamental entry to your garden! For tender beans, pick at five inches or less. Larger beans can be tough.

Green beans come in many different varieties. Some are yellow (wax beans) and some are purple. They can be round or flat (romano). The original green bean was a tall vine, and bush beans were developed to cut down on farmers’ work. Bush beans are great if you have lots of space, but not so good in cramped urban gardens, where there is usually a lot more vertical than horizontal space.

Yard-long beans are an Asian variety that like hot weather. I would not try growing them in Alameda. Soybeans also like hot weather, and I have had no luck growing them.

Growing beans

Beans grow easily from seed. All varieties of beans are grown the same way. Pole beans can be trained up a trellis, or string can be stretched between poles. It is best to have the support for the vines in place, and compost dug in, before you plant. Beans do not need a lot of fertilizer, but will do better if you treat the seeds with inoculant, which contains the beneficial bacteria. Bean inoculant is inexpensive and can be purchased from Plowshares Nursery at 2701 Main Street, or Encinal Nursery at 2057 Encinal Avenue. Follow the instructions on the package.

In my experience, the best time to start fava beans is in October or November. They will grow slowly until early spring and then take off. Runner beans can be started in April or May. I would not start green beans until late May, which is about the time my fava beans are dying down. I pull out the spent fava bean plants, amend the soil a bit, and plant my green beans.

Dig a shallow trench in front of the poles and drop in your bean seed, an inch or two apart. Beans don’t mind being a little crowded. Cover the beans to the depth stated on the seed envelope, generally one inch. Water well and keep moist. You should see sprouts in a week or so. Local birds like to eat bean sprouts, so cover the area you planted with chicken wire until the young beans are six inches tall. If some of the vines can’t seem to find the trellis, tie string to one side of the trellis, corral the bean plants and gently pull them up to the trellis, then tie the string on the other side.

You should start picking beans in a couple of months. Pick fava beans when the pods are well filled out. Pick all other beans when four to six inches long for best flavor. Just-picked beans should be steamed for no more than five minutes—or sauteed with mushrooms. Yum!

Margie Siegal is a long term gardener in Alameda and a supporter of Alameda Backyard Growers. Reach her via editor@alamedpost.com. Her writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Margie-Siegal.

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While we can see ducks throughout the year in Alameda, some species leave in the spring to raise their young in other places and return in the fall to winter in our waters. Wigeons are one of the partial-year species. Most of them leave in April to breed in western Canada and then return in September or October, although a few do stay here each summer. While here in winter, they often feed at night. During the day they hang out in fresh water or at sheltered spots at the edge of the Bay, so look for them in ponds, including the lagoon near the beach at Crab Cove and the edge of the water at Elsie Roemer as well as multiple ponds and marshy areas throughout the East Bay.

Like most ducks, the male wigeon has more showy plumage than the female. He sports a white forehead. A friend once told me that a smidgeon of white on a duck’s forehead signals that it is a wigeon, so I can always immediately identify a male wigeon. Below and behind the white mark, the male has a wide green stripe, and its cheek is pale gray. Depending on the light, the green stripe may be dull or as shiny as a new Christmas tree ornament. The body is a dark peach color, with a white patch on the sides just before the black tail. When the wigeon is swimming or walking on land, the black wingtips rest on its back just above the black tail.

The females, like most female ducks, are more subtly outfitted; ornithologists assume the subtle colors let them “disappear” more easily into the background as they sit on eggs in the grasses. This camouflage is important because both eggs and young chicks can become food for several kinds of predators. The female’s head, including her forehead, is pale gray and the green stripe is replaced by a dark smudge near the eye. The white side patch and black tail of the male are very muted in the female, and she is pinkish brown on the side of her body. Both male and female wigeons have a white belly and white streak on the top of and under their wings, strikingly visible when they fly.

Wigeons, like many species of ducks, feed on plants on top of the water or grass on the bottom of ponds, which they reach by tipping their heads into the water and pointing their tails to the horizon or the sky, a process known as dabbling. They also eat grass on land, so I look for them on golf courses, other large grassy spaces, and in wet winters in flooded fields. When breeding, they eat more seeds, fruits, and flies, and feed their chicks flies and other bugs.

Most wigeons select their breeding partner for each year at their wintering location. At the breeding area in Alaska or western Canada, the male defends the female while she sits on the nest that is hidden in grass or bushes to incubate the eggs for the 3½ to 4 weeks until they hatch. Once the chicks are hatched, the female keeps them warm and guards them as they grow—they hatch with the ability to walk and peck the ground for food. The male leaves as the chicks grow, flies to a sheltered location where he molts his worn feathers, then travels south and sometimes east for the winter. The female molts her feathers before she travels to the wintering spot.

The majority of wigeons in the United States, including Alameda, are American wigeons, but on the West Coast we see a few Eurasian wigeons, the species that lives in the north of Eurasia, from Scandinavia east to Siberia. Eurasian wigeons winter in eastern Africa or southern Asia, but some come to America, including the West Coast. One has wintered at Crab Cove for the past few years, and others are routinely reported around the East Bay.

The male Eurasian wigeon has the same white top of head and forehead, but the rest of its head and face are a deep rust color, its back and wings are a black-and-white tweed, and its breast is a pale rust color with a white mark before its black tail. The female has a gray-rust head, breast, and sides, darker back and wings, and a smaller dark smudge around its eye.

Eurasian wigeons may breed with many other species of ducks, forming hybrids that some birders can identify in our winter waters. But all of us can look for the occasional Eurasian wigeon among the American wigeons along our coastline and in the marshes. Can you find one in the photo below? Now can you find the live Eurasian wigeon with the American wigeons in the lagoon or at the edge of the rocks near the breakwater at Crab Cove?

Marjorie Powell is a member of the Golden Gate Bird Alliance (GGBA) and its Alameda Conservation Committee, Friends of the Alameda Wildlife Reserve (FAWR).

This article is part of a series written by FAWR members. To find out more about birds and GGBA’s free guided trips visit the Golden Gate Bird Alliance.

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December is when the numbers of harbor seals start increasing at Alameda Point in anticipation of the winter herring spawning in the vicinity. The influx of seals leads to overcrowding on the specially built float near the ferry maintenance facility and Bay Trail. It has been happening since the harbor seal float was deployed in the summer of 2016. Again this December, the float has been fully occupied with as many as 75 seals (verified by numbering a printed photo) during part of the day without an inch to spare.

Harbor seals arriving at Alameda Point this December found an alternative spot to the overcrowded float when they ventured into nearby Seaplane Lagoon. Their additional haul-out location is on a plastic commercial dock owned by Saildrone, the maker of autonomous battery-powered boats capable of gathering marine scientific data around the world. Saildrone vessels, manufactured in a hangar on West Tower Avenue, can often be seen moored in their leased space in the Seaplane Lagoon.

The main harbor seal float was jam-packed with harbor seals on December 7-8, and there were between 11 and 13 seals on Saildrone’s plastic dock in the Seaplane Lagoon.

Much of the cost to provide an additional float was already paid in the design and construction of the mold for the first one. The Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA), which operates the San Francisco Bay Ferry system, provided the funding for construction and deployment of that harbor seal float after wildlife advocates lobbied for a new haul-out platform in place of the one WETA planned to demolish for their facility. WETA is responsible for maintaining the seal float for the 60-year life of the ferry maintenance facility lease at Alameda Point.

Moss Landing Marine Laboratories Director, Dr. Jim Harvey, was hired as a consultant by WETA to help with design and location of the new seal float. He accurately predicted that ferry traffic would not affect the seals’ behavior.

Barely six months after the harbor seal float was deployed there was talk among harbor seal enthusiasts of a second float. The San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC), which issued the permits for the seal float and ferry maintenance facility, was reportedly amenable to permitting a second float. But first they wanted to see what the impact on seal behavior would be once the 12-berth ferry maintenance facility was in operation in 2018.

“BCDC staff would certainly meet with the City to discuss a proposal for a second haul-out,” said Erik Buehmann, permit analyst with BCDC, at the time. “Any new haul-out should be planned in consultation with WETA and incorporate the opinion of experts, such as Dr. Harvey.”

To date, there has been no known organized effort to deploy a second harbor seal float at Alameda Point.

The harbor seal float is the only place in the East Bay between Yerba Buena Island and Newark that harbor seals can get out of the water to rest and warm up, which they do for about half of every day. And they can do so regardless of tide levels.

Besides benefitting the seals, the proximity to the shoreline also offers a good opportunity for passersby and educational groups to easily view the seals. The Alameda Point site is the only site on San Francisco Bay where harbor seals can be viewed from a public trail.

This is one of the best times of the year to observe the seals, and now the seals have provided another opportunity for visitors to view them from the shoreline of the Seaplane Lagoon—on Saildrone’s floating platform.

The Alameda Post reached out to Saildrone for a comment on the harbor seals utilizing their floating platform, but they declined to comment.

Contributing writer Richard Bangert posts stories and photos about environmental issues on his blog Alameda Point Environmental Report. His writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Richard-Bangert.

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Autumn is well underway and it will be winter soon enough. Now at the right tide levels, we can see crowds of sandpipers on parts of the Alameda bayshore, feeding and resting to recuperate from their migration. This final article about Alameda sandpipers concerns the three largest that we commonly see.

Marbled godwit (Limosa fedora)

The marbled godwit and long-billed curlew are found only in the Americas. Marbled godwits breed primarily in grasslands on the northern prairie at sites near water, with small, isolated populations breeding along James Bay in Canada and in Alaska. In winter, marbled godwits are found on most coasts of North America, extending slightly into Central America on its western coast.

The marbled godwit is a tawny buff color. Its upperparts are darkly speckled and barred; in winter, its underparts are mostly unmarked and have a cinnamony tinge. Underwings are cinnamon-colored all year. The marbled godwit is 16 to 19 inches long and has a sword-shaped bill with a slight upward turn and (in winter) a bright pink bottom half.

Food varies by season. In winter and on the coast, marbled godwits feed on aquatic invertebrates. On the interior breeding grounds, they eat insects, especially grasshoppers, as well as plant tubers and small fish. During migration, marbled godwits eat plant tubers almost exclusively, using their upturned bill to clip them off.

Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus)

Unlike the marbled godwit and the long-billed curlew, the whimbrel is found in both the Eastern and Western hemispheres, breeding in the north (boreal, subarctic and low arctic areas) and wintering mostly on shores around the world. This results in some long migrations—nonstop flights of almost 2,500 miles have been recorded along the Atlantic coast from New England or southern Canada to South America.

The whimbrel is a large brownish shorebird. It is between 17 and 18 inches long; its upper parts are a dark brown marked with pale buff, and underparts a plainer paler buff. Its most distinctive features are a very dark crown (containing a pale stripe that can be difficult to see) and a long (2.9 to 4 inches) down-curved bill. This genus was named Numenius because its long down-curved bill was thought to resemble the new moon, evoking the Greek word meaning “of the new moon.” Most whimbrels also have a narrow dark line through the middle of the eye.

The whimbrel’s diet is varied and changes with the seasons. When the whimbrel first arrives in its breeding areas, it eats berries left from the prior summer, lichens and mosses, and intertidal animals when it can find them. As the environment thaws, whimbrels move into tundra, eating lichens and other plants as well as insects, other invertebrates, and fish when available. On the wintering grounds, whimbrels eat mainly marine invertebrates, including crustaceans and worms, as well as fish. In many wintering areas, whimbrels primarily eat fiddler crabs; the curve of the whimbrel’s bill fits the shape of these crabs’ burrows well.

Long-billed curlew (Numenius americanus)

This is the largest shorebird that visits Alameda. In fact, it’s the largest shorebird in North America. Its length is between 19.5 and 25.5 inches and its weight ranges from 17.5 to 33.5 ounces. Its bill is very long, measuring up to 8.6 inches. Females average larger than males, and have a longer bill.

Like other members of its Numenius genus (the first name in the scientific name), its bill is downwardly curved, referred to as decurved. The bird’s shape reminds some of a football and its legs are quite long. Overall, the long-billed curlew is cinnamon-colored with dark markings on the wings, head, and breast, and a plain belly.

Of all four species of the Numenius genus in North America, the long-billed curlew breeds the furthest south and winters the furthest north, resulting in a short to medium length migration. It breeds in the grasslands of the Great Plains and Great Basin, and winters in central and coastal California, along the Gulf and east coasts, in Mexico, and along Central American coasts.

Long-billed curlews are carnivorous, feeding on insects, crustaceans and some other invertebrates. In winter, they forage mostly by probing; in summer both pecking and probing are used and grasshoppers and beetles are a frequent food. Its bill is particularly well adapted for capturing crabs and shrimp in burrows of tidal mudflats or burrowing earthworms in pastures.

This series has explored both the similarities and the differences among the sandpipers that share Alameda’s bay shore in the fall and winter. Our sandpipers have long bodies and legs, and are mostly shades of brown or gray on their upper parts, frequently with lighter under parts. Their bills are narrow and tend to be long relative to the birds’ size. They live mostly on the shore, in sand or mud. They feed from the ground and eat a lot of insects, worms, and crustaceans. But they are also diverse, arriving here from different breeding locations with different behaviors—the spotted sandpiper’s bobbing rear is distinctive! Their patterning is diverse as are their sizes, with lengths ranging from 5 to 25 inches.

Now’s the time to visit them and see if you can distinguish one from the other!

Linda Carloni is a long-time member of the Golden Gate Bird Alliance and its Alameda Conservation Committee, Friends of the Alameda Wildlife Reserve.

This article is part of a series written by Friends of the Alameda Wildlife Reserve (FAWR) members. To find out more about birds and Golden Gate Bird Alliance’s free guided field trips see www.goldengatebirdalliance.org

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Instead of driving your kids to school, consider adopting active transportation such as walking, scootering, or biking to school. Doing so incorporates some exercise, saves on gas, and reduces congestion, pollution, and emissions. Plus, it’s a lot more fun!

Strive for no-waste lunches by using reusables such as lunch boxes or bags instead of paper bags, reusable baggies or glass or metal containers with lids instead of disposable zip lock bags, and cloth napkins instead of paper napkins. Reusables save money, reduce waste, and protect the climate. Buy snacks in bulk and use reusable containers instead of single-serve disposable packages.

Also consider healthy low-cost plant-based lunch foods such as celery with peanut butter and raisins, hummus with cut-up veggies for dipping, a good old peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a hummus and sliced veggies sandwich, or peanut butter with apple slices for dipping. Plant-based food has a much lower carbon footprint than meat-based meals, tends to be less expensive, and can be healthier than other choices. Give these suggestions a try with your kids.

For school supplies, buy paper items made of recycled paper whenever possible. Refillable mechanical pencils never need sharpening and use less material than wooden pencils. The same goes for reusable pens.

It is also time for after-school sports. Organize carpools with other parents for practices and games. Doing so saves much-needed time as well as gas, and reduces emissions. A side benefit I discovered while taking my kids and their friends to their after-school sports practices is that the kids would talk to each other about what is going on in their lives as if you didn’t exist in the driver’s seat. I learned lots of interesting things during my carpool duty!

Climate action doesn’t have to be hard. It starts with the everyday choices we make in our lives. Let’s lead by example for our kids this back-to-school season, and show them that small actions, done consistently, make a difference in protecting our planet.

Joyce Mercado is the author of Save the Planet in Your Spare Time: A Climate Protection Handbook for the Busy Person, a member of Community Action for a Sustainable Alameda (CASA), and President of the Rotary Club of Alameda. Her columns are collected at alamedapost.com/Joyce-Mercado. She can be reached at jlmercado246@gmail.com.

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