Summer's Here!

The wildlife is quieter along the shore these days. The shorebirds have migrated away for the summer to nest and raise their young in the far north with its longer days. Terns have taken up some of the slack. They nest nearby on islands and points around the Bay spending daylight hours hunting for fish with spectacular aerial displays. We have three species including the tiny California least tern. The least tern is an endangered species that migrates from its northern-most nesting area at Alameda Point all the way to the southern end of South America. When they hunt in the Bay they rise and dive like delicate sky dancers.

On the people side, we've gotten through the last frantic field trips, graduation and rites of passage and it's time to settle into the longer days of summer. At home our backyard is BBQ ready and the hammock invites some quiet afternoons. At Crab Cove, we celebrated the summer Solstice with a fun exploration of our place in the solar system. Pacing out the proportional distance from a frisbee-sized sun past pin-size Mercury and peppercorn-size Venus to our own blue planet -- also a peppercorn -- we seemed very far from the sun. You can try this, too, if you go to http://www.noao.edu/education/peppercorn/pcmain.html. We only got as far as Mars because the rest of the planets are so much further away. We ended the evening with a celebratory marshmallow roast and S'mores. Happy summer to all!