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March 2013
SPOTLIGHT
Garrett Rivas and Jack Reed deliver new baseball gear to the Boys and Girls Club in Richmond
Danville boys challenge to do good By Staff Writer
Armed with nothing more than a musical Christmas hat and two mediocre singing voices, Jack Reed and Garrett Rivas, 7th graders at Charlotte Wood Middle School, set out to do something good. Filled with the holiday spirit and the energy of 13 year old boys, they hatched a plan to buy baseball equipment for homeless children. Being baseball fans themselves, the idea of providing the opportunity to play baseball to kids who
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The Garden at Heather Farm is alive with the promise of a fully dressed spring. The air warming with a tiny damp underlying chill, some banks of daffodils and leaf buds beginning to appear on branches everywhere. The first blossom petals underfoot make this place a worthwhile visit any time of year. For more information visit www.gardenshf.org.
Golden Eagle an inspiration to many cultures James. M. Hale Wildlife Biologist
The majestic Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), with a wingspan of up to nine feet and a weight sometimes reaching twenty-five pounds, was once widespread worldwide in the Holarctic regions where it resides in a variety of habitats. Urban sprawl and loss of contiguous suitable habitat threatens its role as a symbol of wildness. The Golden Eagle is North America’s largest bird of prey and the national bird of Mexico. A pair of Golden Eagles requires a massive home range of up to sixty square miles with plenty of prey. The inner coast range of southeastern Contra Costa and Alameda counties offers this combination where there is the highest nesting density of Golden Eagles in the world. Historically, Golden Eagles have nested in Sycamore Valley, Briones, Shell Ridge Open Space near Walnut
Creek and in the Berkeley Hills, the most prominent being the well-watched pair that nested on the radio towers at Sibley Regional Park. The Golden Eagle gets its name for the beautiful wash of gold feathers across its head and down the nape in adult birds. The legs are feathered to the bright yellow toes, while the talons are black. In first year juveniles, the basal half of the tail is white (prominent from afar), and the rest is black brown. In the following three years the tail becomes progressively darker, with some white persisting closest to the body and on the lateral tail feathers. Adult plummage is reached at five years when sexual maturity is reached. Females are larger than males,
an adaptation that allows the dimorphic pairs to take a greater diversity of prey. Flight is majestic with seemingly effortless, shallow wing beats. While soaring, the outermost primaries are often splayed into “fingers”. Golden Eagles fly at 30 mile per hour, glide at 80 miles per hour, and can dive in a stoop at over 150 miles per hour. Golden Eagles begin their undulating courtship flights as early as November, followed by nest building and repair. Pairs are monogamous and defend their territories with vigor. In California, most Golden Eagles build their nests in oak trees partway down steep north or east-facing slopes that shelter the nests from strong winds. Pine trees, Sycamores and cliff
faces offer other suitable nest sites. I have observed old nests that have been used for decades over eight feet in diameter and over four feet tall. Typically two eggs are laid, sometimes one to four. Incubation by the female is a
This month’s Special Sections:
Spring Home & Garden pages 8-9
Kids Camps & Education pages 10-11
See EAGLE page 4