Park News Dec 18 2025
Solstice Reminder
The reason for the season is the Winter Solstice. Come to the gathering at the Chavez/Huerta Tribute Solar Calendar this coming Sunday Dec 21 at 4 pm. Click this link for details.
Throne Poll Nudge
The first responders to the Throne Poll (Park News Dec 11 2025) gave the new facility a 100% “Keep” rating. But to give the vote more weight, more park visitors need to participate. Go to the Poll Now.
Here’s the initial results:
Twelve participants posted comments:
I used it once, it was clean and functional. My one issue is that I have gotten 4 access cards and none of them have worked. Each time I bring them back (to the nice security guard at City Hall) I am given a replacement card, but they don’t work either. I got the card because I don’t carry a cell phone with me usually when I exercise at Cesar Chavez Park.
It seems to be filling a need, although I’m curious how much it costs per use. My only objection is its godawful color scheme. If these are going to be installed in parks, can’t they be covered in a color that blends in with the environment rather than bright blue?
This hygienic toilet makes park visits more enjoyable because it gets rid of the negative experience one must often face when there.
It’s nice, and also dignified.
It is such an improvement !! A park as important to so many people as Cesar Chavez deserves a restroom that is so well serviced and usuable. Thank you to the Parks Dept and the City of Berkeley to thinking about the hundreds of folks who can or will use it and appreciate it.
The Throne is so clean, sturdy, and comfortable. It’s great. The portapotties are discusting. One had no seat at all for months. They were flimsy and cramped, and unhygienic.
The Throne is way better than the plastic port-o-potties.
I don’t think a person should have to have a smartphone in order to use the toilet. I have a cellphone, but it isn’t a smartphone; it’s a clamshell, so I think it wouldn’t work.
all ways nice yo have a clean potty
It’s so good to know that the restroom is there. Makes me want to come to Chavez Park more often.
It is clean and comfortable. On the other hand, the portapotties meant more than one person could use a bathroom. I presume the Throne is too expensive to have more than one. Nevertheless, I love it.
everyone deserves a clean safe free bathroom
Add your response. Do the Throne Poll now.
Burrowing Owls Update
At last report we had two Burrowing Owls in residence. The “Shy Owl” continues to dwell in the bushes on the south slope of the Spiral, more or less in the same spot. It’s a location where you’d never notice it unless you knew it was there. Growing numbers of park visitors who know it’s there have had the pleasure to see it. This is a safe spot, where the bird is unlikely to be harassed by a dog and where it’s sheltered overhead from raptors. This owl was first spotted Nov 14. Several other owls arrived earlier but departed after a few days. Here’s a video of the Shy Owl on Wednesday morning Dec 17:
Meanwhile the owl at Perch A has been seen several times. Here’s a video from Sunday Dec 14:
I didn’t get to the park on Monday, but on Tuesday this owl was in the same spot. The video shows that something alarmed the owl and it dove into a crack between the big stones for safety. I waited for 15 minutes but it did not come back at that time.
However, this owl was back in the same spot on Wednesday morning, after a night of rain. It looks like some of its feathers on the head and wings are still wet.
This spot, known as “Perch A,” is on the east side of the seasonal Burrowing Owl Sanctuary. You can’t see it from the paved perimeter trail. I put on my yellow Chavez Park Conservancy vest and step over the gate into the Spiral. From there the owl is more than 100 yards north. With the naked eye it looks like a grain of rice. It takes strong optics to bring it in. If sweet reason ever prevails in the design of this area, the Spiral will be kept open year-round, with fencing on either side to protect the birds.
Unsure about owl viewing spots? Check out the recent owl perching sites on this map.
Burrowing Owl Program Jan 28
Bay Nature magazine has just announced that I will be giving a talk about the Burrowing Owls in the park on January 28 at noon. This is a Zoom affair, free to Bay Nature members and $5 to others. I’ll be drawing heavily on my new book, Our Owls: Burrowing Owls in Berkeley’s Cesar Chavez Park.
The book at this point is still only available commercially on Amazon. However, park visitors who see me in the park may be able to get an author’s copy, just ask.
Other Feathers
Photographer Hao Tran reports with regret that he could not find the Rock Wren this time. His photos of this elusive little charmer are the stuff of visual poetry. But there are other feathers in the park, and here’s Hao’s photo harvest from a recent walk:
Grant Hough, a UC Berkeley student in electrical engineering, is an avid photographer. He has a talent, and maybe also great luck, with shots of birds in action. He’s contributed these new photos taken in the park last week:
On Wednesday morning, after a night of rains, I saw this young White-crowned Sparrow taking an energetic bath in a puddle. The bird paid special attention to its head, where after all it cannot preen, so washing is really important. I wonder, if they had shampoo, would they use it?
The Scaup, who in some past years have shown up here in the thousands, continued a very modest presence this week. I saw this little flock, mostly females, over the weekend.
Bufflehead are here also in clusters of six or less. Sometimes the males get energetic with courtship displays, but mostly the sexes just give each other meaningful looks.
A little flock of Willets could be seen sleeping into late morning low on the east shore riprap. My photo shows one of them. Then I saw a Horned Grebe paddling rapidly next to the big dredging pipe.
Dredging Pipe Towed
On Tuesday morning a small tugboat approached the dredging pipes stored in the North Basin and a worker cut the ropes holding one of the pipes to the others. Then a larger tug showed up and towed that pipe along with part of the floating platform northward out of the area. A number of gulls on the pipe held on as it was towed, and at least one jumped aboard for the ride. Two of the floating pipes remain. Neither the contractor nor the city have released plans for the rig, which has become a bird favorite. When the dredging gear eventually leaves, it would be good to provide a chain of logs to replace it as a bird perch.
Burrowing Owls on Cruise Ship
The Guardian out of the UK published a story on Dec 13 about a pair of Burrowing Owls that boarded a cruise ship in Miami last spring. The ship had a fake “Central Park” aboard with thousands of plants. Crew members netted the birds and handed them over to a Spanish wildlife conservation group when the ship landed in southern Spain. They spent the summer at a wildlife refuge in Spain and will be returned to Florida by air in the near future, the article says. Read it here. Thanks to Roger Herried for forwarding the item.
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