Park News Jan 6 2026
Burrowing Owl Update
Two Burrowing Owls have survived the recent series of rainstorms. Both are perching in Area C, the south slope of the Spiral — check this map. One of them looks to be the same “Shy Owl” that has resided here since Nov 14. Currently it occupies a spot in a patch of grass at the base of and in front of the bushes that line the water on the east side. This owl is relatively easy to see. The second owl usually perches in the rear, about 15 feet further east and south, behind a jagged reddish stone. This bird usually sits deep in a thatch of vegetation and can be difficult to see even with long optics. Very occasionally it steps into a semi-clear spot. I managed to get a picture of it there on Dec 30. I feel moderately confident that this is the owl we saw earlier at Perch A. Perch A has been vacant since Dec 23. We really need the Silicon Valley AI folks to build an app that can reliably ID individual owls.
Of the bounty of recent owl photographs, the standouts are two images taken by Hao Tran in very low light. This is a Burrowing Owl about 100 yards north of the fenced area at 6 pm, when daylight was gone. This is the time when the owls get active and start foraging. Hao’s camera, unlike mine, is able to take clear images with very little illumination. These are the first photos I’ve seen of our owls at night. I’m assuming it’s one of the two owls we see in the daytime.
The other set of best images is by Tianxi Zheng, whose owl photos last appeared here in 2021. One of his owl photos appears in my new book, “Our Owls: Burrowing Owls in Cesar Chavez Park, Berkeley.” Tianxi took time off to start a family and recently returned to the park, camera in hand. These photos are from Dec 30, at a moment of clear skies. Tianxi also produced a 3-minute video of the two owls, which is up on YouTube at this link.
After a night of heavy rain, in the morning of Jan 5 these two owls maintained a lower profile. The front owl showed just its head, and the rear owl just its scalp. You had to know it was there to be able to see it at all.
Here is an image of a moment when the two owls were both visible. Note the reddish, jagged rock on the right; the owl usually perches behind it, when seen from the perimeter path near the gate. Thanks to Naomi Schapiro and Feleciana Feller for sending similar photos that help park visitors spot both birds.
In response to several questions from park visitors, we cannot tell if they are male or female. They look the same to us. However, it seems safe to say that they have a way to tell the difference, possibly by ultraviolet markings.
During breeding season it’s often possible for researchers to tell them apart because the males spend most of their time in the sun and get bleached, while the females mostly stay in the burrows and remain dark. But that difference soon fades, and ornithologists who want to sex them in winter have to capture them, draw blood, and run DNA.
In the winter season their hormones are not tuned for mating and they have no interest in hooking up. Courting, mating and egg laying and all that occurs in spring and summer. So far, they haven’t done that here, and probably won’t so long as the area remains as unsafe as it is. The “art” fence is too low to keep out loose dogs. It wouldn’t be at all safe for the owls to build nests and raise chicks here. So they migrate somewhere north and east.
Other Feathers
Burrowing Owls aren’t the only birds making the park more beautiful. Here’s a selection of images from the past seven days. Thanks to Feleciana Feller, Roger Herried, Naomi Schapiro, and Hao Tran for sending in recent images.
Throne Poll Update
The four-month trial period for the Throne restroom in the park (and its twin in Civic Center park) expires Jan. 8, or possibly expired Jan 5, depending. To date the City hasn’t issued a verdict. Park visitors polled on this website give the Throne a 91.1 percent Yes vote, with 45 responding. It’s not too late to weigh in, do the Throne Poll now. Here’s the comments that participants posted so far.
- This one is good, but I would prefer a permanent bathroom. However, the self cleaning and reporting system is a good means of keeping the bathroom neat and tidy. Would like to see a permanent bathroom, however, with the same security and self-cleaning systems. Having it being wheel chair accessible is also very important.
- It’s clean, smells good, nice music. I appreciate the handwashing area. The inside is great but the outside is not so pretty
- 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?
- Cleanest we’ve experienced out there!
- We need three of these, two along Spinnaker Way, another on the far north side where there are no services apart from Nature
- 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.
- It’s fantastic
- No privacy when using a toilet. Does the company actually penalizes an offender, when the unit is disrupted? They should use Throne money to hire staff to patrol and penalize unleashed owners and dogs from trespassing on owl protected areas.
- it was very clean. i appreciated the sink, soap, & paper towels at hand as well
- They are ugly and I don’t carry my cell phone when I go for a walk.
- While I try not to use the portapotties, if it comes to a point to use one, I’d chose this one. At least this pleases the eye way more than the traditional portapotties.
- 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.
- It’s wonderful. I can’t comment on the budget, though.
- all ways nice yo have a clean potty
- David Silverstein is my husband. He let me into the throne restroom with my phone. I enjoyed the experience very much It was very clean and bright. The music was a little too loud, but why quibble. Maybe, next time I will get into it by myself. Susan Chasson
- It’s so good to know that the restroom is there. Makes me want to come to Chavez Park more often.
- A throne indeed. Since it requires a mobile phone, I can no more sit there than I can occupy Buckingham Palace.
- It’s the cleanest restroom I’ve ever used in the park
- 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
Water, Water
The new year started off wet. A King Tide on Jan 1 obliterated the corner of the Virginia Street Extension and the Marina Boulevard pedestrian walkway.
This was a 7.4 foot tide, followed by a 7.5 on Jan 2 and 3. These occurred in broad daylight. After each one, the waters receded dramatically, with a low of minus 2.0 feet on Jan 3. This meant a swing of 9.5 feet. Regrettably, the lows occurred in the dark. The exposed mudflats make as spectacular a landscape as the inundations. See, for example, this post from 2021.
A few hundred yards south, a flood from the sky brought a duck pond to the entrance of what used to be a perfectly functional walkway along the fence from University Avenue to the Virginia Street Extension. Used to be, until heavy equipment doing the University Avenue update three years ago wrecked it.
The unusable condition of this walkway means that people trying to get to Chavez Park using the 51B bus stop on University Avenue have to walk north along the inches-wide shoulder of Marina Boulevard. Bicyclists, runners, and wheelchair users are in the same bind. It’s only a matter of time before someone gets hit by a vehicle, and the City gets slapped with a well-deserved lawsuit for a dangerous condition of public property. The City’s plea that it has no money would be more credible if the City hadn’t just looted Chavez Park of more than $3 million in bond and state money dedicated to a permanent restroom and repaving the perimeter trail.
But No Water Here
Seeing all this water, I remembered the rain ponds that formed in the Sylvia McLaughlin Eastshore State Park, aka Berkeley Meadow, back in 2023, see for example this post. This week I saw only one pond, one of the smallest, and it had no fowl on it at the time of my visit. Photo below. The much bigger ponds of three years ago hadn’t formed. Yet?
I did notice that the fence along the western pathway, which had been in severe disrepair, has been replaced with a sturdy-looking doubly staked welded wire fence. The downside is that the vertical wires are so far apart that the fence would be easy to climb. When warm weather returns we’ll see how this design holds up. Meanwhile the eastern leg of the fence still needs work, with some sections sagging and poles rotting. Nearly all the beautiful display signs need repair or replacement. The East Bay Regional Park’s stewardship of this jewel among manufactured patches of nature — it’s a landfill like everything else west of the freeway — remains underwhelming.
Handmade Owls
Carol Denney’s crocheted Burrowing Owls hanging on the fence around the seasonal Burrowing Owl Sanctuary are the only thing genuinely artistic about the fence. The soft figures are a favorite with park visitors, especially children, who love to go and pet them. Recently, Carol has added new crochet owls to the ones that have been up there for two years. She’s also branched out into other media, less cuddly, but more ambitious as ventures into abstraction. Carol’s website is at this link.
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