Looking for some great summer reads? We’ve pulled together a few of our favorites, from a deep dive into the flamboyant mating rituals of grebes to a guidebook on drawing birds. Looking for fun in the sun? Check out a new park in San Francisco and a guide to photographing wildlife that is sure to inspire you to start exploring!

This guide contains paid listings from our valued partners, whose support helps us to continue producing quality environmental journalism.

Prefer paper? Download a handy printable version of this guide.

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A Sponsored Message from SF Bay Adventures

Schooner Freda B is an elegant 80′ sailboat docked in downtown Sausalito, offering public and private tours of San Francisco Bay. Outdoor adventures include Sunset Sails and Wildlife and Ecology Sails under the Golden Gate Bridge: perfect for bird watching, and the occasional whale sighting!  In addition to ticketed sails, groups of 2-49 people can rent the boat for private events, including birthdays, weddings, memorials, teambuilding, nature outings, and picnics on the marvelous SF Bay.

Sailing toward the strait’s wild south side, we meet some fellow travelers. (Kate Golden)

Carquinez Strait is where Sierra snow meets the San Francisco Bay, but the line of engagement between fresh and salt water is always moving. Our reporter sails the strait to get acquainted with its wild inhabitants and explore its wild currents, and gives us tips on how to get started sailing.

A Sponsored Message from The Marine Mammal Center

Nestled in the scenic Marin Headlands is the world’s largest marine mammal hospital, The Marine Mammal Center. Visit this ocean-view center to hear inspiring animal stories on a tour, get the chance to see seals and sea lions, explore interactive exhibits, peek into the laboratory, discover how you can be an ocean hero and more! Plus, shop ocean-friendly gifts—all proceeds support this nonprofit’s life-saving work. Tickets are free but must be booked in advance.

Pillar Point tidepool sunset. (Photo by Eric Simons)

Would you like to go see neat things in the miniature universe of the tidepool? Here’s a guide for getting started. “Find a pool that looks good, and look close. Give it a minute or two,” writes Eric Simons. “You’ll see the obvious stuff first.” Keep watching, as a universe unfolds before you.

A Sponsored Message from Sonoma County Regional Parks

Jump into summer fun at Sonoma County’s floating water park! Slides, splash zones, and family memories await at Spring Lake Regional Park. Enjoy lifeguarded swimming, a sandy beach, shady redwoods and pretty picnic spots. Your perfect cool-down spot opens Memorial Day weekend! Get tickets here.

The new park, at left, flanks the mouth of Mission Creek.(Courtesy SCAPE & Ty Cole)

Below looming high-rises, the new five-acre China Basin Park provides urban green space and views of San Francisco Bay in the rapidly developing Mission Bay neighborhood. A new snippet of Bay Trail wraps around the park’s edge, contributing to the vision of a greenway along San Francisco’s southeastern waterfront.

A Sponsored Message from Tree Frog Treks

Discover Tree Frog Treks Summer Camp in San Francisco! For 26 years, we’ve offered outdoor fun in our summer camp sessions with daily hikes, science experiments, art, music, and live animal encounters. Campers explore nature alongside our expert naturalist team and connect with rescued reptiles, amphibians, and more. Our award-winning program inspires curiosity, creativity, and lasting friendships. It’s the ultimate way to enjoy summer—wild, green, and free! Check out more about our camps here!

A rock pigeon with bands around its leg, like this one, is likely a domestic pigeon, reared in captivity and raised by humans, that has escaped. (Joel Sartore/Photo Ark)

In the heart of the concrete jungle, rock pigeons manage to thrive. Pigeons can navigate across 1,000 miles or more to find home, and humans have used them to deliver messages and to entertain, even arranging pigeon races for sport. Yet there is no agreement on how these birds sense, smell, or hear their route home. This summer, meet the remarkable urban birds we sometimes forget to wonder about.

A Sponsored Message from Heyday Books

Beloved naturalist John Muir Laws has inspired nature-lovers across generations to attune themselves to the beauty of the world around them through nature journaling. In his bestselling guides, Laws invites readers to pick up a sketchpad, head for the woods, and discover the wonders that wait just beyond the point where we usually stop paying attention. With Laws as your guide, you will enhance your powers of observation and cultivate connection with the natural world. 

How to tell these grebes apart? Clark’s grebes’ hoods stop above the eye, while westerns’ dip below it. Clark’s say “kreed,” while westerns say “kreed-kreed.” Also, they hybridize. Good luck! (Kumiko Iwashita, @kumigram)

With black hood and dagger beak, western and Clark’s grebes—close relatives that sometimes hybridize—strike rakish figures on Bay Area waters, where many breed in the spring and summer. Their paired dances are favorite targets for wildlife photographers. But for all the attention they command, the secrets of grebes’ lives are well-guarded.

A Sponsored Message from WildCare

Visit WildCare to learn about native wildlife. WildCare is home to 16 non-releasable wild animals. By sharing their rescue stories, these animals act as ambassadors for their species in order to increase awareness of their plight in the wild.

WildCare’s Wildlife Ambassador Zone at our transition location is open to the public on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays from 10am to 3pm. 

Admission is free and reservations are not required. See the map to our transition site here.

(Vishal Subramanyan)

In this photo essay, 21-year old wildlife photographer/student Vishal Subramanyan shares some of his favorite photos and moments from the field, along with tips on how to find wildlife to photograph.

A Sponsored Message from Heyday Books

This quirky survey of 100+ creatures is an irreverent guide to the wildlife of the San Francisco Bay Area that tells you all about the Bay’s furred, feathered, and fork-tongued denizens—and how to find them! This summer, go explore with this guide as your sidekick. 

This rock, the backbone of Molok Luyuk, formed deep within the Earth’s mantle. (Bob Wick)

From a ridgeline east of Clear Lake, a hiker today can see the country as did the Patwin, Pomo, Wappo, and Miwok peoples, who walked it for thousands of years before Europeans arrived. A red-orange sky blazes above blue-green serpentinite boulders; Mount Shasta looms to the north. Golden and bald eagles and red-tailed hawks soar overhead. This is Molok Luyuk—“Condor Ridge,” in the Patwin language.

(Daniel Neal, Wikimedia Commons)

Learn about the 17 bat species in Northern California and how to rehabilitate them as a volunteer with NorCal Bats, nonprofit dedicated to rescuing, rehabilitating, and releasing bats throughout Northern California.

Blue Waters Kayaking

A Sponsored Message from Blue Waters Kayaking

Every year since 1984 Blue Waters Kayaking has the honor of introducing people of all ages and abilities to the natural wonders of kayaking. We also have the privilege of organizing wedding parties, family reunions, and working with corporations and nonprofit organizations on team-building retreats.

Natural Resources Day at Andrew Molera State Park

Join us for a morning of removing invasive hemlock and thistles from the beautiful Creamery Meadow at Andrew Molera State Park. This event involves a 1-mile flat hike to the project site (2 miles round trip). Meet at the Andrew Molera Parking Lot on June 12 at 9:00 AM. Bring water, snacks, closed-toe shoes, long pants, and sun protection. Tools, training, and gloves provided!

Group size maximum: 30

Cost: FREE with a $10 vehicle entry fee at the park entrance

To RSVP, email [email protected]

Go Back to School – Outside!

If you’ve got time to spare on weekdays, how about going back to school? Outside, that is. Volunteer with LandPaths’ In Our Own Backyard program, which immerses elementary-school-age kids in Sonoma County nature, fostering a love for the land, or with the Inspired Forward program, geared toward teens and young adults, which teaches ecological literacy, stewardship, leadership, and resilience. A good fit for retired teachers or for college students seeking environmental education experience.

Join the Diablo Restoration Team (DiRT)

In the Chochenyo language, Mount Diablo is ṭuuštak, meaning “the place of the day,” and Indigenous people throughout the region have been taking care of it for thousands of years. You can be part of that through line by joining the Diablo Restoration Team (DiRT), which stewards land under Save Mount Diablo’s care. Activities are year-round and may include watering, planting, mulching, creek cleanups, and more.