About Osprey Days
While osprey are actively fishing, making nest plans, incubating, hatching, feeding, fledging with practice take-offs and landings and soaring in the sky above, from sometime in February through as late as September on the Mare Island Strait/Napa River, there’s pretty much a guaranteed peak number offering great viewing opportunities during June and early July. So, so far, we have held the San Francisco Bay Osprey Days the last weekend in June. Join us and our amazing “fish eagles”!
Osprey are certainly plentiful around the world and possibly due to that fact, as well as their beauty, fishing prowess and visibility of their nests perched high in the sky mostly on manmade structures, they are wildly popular with the viewing public. Yet, there are no recorded nesting osprey in the San Francisco Bay in the 20th or 21st century. So, the early 2000’s initial nesting at the former Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, was truly exciting. Today, they have colonized Richmond’s waterfront and other spots throughout the Bay Area.
Osprey Days was founded in 2012 by the Mare Island Heritage Trust with volunteer citizen scientists from the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory and field guides from Napa-Solano Audubon Society. In following years members of the San Francisco Bay Osprey Coalition including the Golden Gate Audubon Society and the Napa-Solano Audubon Society, along with the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory and the Mare Island Heritage Trust and others have contributed to the fun and informative event. Our sincere thanks to Dolphin Charters for arranging the very popular osprey viewing boat trips.
San Francisco Bay Osprey Days–celebrating a
unique San Francisco Bay phenomenon
Photo: Eric Dugan, former mill Mare Island Strait, Vallejo, July 2012
Photos: upper and lower left: Jimmy Sarmiento, Glen Cove Vallejo, April 2016
About Osprey Days
When: held annually the last weekend in June.
Where: headquartered at Mare Island, Vallejo, CA
What: A fun and informative weekend celebrating Bay osprey with guided walks and driving tours, boat trips, science and educational presentations, “fish-food”-fish tacos for lunch
Our Contact Info.
Email: myrnahayes@mac.com
Facebook: San Francisco Bay Osprey Days
Website: sfbayospreydays.com
Phone: 707-249-9633
Our volunteer team
Bay Osprey Project Coordinator–Golden Gate Raptor Observatory:
Tony Brake and Harv Wilson first approached Allen Fish, Director at GGRO to recommend that a team be formed to document the arrival of osprey on the Bay, monitor nest sites and address challenges and threats to the nests. They published a paper in Fall 2014 in Western Birds. Tony now leads the team of volunteers tracking and monitoring osprey nesting on the Bay
Volunteer Mare Island Strait/Napa River monitoring team past and present: Tony Brake, Harv Wilson, Pericoli, Wally NeVille, Robin Leong, Marcia Grefsrud
Mare Island volunteer Osprey Days team:
Volunteer Mare Island Preserve Manager (2007-2019) and River Guide Myrna Hayes
Bay Osprey Monitoring Project Director, Presenter and Guide Tony Brake
Presenter and Guide Diane Rooney
Field Guides Brian Collett, Michele Troughton, Michelle Eliker and Marcia Grefsrud
Napa Solano Audubon Society Field Guides Wally NeVille and Robin Leong
Amazing food service team for the first 7 years- Jules Blanc and Marta Sanchez
All around great Volunteers Erik Halberstadt, Gordon McMahon, Anne von Reiche, Robyn Agee, John Ewing, Dee Araya
Extraordinary Inspiration: Local Mare Island Co. placing nest boxes as deterrents on active equipment
XKT Engineering Mare Island
Island Energy
Lennar Mare Island
Bay Area Osprey Coalition: A group working to protect and educate the public about the growing number of ospreys nesting along San Francisco Bay.
Coalition Members include:Golden Gate Raptor Observatory, Golden Gate Audubon Society, Mare Island Heritage Trust, Napa-Solano Audubon Society and others...
Osprey Days sponsors:
