LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Whether you call it a river hawk, fish hawk or osprey, the sighting of a magnificent bird of prey can transform the moment you view it from a run-of-the-mill, albeit delightful day, to a day of wonder and privilege.

After decades of living here, I can never get over the fact that all of this wildness is always right outside our doors here in Lake County.

Osprey can be viewed in many locations throughout the county. Watch them in action at Rodman Park, Clear Lake State Park and other locales.

At first you hear a loud cry, and then, craning your neck upwards, you do a double-take at the size and height of the osprey 's nest, along with the impressive size of the bird – they range in size from 20 to 26 inches in length.

Nests, which can be constructed of twigs and bark, then lined with algae, grass and vines, can reach a tremendous size after generations of nesting. Some nests reach depths of 10 feet and diameters of 6 feet.

New nests constructed on artificial platforms are considerably smaller, at 2 feet in diameter and only 6 inches deep.

According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology it's the male osprey who obtains the majority of the nesting material, while the female positions the objects just-so.

The clutch size ranges from one to four eggs, with only one brood. The eggs require a 36- to 42-day incubation period.

The osprey at Clear Lake State Park demonstrate skilled hunting techniques through circling over the creek, honing in on some flash or movement only it can see, then, transforming into a weapon, the osprey launches itself into the creek to spear its prey.

Nesting in the middle of a public park or along a highway gives the impression of a perilous move on the bird's part, but since they nest near bodies of water, such as creeks and lakes they make themselves completely at home there. Their diet consists mainly of fish, with the occasional rodent or reptile thrown in.

Osprey will dive up to 3 feet into water to catch their prey. Their vision has adapted to aid in these underwater fishing expeditions, and they can spot their prey while flying dozens of feet above the water.

An unusual factoid about osprey is that they can be found in a number of habitats, and live on every continent with the exceptions of Antarctica and Australia. Osprey found in South America are migrants, and do not breed there.

The latest osprey nesting pole was installed, as reported by the Lake County News on Aug. 21 at Lakeside County Park in Kelseyville. There you will find informative panels in both English and Spanish that educate the public about the osprey. The panels were commissioned by our local Audubon Society, Redbud Audubon.

For more information visit Redbud Audubon's Web site at https://www.redbudaudubon.org/.

Kathleen Scavone, M.A., is a retired educator, potter, freelance writer and author of “Anderson Marsh State Historic Park: A Walking History, Prehistory, Flora, and Fauna Tour of a California State Park” and “Native Americans of Lake County.”

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has a new group of dogs this week including a handsome senior Alaskan Malamute.

Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of Alaskan Malamute, American Staffordshire Terrier, Cane Corso mastiff, Chihuahua, husky, Labrador Retriever, pit bull, Rottweiler, shepherd and terrier.

Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.

If you're looking for a new companion, visit the shelter. There are many great pets hoping you'll choose them.

The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption (additional dogs on the animal control Web site not listed are still “on hold”).

Male Labrador Retriever

This male Labrador Retriever has a short tan coat.

He is in kennel No. 14a, ID No. 12950.

‘Lucy’

“Lucy” is a female Labrador Retriever with a short black and tan coat.

She is in kennel No. 14b, ID No. 12951.

‘Nova’

“Nova” is a female Cane Corso mastiff with a short black coat.

She is in kennel No. 17, ID No. 6579.

‘Corn’

“Corn” is a male American Staffordshire Terrier with a short red coat.

He’s in kennel No. 18, ID No. 12967.

‘Boo’

“Boo” is a senior female terrier-pit bull mix with a short white and gray coat.

She has already been spayed.

She’s in kennel No. 19, ID No. 12902.

‘Ace’

“Ace” is a male Rottweiler-shepherd mix with a medium-length black and brown coat.

He already has been neutered.

He’s in kennel No. 20, ID No. 12899.

‘Kiko’

“Kiko” is a senior male Alaskan Malamute with a long white and gray coat and blue eyes.

He already has been neutered.

He’s in kennel No. 21, ID No. 12966.

‘Leia’

“Leia” is a female husky with a short tricolor coat.

She is in kennel No. 22, ID No. 12938.

Female Chihuahua-terrier

This female Chihuahua-terrier mix has a short tan and white coat.

She is in kennel No. 24, ID No. 12885.

Male Labrador Retriever

This male Labrador Retriever has a short black and white coat.

He is in kennel No. 25, ID No. 12850.

‘Misty Marie’

“Misty Marie” is a young female pit bull terrier.

She has a short black coat.

She is in kennel No. 29, ID No. 12725.

‘Coco’

“Coco” is a female Labrador Retriever with a short black and white coat.

Coco is in kennel No. 34, ID No. 12764.

Lake County Animal Care and Control is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport, next to the Hill Road Correctional Facility.

Office hours are Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm.

For more information call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

Storm clouds rooted deep in Jupiter’s atmosphere are affecting the planet’s white zones and colorful belts, creating disturbances in their flow and even changing their color.

Thanks to coordinated observations of the planet in January 2017 by six ground-based optical and radio telescopes and NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, a University of California, Berkeley, astronomer and her colleagues have been able to track the effects of these storms — visible as bright plumes above the planet’s ammonia ice clouds — on the belts in which they appear.

The observations will ultimately help planetary scientists understand the complex atmospheric dynamics on Jupiter, which, with its Great Red Spot and colorful, layer cake-like bands, make it one of the most beautiful and changeable of the giant gas planets in the solar system.

One such plume was noticed by amateur astronomer Phil Miles in Australia a few days before the first observations by the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, and photos captured a week later by Hubble showed that the plume had spawned a second plume and left a downstream disturbance in the band of clouds, the South Equatorial Belt. The rising plumes then interacted with Jupiter’s powerful winds, which stretched the clouds east and west from their point of origin.

Three months earlier, four bright spots were seen slightly north of the North Equatorial Belt. Though those plumes had disappeared by 2017, the belt had since widened northward, and its northern edge had changed color from white to orangish brown.

“If these plumes are vigorous and continue to have convective events, they may disturb one of these entire bands over time, though it may take a few months,” said study leader Imke de Pater, a UC Berkeley professor emerita of astronomy. “With these observations, we see one plume in progress and the aftereffects of the others.”

The analysis of the plumes supports the theory that they originate about 80 kilometers below the cloud tops at a place dominated by clouds of liquid water. A paper describing the results has been accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal and is now online.

Into the stratosphere

Jupiter’s atmosphere is mostly hydrogen and helium, with trace amounts of methane, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and water. The top-most cloud layer is made up of ammonia ice and comprises the brown belts and white zones we see with the naked eye. Below this outer cloud layer sits a layer of solid ammonium hydrosulfide particles. Deeper still, at around 80 kilometers below the upper cloud deck, is a layer of liquid water droplets.

The storm clouds de Pater and her team studied appear in the belts and zones as bright plumes and behave much like the cumulonimbus clouds that precede thunderstorms on Earth. Jupiter’s storm clouds, like those on Earth, are often accompanied by lightning.

Optical observations cannot see below the ammonia clouds, however, so de Pater and her team have been probing deeper with radio telescopes, including ALMA and also the Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico, which is operated by the National Science Foundation-funded National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

ALMA array’s first observations of Jupiter were between Jan. 3 and 5 of 2017, a few days after one of these bright plumes was seen by amateur astronomers in the planet’s South Equatorial Belt. A week later, Hubble, the VLA, the Gemini, Keck and Subaru observatories in Hawaii and the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile captured images in the visible, radio and mid-infrared ranges.

De Pater combined the ALMA radio observations with the other data, focused specifically on the newly brewed storm as it punched through the upper deck clouds of ammonia ice.

The data showed that these storm clouds reached as high as the tropopause — the coldest part of the atmosphere — where they spread out much like the anvil-shaped cumulonimbus clouds that generate lightning and thunder on Earth.

“Our ALMA observations are the first to show that high concentrations of ammonia gas are brought up during an energetic eruption,” de Pater said.

The observations are consistent with one theory, called moist convection, about how these plumes form. According to this theory, convection brings a mix of ammonia and water vapor high enough — about 80 kilometers below the cloud tops — for the water to condense into liquid droplets. The condensing water releases heat that expands the cloud and buoys it quickly upward through other cloud layers, ultimately breaking through the ammonia ice clouds at the top of the atmosphere.

The plume’s momentum carries the supercooled ammonia cloud above the existing ammonia-ice clouds until the ammonia freezes, creating a bright, white plume that stands out against the colorful bands encircling Jupiter.

“We were really lucky with these data, because they were taken just a few days after amateur astronomers found a bright plume in the South Equatorial Belt,” said de Pater. “With ALMA, we observed the whole planet and saw that plume, and since ALMA probes below the cloud layers, we could actually see what was going on below the ammonia clouds.”

Hubble took images a week after ALMA and captured two separate bright spots, which suggests that the plumes originate from the same source and are carried eastward by the high altitude jet stream, leading to the large disturbances seen in the belt.

Coincidentally, three months before, bright plumes had been observed north of the Northern Equatorial Belt. The January 2017 observations showed that that belt had expanded in width, and the band where the plumes had first been seen turned from white to orange. De Pater suspects that the northward expansion of the North Equatorial Belt is a result of gas from the ammonia-depleted plumes falling back into the deeper atmosphere.

De Pater’s colleague and co-author Robert Sault of the University of Melbourne in Australia used special computer software to analyze the ALMA data to obtain radio maps of the surface that are comparable to visible-light photos taken by Hubble.

“Jupiter’s rotation once every 10 hours usually blurs radio maps, because these maps take many hours to observe,” Sault said. “In addition, because of Jupiter’s large size, we had to ‘scan’ the planet, so we could make a large mosaic in the end. We developed a technique to construct a full map of the planet.”

Among the co-authors of the paper with de Pater and Sault are graduate students Chris Moeckel and Charles Goullaud and research astronomers Michael Wong and David DeBoer, all of UC Berkeley, and Bryan Butler of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. Each was involved in obtaining and analyzing the Hubble, Gemini, ALMA and VLA data.

The VLT data were contributed by Leigh Fletcher and Padraig Donnelly of the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom, while Glenn Orton and James Sinclair of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and Yasuma Kasaba of Tokyo University in Japan supplied the SUBARU data. Gordon Bjoraker of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland and Máté Ádámkovics of Clemson University in South Carolina analyzed the Keck data.

The work was supported by a NASA Planetary Astronomy award (NNX14AJ43G) and a Solar System Observations award (80NSSC18K1001).

Robert Sanders writes for the UC Berkeley News Center.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Ladies of the Lake Quilt Guild present the 18th annual Falling Leaves Quilt Show in Fritch Hall and Little Theatre at the Lake County Fairgrounds in Lakeport on Saturday, Oct. 5, and Sunday, Oct. 6.

The hours on Saturday are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Sunday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The show includes a judged quilt display, VIP award-winning quilts, the Country Store boutique, a vendor mall, quilting demonstrations, a silent auction, themed gift baskets and an opportunity quilt.

Our vendors supply a unique mix of tools, tool holders, quilt hangers, adjustable tables, sewing machines, kits for piecing and applique, hand dyed and other lovely fabrics.

Door prizes to be announced throughout the show will include a range of gifts such as pot holders, fabric, a hand-made journal and the main prize: a sewing machine from Village Sewing.

Lisa McKissick, the featured artist, is an award winning quilter, carrying on a 125 year family tradition of quilting. McKissick learned the art of quilting from her mom and sister. She is an expert in machine piecing, machine appliqué, paper piecing and tools.

McKissick will demonstrate using the Quick Curved Ruler during the day at her booth. She warmly welcomes questions about all of her techniques and tools she likes to use.

Discount pre-sale tickets are available at Lake County Chamber of Commerce, 875 Lakeport Blvd. in Lakeport; Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce, 14295 Lakeshore Dr. in Clearlake; and at Village Sewing, 1252 Airport Park Blvd. in Ukiah now through Oct. 2.

Pre-sale tickets are $8, $10 at the door. Children ages 5 to 12 are $2. Children under 5 are free.

For more information, call show chair Barbara Haddon, 415-209-3044. More information can be found at http://www.LLQG.org/quilt-show.html.

Editor's note: Suzanne Lee is a member of the Ladies of the Lake Quilt Guild and publicity Chair for the Falling Leaves Quilt Show.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – When Lake County Theatre Co. in partnership with Mendocino College decided to bring Broadway’s hit musical, “Chicago,” to town no one realized how much undiscovered talent was waiting in the wings.

The show’s producers said the newcomers coming to the stage in the fall production have an astonishing level of talent.

Filling the role of Billy Flynn, a wily defense attorney who only takes notorious cases involving attractive, female murderesses, is Lake County newcomer, Jeff Pearce.

Pearce moved here in 2015 with his family. His day job is in real estate and his night job is as a bartender at the Blue Wing Saloon, but he is a man who belongs on stage.

Pearce began performing at age 7 in a Eureka children’s play. Since then he has earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theater Arts at CSU Long Beach and starred in many shows.

“Chicago” is his first in Lake County. Pearce has a rich baritone singing voice that easily sways the 1920’s Chicago juries and will Razzle Dazzle the audience.

Choreographers, Larry and Zoe Richardson, and Sarah Dutra upped the ante on the dance floor for this spectacular jazz-infused production.

Although most of the show’s performers participate in some of the big dance numbers, the vaudeville dance acts are performed by a group of elite dancers.

Joining the Lake County Theatre Co. for the first time are Alisa Barnes, Leah Pabst and Leanna Schoeneman. They are supported by a very talented chorus of singers and dancers.

The musical “Chicago” is based on real events and people during the apex of the jazz age.

Authors Fred Ebb, Bob Fosse and John Kander used a play by the same name written by Maurine Watkins, and the trials of accused murderers Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner, to create the longest running musical in Broadway history.

Billy Flynn defends Velma Kelly, a vaudeville star played by Laura Sammel, and Roxie Hart, a naïve dancer, played by Laura Barnes.

Barnes has entertained the community for years. Some of her favorite roles have been “Janet” in the Rocky Horror Show and most recently, “Petruchio” in the Taming of the Shrew. Barnes, a schoolteacher, also directs the drama program at Lucerne Elementary School.

“It’s been a pleasure and a privilege to ignite a passion for the performing arts in the hearts of kids,” she said.

Last year’s musical “Oklahoma!” sold out so get your tickets early. Chicago will be performed at the Soper Reese Theatre Oct. 25 to 27, Nov. 1 to 3, and Nov. 7 to 10.

Tickets are available at the Lake County Theatre Co. Web site or call 707-278-9628.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – After adopting out most of its available dogs at the Bay Area Pet Fair last weekend, Clearlake Animal Control has a small group of dogs that still need homes.

The kennels also have many dogs that need to be reunited with their owners. To find the lost/found pet section, click here.

The following dogs are ready for adoption. They include mixes of American Staffordshire Terrier, husky and shepherd.

‘Balto’

“Balto” is a male husky mix with a short black and brown coat.

He already has been neutered.

He is No. 2739.

‘Bernard’

“Bernard” is a male Staffordshire Bull Terrier mix with a short brindle and white coat.

He already has been neutered.

He is No. 280.

‘Chase’

“Chase” is a male shepherd mix with a medium-length brindle coat.

He is dog No. 2618.

‘Frank’

“Frank” is a male American Staffordshire Terrier mix with a short black and white coat.

He is No. 2345.

Clearlake Animal Control’s shelter is located at 6820 Old Highway 53, off Airport Road.

Hours of operation area noon to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. The shelter is closed Sundays, Mondays and major holidays; the shelter offers appointments on the days it’s closed to accommodate people.

Call the Clearlake Animal Control shelter at 707-273-9440, or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to inquire about adoptions.

Visit Clearlake Animal Control on Facebook or at the city’s Web site.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

About 466 million years ago, long before the age of the dinosaurs, the Earth froze.

The seas began to ice over at the Earth's poles, and the new range of temperatures around the planet set the stage for a boom of new species evolving.

The cause of this ice age was a mystery, until now: a new study in Science Advances argues that the ice age was caused by global cooling, triggered by extra dust in the atmosphere from a giant asteroid collision in outer space.

There's always a lot of dust from outer space floating down to Earth, little bits of asteroids and comets, but this dust is normally only a tiny fraction of the other dust in our atmosphere such as volcanic ash, dust from deserts and sea salt.

But when a 93-mile-wide asteroid between Mars and Jupiter broke apart 466 million years ago, it created way more dust than usual.

"Normally, Earth gains about 40,000 tons of extraterrestrial material every year," said Philipp Heck, a curator at the Field Museum, associate professor at the University of Chicago, and one of the paper's authors. "Imagine multiplying that by a factor of a thousand or ten thousand."

To contextualize that, in a typical year, one thousand semi trucks' worth of interplanetary dust fall to Earth. In the couple million years following the collision, it'd be more like ten million semis.

"Our hypothesis is that the large amounts of extraterrestrial dust over a timeframe of at least two million years played an important role in changing the climate on Earth, contributing to cooling," said Heck.

"Our results show for the first time that such dust, at times, has cooled Earth dramatically," said Birger Schmitz of Sweden's Lund University, the study's lead author and a research associate at the Field Museum. "Our studies can give a more detailed, empirical-based understanding of how this works, and this in turn can be used to evaluate if model simulations are realistic."

To figure it out, researchers looked for traces of space dust in 466-million-year-old rocks, and compared it to tiny micrometeorites from Antarctica as a reference.

"We studied extraterrestrial matter, meteorites and micrometeorites, in the sedimentary record of Earth, meaning rocks that were once sea floor," said Heck. "And then we extracted the extraterrestrial matter to discover what it was and where it came from."

Extracting the extraterrestrial matter – the tiny meteorites and bits of dust from outer space – involves taking the ancient rock and treating it with acid that eats away the stone and leaves the space stuff.

The team then analyzed the chemical makeup of the remaining dust. The team also analyzed rocks from the ancient seafloor and looked for elements that rarely appear in Earth rocks and for isotopes – different forms of atoms – that show hallmarks of coming from outer space.

For instance, helium atoms normally have two protons, two neutrons, and two electrons, but some that are shot out of the Sun and into space are missing a neutron. The presence of these special helium isotopes, along with rare metals often found in asteroids, proves that the dust originated from space.

Other scientists had already established that our planet was undergoing an ice age around this time. The amount of water in the Earth's oceans influences the way that rocks on the seabed form, and the rocks from this time period show signs of shallower oceans – a hint that some of the Earth's water was trapped in glaciers and sea ice.

Schmitz and his colleagues are the first to show that this ice age syncs up with the extra dust in the atmosphere. "The timing appears to be perfect," he said.

The extra dust in the atmosphere helps explain the ice age – by filtering out sunlight, the dust would have caused global cooling.

Since the dust floated down to Earth over at least two million years, the cooling was gradual enough for life to adapt and even benefit from the changes. An explosion of new species evolved as creatures adapted for survival in regions with different temperatures.

Heck notes that while this period of global cooling proved beneficial to life on Earth, fast-paced climate change can be catastrophic. "In the global cooling we studied, we're talking about timescales of millions of years. It's very different from the climate change caused by the meteorite 65 million years ago that killed the dinosaurs, and it's different from the global warming today – this global cooling was a gentle nudge. There was less stress."

It's tempting to think that today's global warming could be solved by replicating the dust shower that triggered global cooling 466 million years ago. But Heck said he would be cautious: "Geoengineering proposals should be evaluated very critically and very carefully, because if something goes wrong, things could become worse than before."

While Heck isn't convinced that we've found the solution to climate change, he said it's a good idea for us to be thinking along these lines.

"We're experiencing global warming, it's undeniable," said Heck. "And we need to think about how we can prevent catastrophic consequences, or minimize them. Any idea that's reasonable should be explored."

This study was contributed to by scientists from the Field Museum, the University of Chicago, Lund University (lead), the California Institute of Technology, Vriije Universiteit Brussel, Ohio State University, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Russian Academy of Sciences, Federal University Kazan, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Durham University, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Center for Excellence in Comparative Paleontology China, ETH Zürich, Naturmuseum St. Gallen Switzerland, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – Help from the community has led to police arresting two teenage boys for vehicle theft, vandalism and tampering.

At noon on Friday the Lakeport Police Department put out a request for public assistance to help identify two male subjects who were involved in a series of vehicle tampering/vandalism/theft cases that occurred in a Lakeport neighborhood early Friday morning, as Lake County News has reported.

Throughout the day, several Lakeport Police officers continued to investigate these cases. Then, during the early afternoon hours, police said they received leads as to the identity of both subjects.

Officers followed up and confirmed the identities of the two subjects, who are 15-year-old males from Lakeport, police said in a followup report.

Police found the teens at different times during the afternoon and at different locations where they were arrested for various charges related to the cases, the department reported.

One of the boys was cited and released to a parent, police said, while the other was taken into custody and transferred to the Lake County Juvenile Probation Department for further adjudication.

“We sincerely thank the many members of the public who provided information which quickly led to all of these cases being solved,” the Lakeport Police Department said in its Friday afternoon followup report. “We would like to remind the public to continue to report all suspicious activity, persons and vehicles to us immediately. With your assistance we can work as a team to keep Lakeport safe and crime free.”

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lakeport Police Department is asking for the community’s assistance in identifying two male subjects involved in vehicle theft and tampering in a city neighborhood early Friday morning.

At 3 a.m. Friday the Lakeport Police Department responded to a report of an in-progress vehicle theft in the area of 15th and Hartley Street, the agency said.

Upon the officer’s arrival, the officer saw that the vehicle had been abandoned on scene, police said.

Afterward, police received numerous reports of vehicles that had also been either vandalized or tampered with or had items stolen out of them in the surrounding area, the department report.

During the investigation, officers were able to obtain surveillance footage that showed two male subjects responsible for the acts. They can be seen in the videos posted on this page.

Police said the total loss to victims is estimated at more than $1,500.

If anyone has any information regarding these subjects, please contact the investigating Officer Casey Debolt at 707-263-5491 ext. 122 or by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or Officer Joe Medici at Extension 120 or email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

You can also send an anonymous message from your cellular device by texting the word TIP LAKEPORT followed by your message to 888777 or by sending us a private message on Facebook.

Police asked anyone who sees any suspicious activity to their local law enforcement agency.

Additionally, they reminded people to lock their vehicles at night and to remove any and/or all valuables from vehicles.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Soap box racers are putting the finishing touches on their gravity-powered entries for Clearlake’s inaugural Soap Box Derby on Saturday.

The city of Clearlake and the Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce are hosting the family-friendly event, which will take place on the newly constructed Dam Road Extension in Clearlake.

The fields are now set, with registrations having closed on Sept. 6.

There are two divisions – speed and art.

Within the speed division there are the following age groups: the Little Turtles, ages 7 to 12; Turbo Teens, 13 to 17 years of age; Awesome Adults,18 years and older.

In the Art Division, racers will be judged on creativity rather than speed on the course. Judges for the Art Division will beSupervisor Bruno Sabatier, Clearlake, Police Chief Andrew White, Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce President Denise Loustalot and Clearlake Mayor Russ Cremer.

The derby also will feature racing flagger Johnny Miskill, one of the top auto sport flaggers in the United States. Raised in Lake County, Miskill is a fixture at the Lakeport Speedway and also travels to tracks around Northern California and Southern Oregon.

“This is about the kids,” said Miskill. “Nothing makes me happier than seeing children engaged at the track, and this is even more exciting because they get to build the cars from scratch and sit behind the wheel.”

While speeds won’t match those at Lakeport Speedway, that doesn’t matter to Miskill. His focus will be on safety, fair finishes and teaching the next generation of flaggers the ropes.

The event is free for spectators, who are encouraged to bring chairs to sit along the course.

There also will be food and novelty vendors will be located near the finish line at Konocti Education Center.

For more information about the derby visit https://www.downtownclearlake.com/soap-box-derby.

The following is the schedule for race day. City officials said the times are subject to change based on the number of attendees.

Race schedule

7:30 to 8:30 a.m.: Check in for Little Turtles, including vehicle inspection

9 a.m.: Race for the Little Turtles

8:30 to 9:30 a.m.: Check in for the Turbo Teens, including vehicle inspection

10 a.m.: Race for the Turbo Teens

10:45 a.m.: Top four qualifying Turbo Teens drivers championship races

9:30 to 10:30 a.m.: Check in for Awesome Adults, including vehicle inspection

11 a.m.: Race for Awesome Adults

11:45 a.m.: Top four qualifying Awesome Adults drivers championship races

10:30 to 11:30 a.m.: Check in for Art Division, including vehicle inspection

Noon: Art Division race

A study published Thursday in the journal Science reveals that since 1970, bird populations in the United States and Canada have declined by 29 percent, or almost 3 billion birds, signaling a widespread ecological crisis.

The results show tremendous losses across diverse groups of birds and habitats – from iconic songsters such as meadowlarks to long-distance migrants such as swallows and backyard birds including sparrows.

"Multiple, independent lines of evidence show a massive reduction in the abundance of birds," said Ken Rosenberg, the study’s lead author and a senior scientist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and American Bird Conservancy. "We expected to see continuing declines of threatened species. But for the first time, the results also showed pervasive losses among common birds across all habitats, including backyard birds."

The study notes that birds are indicators of environmental health, signaling that natural systems across the U.S. and Canada are now being so severely impacted by human activities that they no longer support the same robust wildlife populations.

The findings show that of nearly 3 billion birds lost, 90 percent belong to 12 bird families, including sparrows, warblers, finches, and swallows – common, widespread species that play influential roles in food webs and ecosystem functioning, from seed dispersal to pest control.

Among the steep declines noted:

– Grassland birds are especially hard hit, with a 53-percent reduction in population – more than 720 million birds– since 1970.

– Shorebirds, most of which frequent sensitive coastal habitats, were already at dangerously low numbers and have lost more than one-third of their population.

– The volume of spring migration, measured by radar in the night skies, has dropped by 14 percent in just the past decade.

"These data are consistent with what we’re seeing elsewhere with other taxa showing massive declines, including insects and amphibians," said coauthor Peter Marra, senior scientist emeritus and former head of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center and now director of the Georgetown Environment Initiative at Georgetown University. "It’s imperative to address immediate and ongoing threats, both because the domino effects can lead to the decay of ecosystems that humans depend on for our own health and livelihoods – and because people all over the world cherish birds in their own right. Can you imagine a world without birdsong?"



Evidence for the declines emerged from detection of migratory birds in the air from 143 NEXRAD weather radar stations across the continent in a period spanning over 10 years, as well as from nearly 50 years of data collected through multiple monitoring efforts on the ground.

"Citizen-science participants contributed critical scientific data to show the international scale of losses of birds," said coauthor John Sauer of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). "Our results also provide insights into actions we can take to reverse the declines." The analysis included citizen-science data from the North American Breeding Bird Survey coordinated by the USGS and the Canadian Wildlife Service – the main sources of long-term, large-scale population data for North American birds – the Audubon Christmas Bird Count, and Manomet’s International Shorebird Survey.

Although the study did not analyze the causes of declines, it noted that the steep drop in North American birds parallels the losses of birds elsewhere in the world, suggesting multiple interacting causes that reduce breeding success and increase mortality. It noted that the largest factor driving these declines is likely the widespread loss and degradation of habitat, especially due to agricultural intensification and urbanization.

Other studies have documented mortality from predation by free-roaming domestic cats; collisions with glass, buildings, and other structures; and pervasive use of pesticides associated with widespread declines in insects, an essential food source for birds. Climate change is expected to compound these challenges by altering habitats and threatening plant communities that birds need to survive. More research is needed to pinpoint primary causes for declines in individual species.

"The story is not over," said coauthor Michael Parr, president of American Bird Conservancy. "There are so many ways to help save birds. Some require policy decisions such as strengthening the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. We can also work to ban harmful pesticides and properly fund effective bird conservation programs. Each of us can make a difference with everyday actions that together can save the lives of millions of birds—actions like making windows safer for birds, keeping cats indoors, and protecting habitat."

The study also documents a few promising rebounds resulting from galvanized human efforts. Waterfowl (ducks, geese, and swans) have made a remarkable recovery over the past 50 years, made possible by investments in conservation by hunters and billions of dollars of government funding for wetland protection and restoration.

Raptors such as the bald eagle have also made spectacular comebacks since the 1970s, after the harmful pesticide DDT was banned and recovery efforts through endangered species legislation in the U.S. and Canada provided critical protection.

"It’s a wake-up call that we’ve lost more than a quarter of our birds in the U.S. and Canada," said coauthor Adam Smith from Environment and Climate Change Canada. "But the crisis reaches far beyond our individual borders. Many of the birds that breed in Canadian backyards migrate through or spend the winter in the U.S. and places farther south – from Mexico and the Caribbean to Central and South America. What our birds need now is an historic, hemispheric effort that unites people and organizations with one common goal: bringing our birds back."

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The California Highway Patrol will offer a free “Start Smart” traffic safety class for soon to-be-licensed, newly licensed, and teenage drivers and their parents or guardians on Thursday, Oct. 3.

The class will take place from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Clear Lake Area CHP office, located at 5700 Live Oak Drive in Kelseyville.

The CHP said a teenager is killed in a traffic collision every four hours nationwide. That equates to more than 1,870 teenagers killed each year. Another 184,000 teenagers are injured in traffic collisions.

These deaths and injuries can be substantially reduced or prevented by eliminating high-risk driving behaviors through education, and the CHP said its “Start Smart” program can help prevent these tragedies.

The Start Smart program focuses on providing comprehensive traffic safety education classes for teenagers and their parents.

Start Smart employs innovative techniques to capture the attention of teenagers and parents, providing a lasting experience.

The curriculum includes information on collision statistics, teen driver and passenger behaviors, graduated driver’s license laws, cultural changes in today’s society and the need for stronger parental involvement in a teenager’s driving experience.

Space is limited for this class. For more information or reservations, call Officer Joel Skeen at the CHP office, 707-279-0103, or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..