San Diego FC defeated the Portland Timbers 2-1 in Game 1 of their best-of-three first-round Major League Soccer playoff series Sunday night in front of a sold-out Snapdragon Stadium.

Originally Published: October 26, 2025 at 10:44 PM PDT

Just for a moment, I felt like the Wizard of Mt. Hoo.

A neighbor had casually asked me, “when can we expect the yellow-rumped warblers to be making their fall arrival in Southern California?”

With a confident tone, I said, “well, the first one was spotted on Mount Laguna on Aug. 8, but the main flock is not far behind, just up north in Big Bear and the Angeles National Forest.”

He looked at me with a mix of astonishment and disbelief.

I’m used to that. My three sons never believed half the things I told them, either.

But this was accurate and timely information that I had just gleaned from an amazing online resource that every wildbird lover should have.

It’s called eBird and this free program, available at ebird.org is a robust product managed by the renowned Cornell Lab of Ornithology, located on the edge of Sapsucker Woods in Ithaca, N.Y.

The success of eBird, however, is due to the collaborative efforts of hundreds of partner organizations and millions of citizen science contributors.

Readers may recall I have often mentioned eBird as a real-time resource to follow bird migrations and rare bird sightings as well as to keep records of your personal wildbird list.

But it’s far more than that, offering both the amateur and the professional birding community an unparalleled data collection that grows daily, thanks to the contributions of enthusiasts who have provided billions of observations since eBird’s creation in 2002.

Some of those observations come from remote and exotic places in the world, but most are from backyard birders who simply track the feathered visitors right outside their windows.

Last week, I had the opportunity to chat with Jenna Curtis, a member of the eBird staff who focuses on the intersection of science, conservation and public engagement. Her title is eBird Community Lead.

“My main goal is to help users so that eBird is a more effective platform,” Curtis said.

Those users’ range for the highest level of environmental scientists, to participants in high school science projects, or this happy birder on Mt. Hoo and millions like me.

Each of those sources provide a collective picture of bird data in what Curtis called, “the largest biodiversity project in the world.”

It’s citizen science on steroids.

And it has grown rapidly.

It took 19 years for 1 billion observations to be recorded. The next 1 billion were recorded in just four years, and Curtis predicts eBird will receive well over 3 billion observations by the end of this decade.

Curtis also works with some of the 2,000 volunteer bird experts who help validate observations submitted by participants.

Here’s how eBird works.

The first step is to create a free eBird account.

Account holders also have access to a free, online course called eBird Essentials that teaches birding skills and the basics of using eBird tools.

After creating an account, eBirders can log on at any time to submit a checklist that records location, time, date and a list of birds observed. Photos and sound recordings can also be uploaded when submitting the list.

Once reviewed and approved by the volunteer experts, your report becomes part of the massive eBird database that is not only valuable to backyard birders, but also for avian scientists monitoring bird populations, migrations and watching for red flags such as habitat changes, population declines or environmental threats.

“This is only possible through the millions of eBirders sharing experiences,” Curtis said. “I can’t stress enough how valuable this information is.”

Managing this amount of data is extremely difficult and requires massive amounts of computing power, but the information is becoming more accurate every day as the number of sightings increase.

Additionally, every checklist uploaded is kept so you have an ongoing record of your birding activity.

Another important feature offers members the ability to explore activity at birding hotspots around the world or in your neighborhood, search species by photos and sounds, and receive daily email alerts of bird sightings in geographic areas you define.

This is a great way to know about seasonal or rare birds as other eBirders report on sightings in your area of interest.

With the hundreds of thousands of checklists that are submitted and reviewed, the result is what Curtis calls a “high-resolution, extremely accurate data model.”

That’s why I was able to share with a neighbor information about when the first migrating yellow-rumped warbler of fall was recorded in San Diego County.

At a higher level, the data accumulated by eBird has been used by researchers to better understand bird distribution, gain deeper understanding of migration patterns, model population trends and predict bird populations over time.

This information has been critical in developing effective conservation and habitat management plans and broader conservation strategies.

The effectiveness of eBird also demonstrates how much wild birds are loved.

Curtis is just one of the millions who love wild birds, and she has recorded over 7,700 sightings on her checklists.

“What’s not to love? They are fun to watch; their behavior is amazing and no matter where you are in the world there are birds. That’s something very special and I want to share that with others,” Curtis said.

Upcoming events

The Friends of Palomar Mountain State Park are inviting the public to a free Harvest Festival from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Nov. 1 at the park.

Located on the western end of Palomar Mountain in San Diego’s North County, the 1,862-acre park is an alpine paradise, offering hiking trails, fishing, campgrounds and a scenic overlook from an active fire lookout tower.

This year’s festival is an expansion of the annual Apple Festival of past years, offering insights into the early history of the area, the pioneers who planted apple orchards, games, square dancing, food, music and crafts.

For additional information, visit friendsofpalomarsp.org.

The 20th annual Anza-Borrego Desert Photo Contest opens for submission of images from Nov. 1 to Dec. 10. The contest is open to photographers of all ages.

Categories include People Enjoying the Park; Animals, Plants, Landscapes and Nightscapes of Anza-Borrego, and a new youth category for high school age and younger.

For contest details, visit theabf.org/photocontest.

Cowan is a freelance columnist. Email ernie@packtrain.com or visit erniecowan.substack.com.

LA JOLLA, Calif. (KGTV) — Inside LionTree Arena in La Jolla, new UC San Diego men’s basketball head coach Clint Allard leads his team through practice ahead of their first game of the season. It’s a new chapter for Allard at a program he’s known for nearly two decades.

“I have so much pride in UC San Diego,” Allard said. “I’ve seen so much growth, and for me to be the guy calling the shots now, it just means the world to me”.

There are new drills, offensive and defensive sets, but it all comes from the same brand of Triton basketball that helped them make history last season when they reached the NCAA tournament in their first year of eligibility.

“To go into the NCAA Tournament, playing in March Madness in front of 20,000 people, it was just something that was so memorable and something I’ll never forget,” Allard said.

Allard played for UCSD from 2004-08, when the Tritons were still competing at the Division II level. Seventeen years after his last season as a player, he served as the associate head coach for the Tritons’ first tournament team.

Junior guard Aidan Burke recalls how special the moment was for him to make the big dance with the team last year.

“That’s something I dreamed of as a kid, “Burke said. “Coming out of high school, playing in March Madness, obviously that’s a dream. Being able to accomplish it, that’s awesome”.

After one of the best seasons in program history, former Tritons Head Coach Eric Olen accepted a job for the same role at the University of New Mexico. Along with Olen’s departure, multiple players left the program — some graduating and some transferring schools. Those departures leave UCSD with only five returning players from last year’s tournament team.

Burke is the lone returner who played a significant role. He’s looking to use that experience to bring this team together.

“Yeah, we know we got a great group, a lot of talent,” Burke said. “Playing defense, shooting the 3. We just need to put it all together.”

It takes any team time to find their true identity during a new season, but with so many new faces on the sidelines and on the court, it presents a bigger challenge for Allard.

“It’s been a lot of teaching,” Allard said. “We’ve been at this since July, which feels like a long time, and we still have a long way to go to be the best version of ourselves”.

Despite the roster turnover, he’s ready to see his team compete at the highest level and bring continued success to a program he loves.

“We just gotta stick to the process and continue to get better through the season to hopefully be playing for a tournament birth in March”. Allard said.

The Tritons play their only exhibition game on Friday, October 24th, against CSU San Marcos at home. The first regular-season game is on November 3rd.

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.