Quite possibly the weirdest thing you'll watch all day

National Geographic has produced a series of short animated videos for kids about the 50 states that stars, wait for it, rapping birds. There is a spinning rock dove that follows Barry the Bald Eagle as he travels to each US state, guided by state bird MCs. Of course, in California his steward is one MC Cali. The resulting masterpiece can be watched here.

San Joaquin River declared America's second most endangered

American Rivers this week declared California's San Joaquin River the second most endangered river in the United States. “Dams, levees and excessive water diversions have hurt river habitat and opportunities for recreation and community access,” the report says. “The river’s salmon and steelhead populations are on the brink of extinction.” Audubon California has advocated for the restoration of the San Joaquin River for some time -- more about that on our website.

Exceptional and extreme drought persists in California

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, California continues to experience drought. The consorsium of government agencies says that only a small part of the state -- 3.55 percent in the far northwest -- is not in drought. But 96 percent remains abnormally dry, with 90 percent in moderate, 74 percent in severe, 55 percent in extreme and 31 percent in exceptional drought.

Together Green Alum Rue Mapp of Outdoor Afro writes for Seattle Times

Oakland native Rue Mapp is the founder of Outdoor Afro, a group that encourages African Americans to reconnect with nature. She is also an Audubon Toyota Together Green Fellow who has found great success since being a part of the Audubon family. Recently she wrote about her mission for The Seattle Times:

Today, many African Americans believe they have little to do with the environment and it has little to do with them. In the coming decades, I’d like that attitude to be different. I’d like to see more and more African Americans make the natural world a part of everyday life, and in our mainstream media representation, so that seeing a person of color on a hiking trip is no big deal.

Read the entire piece here.

Pixar's newest short animated movie is about a shorebird

Pixar has announced a new short animated film and it's about a shorebird. The Emeryville-based company was across the street from our old headquarters but according to an Entertainment Weekly article, it was inspired by the creator's runs along San Francisco Bay:

The inspiration for the six-minute short — about a hungry baby sandpiper learning to overcome hydrophobia — came from less than a mile away from Pixar Studios in Emeryville, California, where veteran Pixar animator and Piper director Alan Barillaro would run alongside the shore and notice birds by the thousands fleeing from the water but returning between waves to eat.

“Seeing the way these sandpipers react to waves and run, I always felt, ‘Gosh, that’s a film, that’s a character,’” says Barillaro, who began toying with animation software as a personal challenge to design a non-speaking character who was afraid of the water yet had to venture into it to eat. “It’s always fun to show a world we’re familiar with but from a different perspective. We’ve all been to the beach, but have we ever viewed water from just an inch off the sand? That could be very fearful from a bird’s perspective.”