Petaluma

Avian influenza or “bird flu” is hitting Bay Area poultry farms hard, with a quarter of a million birds euthanized in Sonoma County this week alone. Mike Weber, the co-owner of Sunrise Farms in Petaluma, says around 82,000 of his egg-laying chickens had to be euthanized after birds started testing positive for avian flu.

The sea lions vary in decomposition. Several had their bones exposed Monday afternoon.

It’s only the second time in history that the ocean salmon fishery has been closed in California, and the decision reflects a major decline in fish populations after the state’s driest three-year period on record.

A gray whale carcass washed ashore at Crissy Field on Wednesday morning. Veterinarians and biologists from the center and from the California Academy of Sciences plan to perform a necropsy in coming days on the island to determine the cause of death.

At 97 degrees, Tuesday was the hottest day of the year in Santa Rosa, breaking the 1974 record high for May 26.

"I saw thousands of these on Drakes Beach on Dec. 6, after the recent storm. What happened?" David Ford

For the third year in a row, an enormous wildfire is destroying homes and properties in California, with smaller fires raging elsewhere in the state.

Massive amounts of the mussels clinging to the rocky shores and cliffs of the Bodega Marine Reserve were cooked in the June heat wave.

The Pacific Ocean off the California coast is mixed up, and so are many of the animals that live there.

The Marine Mammal Center and California Academy of Sciences are reporting cause of death for one.

A rescue center says California sea lions are coming down with a potentially fatal bacterial infection in near-record numbers.The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito says more than 220 sea lions rescued this year have been diagnosed with leptospirosis.

The wind known as the Diablo is picking up again, the air is dry, there is no rain in sight and the killer wildfires that have scorched the wine country of Northern California remain almost completely uncontained. Officials warned Wednesday that some of the big fires could merge. Amid these grim bulletins, the huge utility company PG&E acknowledged that the extreme winds late Sunday and early Monday had knocked trees into power lines in conditions conducive to wildfires.

Mass evacuations were ordered in what is being called one of the most destructive fire emergencies in the state’s history.

Twenty-two sea lions have been found dead on beaches in California, with many more found sick.

Over the last two years, more than 500 northern fulmars were found sick or dead along the Sonoma and Mendocino coasts. What is ailing these seabirds?