On a hike in the Sonoma hills in the spring of 1993, Peter Connors was, as usual, ignoring the view for the wildflowers—when he spotted a lone purple-and-white clover that stopped him in his tracks.
The cacophonous alarm cries of western gulls rang out as a crane lifted a boat full of visitors onto the windswept Farallon Islands, a bustling avian metropolis normally off-limits to all but a few ...