Originally published December 7, 2012
It’s been over a month since I was in California, but before moving on, I wanted to share a little about my new discovery. (Thanks, Chris) At the south end of the San Francisco Bay, on the edge of the city of Palo Alto is Baylands Nature Preserve, a premier west coast birding location. Preserving one of the largest tracts of undisturbed marshland in San Francisco Bay, Baylands has fifteen miles of trails through the wetlands. You don’t have to go far to see a wide variety of birds though. In fact, as soon as I was out of the car, I was greeted by a Northern Mockingbird. The highlight of the afternoon was seeing and hearing flocks of Marbled Godwit and American Avocet take to the air en masse and circle around. The numbers of birds and the variety was truly inspiring. Here’s a link to a map of birding hot-spots for Baylands, and a list of bird species and the time of year they’re likely to be seen.
