Yesterday it was warm and sunny, and Cay and I wanted a shorter walk down by the water, so we went to the Bird Walk Coastal Access Trail, part of the Sonoma County Regional Parks system.
There had been a number of birdwatch hikes offered by various groups there which I had missed, and I was looking forward to the accessible walk. I did not do my research before going, and was full of assumptions about wetlands and a walk down along the bay.
Those assumptions were wrong.
The walk is 1.19 miles around two "ponds" which were mostly dry. The above photo is of an egret standing in the center of what would have been a pond. There was some water on one side, where a few waterfowl swam, but there wasn't a lot of diversity there. As for birds, we also saw two vultures and a sparrow, which is less diversity than I see up on the head.
The views looking outward toward the bay, however, were much nicer, this one of the mudflats and the bay, with Doran Beach (those trees) just across the water.
There had been a number of birdwatch hikes offered by various groups there which I had missed, and I was looking forward to the accessible walk. I did not do my research before going, and was full of assumptions about wetlands and a walk down along the bay.
Those assumptions were wrong.
The walk is 1.19 miles around two "ponds" which were mostly dry. The above photo is of an egret standing in the center of what would have been a pond. There was some water on one side, where a few waterfowl swam, but there wasn't a lot of diversity there. As for birds, we also saw two vultures and a sparrow, which is less diversity than I see up on the head.
The views looking outward toward the bay, however, were much nicer, this one of the mudflats and the bay, with Doran Beach (those trees) just across the water.
The wind was blowing whitecaps onto the bay, so I'm rather glad I didn't go up to the head, it would have been pretty brisk, and the views down here weren't so bad.
It was, however, difficult for me to not feel disappointed. Cay pointed out that we just drove over a half hour to take a walk that was about the same distance as the walk around the park and pond across the street, and that there was a greater variety of wildfowl in Lucchesi Park than we saw that day.
I suppose had we not been in a drought, the area would have been more interesting. When we got to the spot where we could see the ocean beyond the bay, I could just make out Bodega Rock, which was a little thrilling for me, because of the common murre colony I knew was nesting there. But going up on the head in the wind wasn't an appealing thought, so we headed home.
I do not expect I'll be going back to that particular trail.
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