Finally, a beautiful and sunny weekend in "sunny" California. At least that's what they said. So far it's cloudy,
but I can see that the sun wants to come out. Around 10:00 a.m. we head out for Marin County.
We were going to go on a hike with Greenbelt Alliance because both John and I want to learn more about birds,
and the easiest way to do that is to go on a hike with someone who does. It ended up that the Greenbelt Alliance wasn't
going to have a bird expert along, so John and I decided to go it alone.
We first went to Point Reyes to grab a list of birds in the area. As we were driving into the visitors area,
there were two quails at the entrance. They are they are striking birds,
so engaging with their plume at the top of their head and their coloring.
We then headed out to Audubon Canyon Ranch (ACR). ACR is in Picher Canyon,
just one of four rugged canyons which rise from a rich coastland. We didn't know what to expect here,
but we knew we would know at least one more fact that we didn't know before we entered.
We were stopped at the entrance and a jolly woman (with complete birding attire - hat and binoculars)
told us that we picked a wonderful day to visit - the Great Egrets and Great Blue Herons were nesting in the redwoods.
As I looked up, I saw in the distance several large white birds in the tops of the redwoods.
The sounds that came from them, to say the least, were very interesting - a cross between a turkey and a pig.
We parked the car and outfitted ourselves with camera, tripod, binoculars, and a tape-recorder to tape their wonderful calls.
John checked the camera before we left the car, and it's a good thing he did -  the batteries were dead.
I can't tell you how disappointed I was - I wanted pictures of these magnificent birds.
So off we went in search of camera batteries. And let me tell you, it wasn't easy.
We are in California, yes, but these are small towns on the coast, there are no chain drug stores or grocery stores around.
I mean we drove through Dogtown, California - population 30. That's right - 30.
So, we go to Bolinas - my favorite little town in California. It's on the coast, the southern-most part of Point Reyes.
And there is not a chain store in sight. The gas station looks like it came from the 50's.
We check the lumber store and the convenient store, nope. Go to Stinson Beach they said.
So we went, we got them, and now I'm happy. We're on our way back to Audubon Canyon Ranch.
According to the brochure: "Audubon Canyon Ranch acts as a guardian of three beautiful nature preserves in Marin and
Sonoma Counties - some 2,000 acres of tideflats, marshlands, coastal prairie, redwood groves
and other wildlife habitats." "It's a system of wildlife sanctuaries and centers for nature education and research".
When you enter the preserve, there is a large house to the right where researchers and others stay
to learn about the birds of the area. To get to the trails, you go through there education center and gift store.
Just past this are picnic tables, and it must have been lunch-time, because there were several people enjoying lunch.
We started out on Kent trail to get to Henderson Overlook, to get a better look at the egrets and herons.
Along the trail there were hazelnut, douglas-fir, sorrel, coast redwoods, yerba buena, false-solomon's seal,
and not to mention poison oak. The trail was about 1/2 mile and gradually went up a steep slope to the overlook.
At the overlook, they have telescopes set-up for you and benches for researchers and visitors to observe these beautful
creatures. I was amazed at how powerful the telescopes were - it was like I was right next to them.
There were two redwoods where most of the birds were, towards the top of the trees.
There are about 100 nesting pairs, with the Great Egrets comprising most of them.
I immediately saw the baby chicks in the nest, one nest had three chicks (according to the brochure,
both egrets and herons lay from 2-5 eggs, males and females share in incubating the eggs and feeding the young).
I only observed one pair of Great Blue Herons and I'm not sure I saw any Snowy Egrets.
The Great Egrets are large white birds with long sinewy necks - they are graceful in appearance and behavior.
Many adult egrets were preening and some were incubating eggs. From time to time I noticed the egrets
flying over to the Bolinas Lagoon where they feed on fish and crustaceans.
I also observed an egret snatching twigs from one nest to build another one, though the one nest did not look occupied.
They seem to be very gregarious, at least with there own kind - they were pretty close together on the redwoods.
The Great Blue Heron was grayish in appearance and looked similar to the Great Egrets.
We stayed to take several pictures of the birds and watch their behavior,
but we were too far away to get a good recording of their calls, so we headed back down the hill.
Once down the hill we noticed a bird hide. This is where you go inside a room and observe the birds
in their natural habitat without them knowing you're there. They had large windows covered with black screen,
you could see out, but they're not supposed to see you. We saw about four or five species of birds here.
Back outside we started to record the egrets calls. We set the recorder down and walked away.
A male and female quail came right up to the recorder. We have some great sounds of them making
little chirping sounds and flying away.John and I were pretty hungry at this point,
so we went to our favorite bakery in Bolinas. In the lagoon we noticed Great Egrets
mysteriously walking in the water and harbor seals resting in the lagoon.
From June to August adult harbor seals 'haul out' on to land to molt.
We went to Bolinas, we had lunch - another very good day in Marin County.