Last week Ellyn and I joined a bird-watching bike tour at
The Martin Luther King Regional Shoreline in Oakland. A world away from the City, yet only a five minute pedal
from the Fruitvale BART station.
It is an amazing place; so beautiful and tranquil and so full of life –
bird life especially! Our tour leader, Kathy Jarrett, listed
50 species that we encountered that day.
50!!?? I do believe I missed a few. It was an incredible and informative day; I learned so much. At the start of the day I had no idea
there were such a variety of ducks, right here in our bay. Everyone knows Mallards, right? Well, at the MLK Regional Shoreline,
one can also become familiar with Pintails,
Widgeons, Green Winged Teals,
Cinnamon Teals, Ruddy Ducks, Buffleheads, and the very interesting-looking Surf
Scoter, to name a few.
In addition
to the multitude of duck species, one will also encounter different kinds of
grebes,
avocets,
willits and turn-stones,
pelicans,
sandpipers, egrets, blue herons, and well,
more than fifty species! So,
dig out those binoculars, get on your bike and go.
There are many places to see birds in our bay area. Kathy’s next tour will be February 4th, starting
at the El Cerrito BART at 8:35 am.
Check out the full event listing:
I went with Kori on this tour and would like to add: 1. Kathy and the other Audubon Society members were incredibly safe and conscientious cyclists and 2. The members were very open and sharing with their knowledge. I am by no means a bird expert but no one was condescending.
ReplyDeleteBirders view the urban world very differently. Where others see a crummy vacant lot filled with trash, they see an uncommon Say's Phoebe in its habitat. "The environment" is not somewhere else, it's all around us. Now if only those dang birds would sit still long enough so we can identify them...