The Baylands

The Last Installment of my Mommy & Me Weekend

You do not know how long I researched and researched to find the best place to take her to see birds.  I am not an outdoor person and dread doing any hiking or exploring especially in places that I am not familiar with. I mean... the only times I wear tennis shoes is when I go work out at Curves... and that's it! But this is for my oldest daughter so I will do my very best to find yet another place to see birdies!

The Baylands... "bounded by Mountain View and East Palo Alto, the 1,940-acre Bay lands Preserve is one of the largest tracts of undisturbed marshland remaining in the San Francisco Bay. Fifteen miles of multi-use trails provide access to a unique mixture of tidal and fresh water habitats. Many consider this area to be the one of the best bird watching areas on the West Coast."

"One of the BEST bird watching areas of the West Coast?!?!?" I am so there! This is the place I need to take my bird-lovin' daughter! And it's just 20 minutes away from our house! Oh joy!!

But where do I go? It is literally 1,940 acres of land?!? I was freaking out! I am not very good at following maps and even with a GPS I really don't know how to get to those secluded marshlands which are mainly on hiking trails. PLUS I had to learn how to use my husband's mongo-huge camera (since it IS the best one to use to take GOOD pictures of birds). Oh boy.. I am really going out of my comfort zone here! Normally when we go birding Matthew takes care of all the logistics of how to go and where to go.

But I had an idea.. this mother-daughter weekend doesn't really say I can't invite others to join us on the 'fun' outing... and Emily did say she missed her daddy and sister. So I asked Matthew to bring Hannah and come join us.

We met at the Baylands Visitor Center (a great meeting point and I was able to get GPS directions to it). Emily was happily surprised to see her Daddy and sister and I was thrilled to see them also. I gladly handed over the mongo camera back to my husband (which Emily immediately told her Daddy to "Take a picture now!!.." of the shorebird). I was an immensely relieved wife when my husband got into the driver's seat and took us to the other two places I wanted to take Emily to see (but didn't know how to get to).

Now don't get me wrong, I love seeing the birds. I have enjoyed learning all about them and being able to identify them and appreciate their beauty in nature. And did we see birdies! Lots of them and many different kinds. I especially enjoy seeing shorebirds since they do settle in groups and you can see them quite well. Raptors, (birds of prey and other flight birds) are harder to see and find and you'll need binoculars to hunt them down.

At the visitors center, there is a catwalk (about a 1/4 mile) that takes you out to an observation desk where you can get nice views of the Bay and surrounding marshlands.

We saw many beautiful snowy egrets...

lots of black neck stilts

a snowy egret in flight

Afterwards we headed to Duck Pond Loop where you can see (and smell) lots of ducks in a pond..

Here is one big domestic farm goose that we saw at the Duck Pond

There were huge palm trees surrounding the pond and if you look closely.. way up high... you can see some occupants.

A domestic farm goose, Canada Goose and Gadwall Ducks

After Duck Pond we ventured to the Charleston Slough where we walked along the trails in search for birdies..

These are barn swallow nests

Barn swallows

At the slough, there were a slew of gorgeous shorebirds.

We were really lucky to see this Great Blue Heron just a few yards away.

American Avocet

A Party of American White Pelicans

Watch out below!

My Birder in her 'element'!

At the end of the trail at Swift Crossing

It was a very successful day of bird watching! My daughter was very pleased and so was I!