Field Trips
Marin Audubon Society is providing a full schedule of free field trips for the 2024 season.
Advance registration is required for most of our trips, nearly all which have size limits to prevent overcrowding. Registration on the MAS website’s Field Trips page will open ten days before the trip date.
Trips can fill up quickly. Please register early to make sure you get a spot. If you won’t be able to attend a trip that you have registered for, please cancel using the “contact organizer” button on Ticketbud so that the spot may be opened up for someone else.
If a trip is closed when you try to register, click “Contact Organizer and ask to be placed on the waiting list”
Our field trips are free to our members and the public, but we greatly appreciate your donations to support our programs and conservation projects! A donation of $35 or more qualifies you for an annual membership at Marin Audubon Society! **New Members Only
Become a Chapter Supporting Member of the Marin Audubon Society starting at $35 a year, or RENEW your membership today! Your membership helps to fund important efforts such as our ongoing habitat restoration projects, the Monarch Rescue Project, our Northern Spotted Owl Outreach program, and of course our monthly field trips and speaker series! We cannot do these important projects, along with our many other efforts, without the support of our dedicated members!
Rodeo Lagoon – Marin Headlands
Wednesday, May 21,2025
7:30 AM to 12:00 PM **Please note below start times for this field trip
Birding with William Legge & David Wiechers
Register HERE for this Field Trip
Registration is required for this trip. Registration opens May 11 at 8 AM
With spring migration coming to an end, we’ll be looking out for late migrants, including passing loons, shorebirds and scarcer passerines. As usual, the weather will dictate our focus with onshore northwest winds ideal for spring sea watches, while offshore easterly winds promise a good selection of passerine migrants even at this late date. Join us for a Sea Watch at 7:30 AM or arrive later at 8:15 AM for a circuit of the lagoon. A brief mid-morning ‘coffee-stop’ is planned at the Headlands Center for the Arts. Your contribution for coffee via the onsite “tip-jar” would be appreciated. This field trip is less suitable for beginners.
De Silva Island and Richardson Bay Audubon Center & Sanctuary Strawberry
Tuesday, May 27, 2025
10:00 AM-2:30 PM
Birding with Ron Brown
REGISTER HERE
Registration required. Registration opens May 17at 8:00 AM.
De Silva Island is home to a long-established colony of Great Blue Herons, residing in a grove of eucalyptus trees on the banks of Belloch's Lagoon (Strawberry Cove) in Richardson Bay. In recent years Great Egrets and Double Crested Cormorants (colonial nesting species) have moved into this fine breeding site.
Although the start of the breeding season is somewhat variable, we should see late-stage Heron and Egret chicks and early-stage Cormorant chicks. The colony is best seen by a scope from across Belloch's Lagoon (Strawberry Cove). One scope will be available, but others would be welcome.
After 12:00, we will drive from Seminary Drive to the Richardson Bay Audubon Center & Sanctuary for more birding. We’ll take a break for something to eat before we start. Bring drinks and lunch.
The Ponds at the Las Gallinas Valley Sanitary District (LGVSD) – San Rafael
Thursday, June 5, 2025
8:30 AM to 12:00 PM
Birding with Mark Clark
All participants are welcome to join this trip.
We welcome bird enthusiasts of all levels, especially beginning birders, to join leader Mark Clark on our monthly first Thursday walk around the ponds at Las Gallinas. On our search we’ll be looking for waterfowl, waders, songbirds, raptors, rails and swallows. We are likely to spot some interesting species, so come assist in our search.
The packed dirt paths around the ponds are wide, flat and easy to navigate. Heavy rain cancels.
DIRECTIONS: From Hwy 101, exit at Smith Ranch Rd. Drive east on Smith Ranch Rd. toward McInnis Park. Turn left immediately after crossing the railroad tracks and drive about 0.5 mile through the LGVSD gates and into the parking lot at the end of the road. Meet the group by the bridge just past the parking lot. There is a portable restroom in the parking area for public use.
Big Rock and Las Gallinas Ponds
Birding in Marin, Season 10, Trip 6
Saturday, June 7, 2025
8:30 AM to mid-afternoon
Birding with Jim White and Bob Battagin
Registration required for this trip. Registration opens on May 27 at 8:00 AM
REGISTER HERE
Trails at Big Rock, rather steep, allow us to view some of the expansive grasslands and forested ravines in Marin. Some of the grassland nesting birds we will be looking for include Lazuli Bunting, Grasshopper Sparrow, Horned Lark, and Ash-throated Flycatcher. We will also have a vast amount of sky visible so swallows, swifts, and raptors may appear with a chance for a Golden Eagle.
At midday we expect to drive Lucas Valley Road to Las Gallinas, where we’ll stop to eat our lunch before looking for American and Least Bitterns, Green Heron, Cinnamon Teal, Common Gallinule, and Great-tailed Grackle.
Field Trips Webinar Recordings Archive
2021
March
– Rare Birds of Marin 2020 – by Joseph Zeno, John King, Lucas Corneliuseen and Mark Schulist
February
– GIS Conservation – The Breeding Birds of Marin County – by William Wiskes – CLICK HERE
January
– Marin’s Breeding Birds (How We Know What We Know) by Dave DeSante – CLICK HERE
– New Breading Bird Atlas – by Juan Garcia – CLICK HERE
2020
September
– Snowy Plovers: A Natural History, Breeding Biology & Conservation – CLICK HERE
– Pacific Flyway Shorebird Surveys – CLICK HERE
October
– Diurnal Raptors of Marin – CLICK HERE
– The Natural History of Osprey in Marin County – CLICK HERE
– Red-Tales: Hawkish Behaviors and Migratory Stories – CLICK HERE
November
– Improving Habitat for Central Valley Waterbirds – CLICK HERE