Thursday, September 1, 2022
9 AM to noon
Birding with Sande and Bob Chilvers
No registration required for this trip.

Fully vaccinated guests only please. 

Join old friends and meet new ones as we resume our regularly scheduled walks on the first Thursday of the month at Las Gallinas. We especially welcome beginning birders on this leisurely walk around the ponds. Special thanks to Bob and Sande Chilvers for volunteering once again to lead our monthly walks in search of waterfowl, waders, songbirds, raptors, and shorebirds. Among other birds, we will see various species of rails, swallows and teals. With fall migration underway, we are likely to spot some interesting species, so come assist in our search.

We welcome bird enthusiasts of all levels. We all help each other to find and identify the birds, and there are usually several experienced birders to assist. You don’t even have to arrive on time because we spend the first 30-60 minutes studying the birds around the first pond, and our group is easy to find.

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 an outhouse in the parking area for public use or you can use the bathrooms at nearby McInnis Park.

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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, and our Northern Spotted Owl Outreach program. We cannot do these important projects, along with our many other efforts, without the support of our dedicated members!

Saturday, September 3, 2022
8:30 AM to mid afternoon
Birding with Jim White and Bob Battagin
Register for this field trip HERE

Limit of 15 fully vaccinated participants for this trip. Registration opens on August 24 at 8AM. 

Abbott’s Lagoon on the Pacific Coast in the Point Reyes National Seashore is one of Marin’s premier birding locations sporting an eBird sum of 283 species. Fall migration south along the coast brings many birds to this area. Some that we hope to see include Ferruginous Hawk, Baird’s and Pectoral Sandpipers, Red-necked Phalaropes, Lapland Longspur, Horned Lark and Pipits. Hundreds of ducks of a dozen species, geese, herons, Peregrines and Ospreys are also likely visitors. Plus you get some exercise; out and back is about 3 miles (some in sand) and Jim likes to do a full 5-mile loop. So pack a lunch for a picnic on the beach and bring a couple of layers for the fresh ocean air and help us spot a rarity.

To help bolster our participant’s species lists to our yearly goal of 200, we plan to stop along Tomales Bay near the Inverness Tennis club to look for Pine and Alder woodland birds. A surprising number of species have been seen here and there is a nice little beach where we usually find several kinds of gulls.

DIRECTIONS: From Point Reyes Station on Highway 1 go just south of town, right turn onto Sir Francis Drake Blvd, follow that thru Inverness up over Inverness ridge into the Point Reyes National Seashore then go north on Pierce Point Road. The ABBOTT’s Lagoon parking lot is on the left in about 3 miles. Car Pool if you can, allow 1.5 hours from San Rafael and please be vaccinated. 

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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, and our Northern Spotted Owl Outreach program. We cannot do these important projects, along with our many other efforts, without the support of our dedicated members!

Wednesday, September 7, 2022
7:30/8:30 AM to noon
Birding with With William Legge and David Wiechers
Register for this field trip HERE

Limit of 15 fully vaccinated participants for this trip. Registration opens on August 28 at 8AM 

Join William and David for this fall migration field trip at Rodeo Lagoon. This is their longtime “patch,” which never seems to disappoint birders with daily variations in species seen and unusual sightings. On this particular trip, our group will be targeting Parasitic Jaeger, migrating shorebirds, warblers, and other passerines. We will begin the morning with a Sea Watch at 7:30 AM. Those arriving later may join us at 8:30 AM for a circuit of the lagoon.

DIRECTIONS: Head south on Hwy 101 and take the last Sausalito exit just before the Golden Gate Bridge. At the exit stop sign, turn right and go under the freeway, then follow the road down to the left. Within 300 feet turn left at the sign to the Marin Headlands (This is the only available left turn before you begin the descent into Sausalito). You should see the tunnel with the five-minute light. Proceed through the tunnel on Bunker Rd to the Rodeo Lagoon Parking Lot at the end. Meet by the bridge over the channel to the beach or join MAS birders with scopes along the nearby beach area. 

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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, and our Northern Spotted Owl Outreach program. We cannot do these important projects, along with our many other efforts, without the support of our dedicated members!

Saturday, September 17, 2022
6:00 to 7:40 PM depending on the weather
With Rich Cimino
Register HERE for this field trip

Limit of 15 fully vaccinated participants for this trip. Registration opens September 7 at 8AM

Join other MAS members for an evening opportunity to witness Vaux’s Swifts during their fall migration through Marin, which occurs in September and October. Dan McNear of McNear Brick & Block has kindly allowed Marin Audubon to access this remarkable site where three decommissioned chimneys provide an important communal evening roosting place for the Vaux’s swifts.

Watching tens of thousands of Vaux’s swifts as they descend into the stacks just before night- fall is an unforgettable sight. At the peak of migration, as many as 19,000 swifts have been counted in one evening. However, keep in mind that the number of swifts varies greatly from night to night and can range from a few hundred to thousands. Like everything else in birding, there are no guarantees!

Sunset on the evening of our visit will be at 7:11 PM, so plan on arriving on time to be ready. If the weather on the day of our trip is particularly cool or windy, the swifts are likely to enter the stacks early, so plan accordingly. Bring scopes, binoculars, and, if desired, folding chairs for your seating comfort. It can be chilly at dusk. Please stay with our group and do not enter any of the private areas on the property. Use soft voices and be sure to respect the privacy of local residents.

DIRECTIONS: From Hwy 101 take the Central San Rafael exit. Head east on Third St./Point San Pedro Rd for about 3.5 miles. The brickyard will be on the right. The address is 1 McNear Brickyard Rd. Park as close to the San Pedro Road entrance as possible. Please do not drive to or park near the closed gate. 

Saturday 10/1/2022
8:30 AM to mid-afternoon
Register HERE for this field trip

Limit of 15 fully vaccinated participants for this trip. Registration opens September 21 at 8AM. 

This is the place to be for fall birding. Many migrants like hawks, jaegers, shorebirds and loons follow the coast south. Many songbirds, migrate at night and seem to have a compass bearing in mind, momma said to fly “15 degrees east of due south for 4 days.” Millions of recently fledged birds undertake a journey of 2-4000 miles without a google assistant and many without further parental guidance. Some get lost.

Imagine that you are a dyslexic Connecticut Warbler hatched in early June in the boreal forest of north central Canada. It is your second night flight, you are flying west instead of east or south, you crossed some mountains so that you are flying sort of high, morning is approaching so you descend thru the clouds and there is nothing but water. A fog shrouded coast was not in your flight plan. You reverse directions, trying to avoid the gulls and jaegers pursuing you, when you see trees miles away on a point sticking above the fog. Relief, a place to land, to rest, and to find something to eat. These vagrant warblers and other eastern songbirds are the reasons that the tree islands of the Point Reyes peninsula are so popular with birders

We intend to visit the nearby Fish Docks after The Light house then work our way back to Drake’s Beach for lunch and much more birding.

Directions: Meet at 8:30 at the Lighthouse parking area. The Lighthouse parking area is at the west end of S F Drake. Going north thru Inverness follow Drake to the Lighthouse. Allow 30 min from Inverness or 1.5 hour from San Rafael.