Saturday, July 1, 2023
8:30 AM to 3 PM
Birding with Jim White and Bob Battagin
Register HERE for this Field Trip

Registration required for this trip. Registration opens on June 21 at 8:00 AM

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 will be looking for American and Least Bitterns, Green Heron, Cinnamon Teal, Common Gallinule, and Great-tailed Grackle.

DIRECTIONS: From Highway 101 in San Rafael, exit on Lucas Valley Rd and go west approximately 5.5 miles (look for the big rock). We will be walking approximately 3 miles. Because this area can get quite hot this time of year, be sure to wear a hat, use sunscreen and carry plenty of water. 

Birding in Marin - Season 8, Trip 8
Birding with Jim White and Bob Battagin
Saturday 8/5/22
8:30AM - 3PM
Register HERE for this Field Trip 

Registration required for this trip. Registration opens on July 27 at 8 AM on our TicketBud Site.

Meet at Sky Trailhead, near the crest of Limantour Rd. Directions below.

The Sky Trail, called “the misty spine of Bear Valley”, takes us through a maturing Douglas Fir/ Bishop Pine forest. Forest birds are more active early and moving birds often follow ridges so I would like to look and listen on our walk through this habitat. We may see or hear a Pileated Woodpecker, Band Tailed Pigeons, Steller’s Jays, Swainson’s Thrush, Osprey, nuthatches and surely Acorn Woodpeckers and Chestnut-backed Chickadees. Northern Spotted Owls, Western Screech and Saw-whet Owls live here but we would need to be here at dusk or dawn to hear them.

After we leave, we drive down to the great beach of Limantour with its miles of sand, its tidal estuary the open expanse of Drakes Bay and the Pacific Ocean beyond. We will gather at 9:30 in the ample parking lot with restrooms nearby.  We’ll pack our lunches, shoulder our scopes and head out and up the beach. We can hike far enough to find Snowy Plovers to get our exercise and to cross over to the estuary side for our walk back. Gulls, terns, cormorants, loons, grebes, pelicans, murres, and guillemots will garner our attention and I’m always interested what the Pacific will bring close to shore. Shorebirds too, some already back from their breeding excursion to the Arctic, may decorate the shore or be gathering along the estuary shores and shallows. Some ducks, hawks, and herons will show up too.

Directions to Sky Trail: From CA 1 South, right (left from CA 1 North) onto Sir Francis Drake Blvd for 0.7 miles, left onto Bear Valley Road for 0.5, then right onto Limantour Road for 3.4 miles to the Sky Trailhead. Roadside parking is available near the trailhead. From Sky Trailhead, the drive to the Limantour beach parking lot is 4.3 miles.