Birding in Marin, Season 10 Trip 7 Saturday, July 5, 2025 8:30 AM to mid-afternoon Birding with Jim White and Bob Battagin REGISTER HERE Registration is required.  Registration opens Wednesday, June 25 at 8 AM. The rolling hills of central Marin are covered with pastures, forested ridges, ranches, and reservoirs. As we bird in and around Nicasio and its Oak tree-lined creek, we will have a chance to see a Golden Eagle as a pair has nested in the area in recent years. We also hope to find some flycatchers, woodpeckers and perhaps a Brown Creeper. After a break for lunch in Point Reyes Station we plan to look over the Giacomini wetlands, which has become part of Pt Reyes National Park and sits on the southern reach of Tomales Bay. Most of the wintering ducks will be gone but Cinnamon and Blue-winged Teal have nested there and the tidal wetlands fed by Olema Creek harbor an abundance of life so we should find some birds. Swallows, egrets and herons, including an American Bittern, are possible. DIRECTIONS: From highway 101 in northern San Rafael take Lucas Valley Road west, around 10 miles, then right turn onto Nicasio Valley road for 0.5 miles to park near the ball field at Nicasio Square.

RODEO LAGOON - MARIN HEADLANDS Wednesday, July 30, 2025 7:30/8:15 AM to noon **Please note below start times for this field trip Birding with William Legge and David Wiechers REGISTER HERE Registration is required for this trip. Registration opens on Sunday, July 20 at 8 AM. Join William and David for the first of five fall migration field trips at Rodeo Lagoon. This is their long-time “patch,” which never seems to disappoint birders with daily variations in species and the chance of an unusual sighting. On this July trip, we will be targeting northward bound Heermann’s Gulls and Elegant Terns, and hopefully the first southbound migrating shorebirds, and early western passerine migrants. We will begin with a Sea Watch at 7:30 AM from Rodeo Beach. Those arriving later may join us at 8:15 AM for a circuit of the lagoon. A brief mid-morning ‘coffee-stop’ is planned at Headlands Center for the Arts and it would be appreciated if participants come willing to contribute ($3) via the onsite ‘tip-jar’ as a thank you for accommodating our group. This field trip is less suitable for beginners and involves 2-3 miles of light to moderate hiking. 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 footbridge over the channel to the beach or join MAS birders with scopes along the nearby beach area.

Birding in Marin, Season 10 – Trip 8 Saturday, August 2, 2025 8:30 AM to mid-afternoon Birding with Jim White and Bob Battagin REGISTER HERE Registration required for this trip. Registration opens on July 23 at 8 AM.  We will visit 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 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. Shorebirds too, some already back from their breeding excursion to the Arctic, may gather along the estuary shores and shallows. Some ducks, hawks, and herons will show up too. DIRECTIONS: 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 7. 5 miles to Limantour beach parking lot.