Wednesday, January 31, 2024
10 AM - 2 PM
Birding with Daniel Edelstein
Register HERE for this Field Trip

Registration required. Registration opens January 21st at 8AM.

Skaggs Island Road; flat, level hiking on road for no more than 1.5 miles; lunch at bridge ~.6 mile from the parking area at Highway 37.

Daniel invites you to discover the joy of a wilderness-like paradise — Skaggs Island Road — that often attracts dozens of shorebird and duck family members, in addition to uncommon, visiting non-breeding raptors such as Rough-legged Hawk, Ferruginous Hawk, and Merlin (along with sightings of White-tailed Kite and other raptor species).

Closed to the public, Skaggs Island Road is accessed by meeting our group in the parking area adjacent to Hwy. 37 (approximately 3 miles east of Reclamation Road and 2 miles east of the Highway 121/Sears Point Raceway intersection (at the stoplight). We’ll meet on the north side of Hwy. 37 where it intersects with Skaggs Is. Rd. and bird together while walking north on the road.

Please be careful turning into this road when coming from Marin Co. because oncoming traffic is often heavy.

Here’s a map link that shows where we’ll meet:

https://www.google.com/maps/search/Skaggs+Island+Road,+Highway+37/@38.1563398,-122.3935838,14z

Daniel is a freelance Birding Guide (WarblerWatch.com) and Consulting Avian Biologist. His web site (WarblerWatch.com) features abundant birding information, in addition to his 17-year-old warbler-centric blog (WarblerWatch.blogspot.com).

Thursday 1, February , 2024
8:30 AM to 12:00 PM
Birding with Sande and Bob Chilvers 

No registration required.  All participants are welcome to join this trip.

Join old friends and meet new ones on our regularly scheduled walks on the first Thursday of the month at Las Gallinas. We welcome bird enthusiasts of all levels, especially 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 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. 

Birding in Marin, Season 9, Trip 2
Saturday, February 3, 2024
8:30 AM to 3:30 PM
Birding with Jim White and Bob Battagin
Register HERE for this Field Trip

Registration opens Wednesday, January 24 at 8 AM.

We are going to explore the bay from the Sausalito water front to the Golden Gate and Richardson’s Bay around to Strawberry Point and on to Blacky’s pasture in Tiburon. Many ducks, loons and grebes winter on the bay waters and we may find close comparative looks at similar species pairs like Eared and Horned or Clark’s and Western Grebes, of Red-throated, Pacific and Common Loons or Greater and Lesser Scaup. We are likely to find some shorebirds too, perhaps a Spotted Sandpiper or a rather rare Wandering Tattler.

Herring runs happen around this time of year and if we are lucky they will still be numerous. Herring deposit large numbers of eggs on eelgrass, which water birds, especially gulls, love to feast on. Last year near this time I think that 10 species of gulls were located. So brush up on your gull IDs and join Bob and I along the shore.

DIRECTIONS: Meet at the east end of Harbor Drive. Handicap Accessible. We will park where the birding is close, near level and smooth. Thanks to enlightened development planning, Harbor Drive and the rather posh Strawberry spit have fine public shoreline paths.