Coyote Creek Lagoon Part 2 - Aug. 4, '11

Walking Distance: 2.1 mi. (estim.)
Walking Time: 1 hr. (4:58 - 5:58 p.m.)
Start and End Point: Public parking lot (open sunrise to sunset, day use only); end of Fremont Blvd., Fremont, CA

This evening I returned to walk the second (southern) half of the Coyote Creek Lagoon Trail, part of the Don Edward San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge area.

As I walked out toward the Bay, I passed a crew and a few pieces of heavy machinery involved in some dredging, or removing plants from a water channel. Good for flood control, maybe, but as I was watching the large areas of mud and marsh grasses being peeled off, I couldn't help but think that this probably displaces wildlife that had settled in the area as well.

It was another nice, summer evening walk, with large numbers of various shorebirds, stilts and avocets. As usual, the black-necked stilts were the alarmists among their fellow bird colleagues, with sentries crying out in warning every time I stopped on the trail to take pictures
-- even when I took no steps closer to them, and was using a telephoto lens. Yes, it's happened. I've become one of those crazy bird ladies, telling the stilts that they were annoyingly over-worried. On the other hand, I had spotted gray foxes in this area last week, so I suppose they're better off safe than sorry.

And maybe the big herd/flock of American Avocets nearby appreciated someone keeping an eye out for danger.


Wildlife Sightings:
1 mockingbird; 4 ground squirrels; 3 killdeer; 6 snowy egrets, 1 great egret; 4 sea gulls; 6 swallows; 42 black-necked stilts; 80 ducks; 56 unidentified brownish shorebirds (UBBs); 57 American Avocets; 28 Canada geese; 1 cormorant; 4 crows; 1 kite (bird); 4 red-winged blackbirds; 2 dragonflies; 3 little brown jobs (LBJs)

Don Edwards, Coyote Creek #1 - Aug. 2, '11

Walking Distance: 2.4 mi. (1.2 mi. (estim.) x 2)
Walking Time: 53 min. (7:20 - 8:13 p.m.)
Start and End Point: Public parking lot (at end of an unpaved access road/driveway) Don Edwards SF Bay National Wildlife Refuge Coyote Creek Lagoon; Fremont; CA

It was a pleasant summer evening for a walk, and there was just enough sunlight left to walk the north half of this Coyote Creek Lagoon trail (shown as a solid red line on the Bay Trail map) before dark.

A small parking lot located at the end of a packed, gravel and dirt road (off Fremont Blvd.), adjacent to some willow trees and a small picnic area, provided a convenient starting point for this walk. A short walk out toward the Bay will lead you to the beginning of the trail that runs along the water.


Thick marsh grasses grew on the bay (west) side of this trail (with occasional glimpses beyond (like the one with large group of American Avocets shown at right). On the land (east) side of the trail, was a channel of water/lagoon with ducks and a smattering of shorebirds -- with commercial buildings beyond on the shore.

Walking later in the day/evening means an increased chance of seeing creatures like the gray fox that I spotted hunting around some bushes. About twenty seconds later I saw a hare bolt from the same clump of bushes; I believe the lucky rabbit got away, just in the nick of time.

Wildlife Sightings:
4 little brown jobs (LBJs); 35 black-necked stilts; 1 great egret; 24 unidentified brownish shorebirds (UBBs): 2 medium size, and 22 small UBBs; 32 ducks; 32 swallows; 1 black-crowned night heron flying overhead; 40 red-winged blackbirds; 1 annoying cloud of mosquitos; 60 American Avocets; 18 Canada geese; 1 crow; 1 gray fox; 1 hare (flushed out of bushes by fox).