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)

Fremont Blvd. - Aug. 2, '11

Walking Distance: 1.6 miles
Walking Time: 36 min. (8:29 - 9:05 p.m.)
Start and End Point: Parking lot in Northport Center, Fremont Blvd. and Cushing Pkwy., Fremont, CA

Earlier this evening, I had to call it quits after dark, on the Coyote Creek Lagoon trail (the solid red line trail on map -- part of Don Edwards SF Bay National Wildlife Refuge). So, I decided to walk the more urban stretch of Fremont Blvd. (about half the length of the double yellow lines shown on map) back up toward Cushing Parkway (where I'd ended a previous walk), where there were paved streets and street lights.

Not many people about at this hour -- a few cars and bicycles. Strange wildlife sightings (below): 3 hubcaps - from car traffic on Fremont Blvd., and wave after wave of Canada geese (145 in all) flying overhead from east to west, toward the Bay-- in small groups, V formations, and larger squadrons, all honking their way toward their night resting places.

Wildlife:
3 hubcaps; 145 Canada geese