Wetlands Edge, Am. Canyon - Sept. 18, 2010

Walking Distance: 3.35 miles
Walking Time: 1 hr., 35 min. (2:30 - 4:05 p.m.)
Start and End Point: Parking lot, at Eucalyptus and Wetlands Edge, American Canyon, CA

American Canyon is located between Napa and Vallejo, where the Napa River starts to merge with San Francisco Bay. Today I enjoyed getting my Bay Trail walking feet back, after a month's break (spent traveling and investigating other Bay Trails). Previously, last month, I had walked the newly opened section of Napa River/Bay Trail from this same parking lot in American Canyon with a friend.

Thank you to Alec for joining me on today's walk along Wetlands Edge (road).  As we got out of the car in the parking lot, we enjoyed briefly watching a group of young girls flying kites made out of paper bags. What the kites lacked in terms of aerodynamic prowess, the girls made up for in terms energetic kitesmanship. From there we turned the corner to Wetlands Edge to start our walk.

The Wetlands Edge stretch of Bay Trail allows pedestrians (and leashed dogs) to walk on a wide sidewalk, on the River/Bay side of the road. On the East side of the trail is a suburban neighborhood. To the West, is open space and water. We walked the complete length of Wetlands Edge, plus a small stretch of W. American Canyon Rd. (as far as Hummingbird Way), before returning to the car.  

It was a great day for seeing birds. To the West, in the distance, we could see a solid strip of shorebirds huddled against the water's edge, and a kite (bird) perched on a dead tree limb. (Photo of curious, low flying turkey vulture, at right, courtesy of Alec Proudfoot.)

Wildlife Sightings:
7 unidentified flying bugs; 65 ducks; 520 medium-sized unidentified brownish shorebirds; 15 small unidentified brownish shorebirds; 4 American Avocets; 3 sea gulls; 3 turkey vultures; 1 white swan; 1 tiny brown lizard (or skink?); 21 pigeons; 1 brown and orange butterfly; 4 little brown jobs (LBJs); 1 black beetle; 2 crows; 1 kite (bird); 1 tiny pillbug; 1 dragonfly; 1 cat (feral? domestic? -- hard to tell, maybe half and half).

Wetlands View, Napa - Bay Trail - Aug. 19, 2010

Walking Distance: 2.5 miles
Walking Time: Time: 1 hr., 35 min. (1:25 - 3:00 p.m.)
Start and End Point: Wetlands View, Napa River and Bay Trail, City of American Canyon, Parking Lot, American Canyon, CA

Part of the fun of walking a large trail like the Bay Trail is that there are additions and changes constantly underway. Today's walk took place on a wonderful new stretch of trail that extended (from a parking lot at the end of Eucalyptus) out to the Napa River.

The new trail was located in the gray area on the map shown at right; and it was not yet in existence when this Bay Trail map was created. My understanding is, in the future, new segments of trail (also not shown) will join other segments further north.

This new area was beautiful. After walking along rural highways and grapevines (as beautiful as they can be) for the past few months, I was delighted to walk near the water again. And there was a great deal of wildlife to see on this walk.

In addition to areas of water (ponds, Napa River - Bay),  interesting sights included: lots of large birds, including some white pelicans, hawks, and vultures; some large agave (century) plants in bloom (pictured at right); and a boat that had apparently worked its way loose of its moorings and washed ashore (also pictured, right). We also saw a colorful lizard (with some blue coloring) on a tree (bottom right).

I had too many photos from this walk to post here, which is usually a nice problem to have.

Thank you to Margaret and Albert for joining me on today's walk, and to Johnny and Tony who gave us some additional helpful information on the new trail as we walked in.

Wildlife Sightings:
7 butterflies (5 white, 2 yellow and black); 5 snowy egrets; 3 hawks; 6 turkey vultures; 3 lizards; 36 red-winged blackbirds; 24 little brown jobs (LBJs); 1 ground squirrel; 9 dragonflies; 2 great egrets; 6 swallows; 2 killdeer; 4 unidentified brownish shorebirds (UBBs); 2 white pelicans; 15 ducks; 20+ sheep (in distance - "mowing" grass).