Since it had been over a year since our last visit, on Saturday D. and I went Bayfront Park, and I took these pics.
What used to be a salt evaporation pond is now being restored to a natural salt marsh habitat.
Waterfowl are enjoying their new habitat.
Shells of Otala sp. snails are strewn throughout the mud.
More views of the former salt ponds
A rusted-out conduit lies along the shore of a salt pond in the adjacent national wildlife refuge.
Looking across the former salt pond toward Facebook's new headquarters.
Bubbles cover the surface of a mat of algae floating just below the surface of the water.
A section of Bayfront Park juts out into the former salt pond.
A flotilla of willets on the water. Willets eat aquatic beetles, fish, spiders, small crabs, worms, clams, and other invertebrates.
Evidence that Bayfront Park is built atop a former landfill is never far from sight.
The stiff breeze makes it a good day for kite-flying.
An enigmatic sign supposedly pertaining to landfill stuff. http://djbphoto.net/Pahavit/Photo/Smilies/dunno.gif
A sump is a low space that collects any undesirable liquids such as water or chemicals, of which there are plenty in a landfill.
Another look across what was once a moonscape of dried salt and will soon be thriving salt marsh.
Traces of the original creek channels are still visible in the ponds.
The Dumbarton Bridge.
One of the hillsides in the park is habitat for the threatened burrowing owl, and park users must remain on the trail during nesting season.
Sump 7.
Sump 7 is badass.
The wild radish is in bloom.
Looking east.
A gazania bud.
We pass by Sump 8 again on our way back.
A pigeon hangs out near Sump 8.
A willet forages in the former salt pond.
Sump is a peculiar word. It reminds me of a mash-up of "sunken" and "dump," which seems apropos.
Low tide reveals abandoned shopping carts in Flood Slough.
They've been there a while, judging by the stuff growing on them.
Song sparrows prepare to take flight from a log.
A green-winged teal in Flood Slough.
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