Palo Alto Baylands 5
On Sunday afternoon D. and I went back to the Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve. It was sunny, warm and windy. We saw lots of wonderful things. Here are some of D.'s pics.
"Artificial fires" are prohibited.
Apparently there have been problems during previous July 4ths at the preserve.
A seagull looks for a snack next to the interpretive center.
A bee grabs some pollen from a gum plant next to the trail.
A cliff swallow peers from its mud nest above the entrance to the interpretive center.
A Black-necked stilt probes in the mud for something to eat.
A boardwalk goes out over the sensitive habitat of Harriet Mundy Marsh to an observation deck right at the edge of San Francisco Bay. The East Bay hills are in the background.
Some of the marine snails we saw crawling around in the mud as the tide came in. They appear to be Ilyanassa obsoleta, an invasive non-native species.
These are native California horn snails.
An immature cliff swallow on the boardwalk railing let us get surprisingly close.
More swallows on the boardwalk railing.
A swallow rests near some PG&E high tension lines that cross the marsh.
It's not just a fence, it's a Fantastic Fence! And it keeps people off the access walkway to the high tension lines.
A purple balloon blowing in off the bay drifts into the cordgrass at the edge of the water. It looks grotesquely out of place in the marsh.
Looking back down the boardwalk toward the interpretive center.
A crow glides on a thermal rising up from the warm golden brown hills.
Part of the Pole Field, environmental art at Byxbee Park in the Baylands Preserve complex.
A mama duck and her ducklings in Mayfield Slough. I think they are gadwalls.
Canada geese and goslings in Mayfield Slough.
A tiny daisy-like Mesembryanthemum blooms next to the slough.
White pelicans catching fish in Mayfield Slough. They swim and dip their bills into the water in perfect unison, like synchronized swimmers.
A snowy egret grabs a perch in the Pole Field.
A Forster's tern hovers over the slough looking for fish.
The orderly rows of the Pole Field.
.
On Sunday afternoon D. and I went back to the Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve. It was sunny, warm and windy. We saw lots of wonderful things. Here are some of D.'s pics.
"Artificial fires" are prohibited.
A seagull looks for a snack next to the interpretive center.
A bee grabs some pollen from a gum plant next to the trail.
A cliff swallow peers from its mud nest above the entrance to the interpretive center.
A Black-necked stilt probes in the mud for something to eat.
A boardwalk goes out over the sensitive habitat of Harriet Mundy Marsh to an observation deck right at the edge of San Francisco Bay. The East Bay hills are in the background.
Some of the marine snails we saw crawling around in the mud as the tide came in. They appear to be Ilyanassa obsoleta, an invasive non-native species.
These are native California horn snails.
An immature cliff swallow on the boardwalk railing let us get surprisingly close.
More swallows on the boardwalk railing.
A swallow rests near some PG&E high tension lines that cross the marsh.
It's not just a fence, it's a Fantastic Fence! And it keeps people off the access walkway to the high tension lines.
A purple balloon blowing in off the bay drifts into the cordgrass at the edge of the water. It looks grotesquely out of place in the marsh.
Looking back down the boardwalk toward the interpretive center.
A crow glides on a thermal rising up from the warm golden brown hills.
Part of the Pole Field, environmental art at Byxbee Park in the Baylands Preserve complex.
A mama duck and her ducklings in Mayfield Slough. I think they are gadwalls.
Canada geese and goslings in Mayfield Slough.
A tiny daisy-like Mesembryanthemum blooms next to the slough.
White pelicans catching fish in Mayfield Slough. They swim and dip their bills into the water in perfect unison, like synchronized swimmers.
A snowy egret grabs a perch in the Pole Field.
A Forster's tern hovers over the slough looking for fish.
The orderly rows of the Pole Field.
.