A birder's paradise

San Francisco is such a great city...if you don't have to drive.  When I left this morning, I got caught up in rush hour trying to get out of town.  About an hour later, I found myself at Baylands Nature Preserve in Palo Alto.  I had read this was one of the best places on the West Coast to see birds, especially waterfowl.  No sooner did I step out on one of the trails, I spotted swallows flying around.  They all seemed to be congregating at a nearby building.  As I approached, I realized they were building their mud nests under an overhang.  It was cool watching the birds diligently working at their task.

 

I ended up seeing quite a lot of wild birds in the hour I spent at the preserve.  Some were pretty common, like mallards, various sea gulls, Canada geese and rock doves, better known as pigeons.  There were some species I had seen before in the past, not counting those in zoos.  Included on that list are ruddy duck, northern shoveler,  green-winged teal and American coot.

I was even more excited to see the birds I knew about, but had never seen before.  A few that I added to my life list today were the swan goose, American avocet and black-necked stilt.  It was interesting to watch the avocets and stilts searching for food in the marsh.

Next, I drove to the nearby Moffett Field to check out their small air museum.  The museum consisted of exhibits and displays of the air field's wartime history.  The facility was best known for housing two large air ships or dirigibles, as well as smaller blimps throughout the years.  In the afternoon, I visited the Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park in Felton.  As I walked along the easy path through the redwood grove, I found myself continually in amazement.  I was touching trees over a 1000 years old!  There aren't many living things on this earth as old as the redwoods, the rest are probably trees, too. 

Well, tomorrow is the big day!  I'll be making the last push south to Agoura Hills for the Five For Fighting benefit show.  I'm SO excited!  It's been three years since I've last seen John Ondrasik perform, and it seems like an eternity.  Looking forward to a night of awesome music...as usual!