The main draw of birding is... the birds.
Another strong attraction is the beautiful places you might find yourself while looking for those birds.
White-crowned Sparrow, overlooking the Golden Gate from Marin Headlands
Click on captions for links to full-sized versions of the photos
I'll only be here a short while this morning, as I'm leaving for some birding shortly. We're making another try at Panoche (well, part of it anyway) along with Pinnacles (fingers crossed for condors) and then over to Monterey Bay (if the rain doesn't get there first). All of those areas are beautiful this time of year, but I'm actually going to stick closer to home in this diary. At some point in the future, I'll share some other birdscapes.
View from Ring Mountain toward Mt. Tam, Marin County
Mt. Tamalpais is a familiar landmark, visible throughout much of the Bay Area. I love seeing it from Ring Mountain, a bit of open space that has been preserved on the Tiburon Peninsula. It's just minutes from my office, and I can get to this vantage point with an easy lunchtime walk.
Tree and rock, Ring Mountain, Marin County
Ring Mountain has great expanses of open grassland, something that tends to attract housing developments in our area. But there are also a few trees, and I think the people find find them every bit as attractive as the birds do.
Why there are so many thrushes on Ring Mountain in the winter...
Another well-known high point in the Bay Area is Loma Prieta. Unfortunately, it's best known these days because it lent its name to the 1989 earthquake (the World Series quake), the epicenter of which was a few miles from the peak. For birders, though, it was the epicenter of black-chinned sparrow sightings for several years, and I spent many hours walking that slope as a result.
Looking west (?) from the top of Loma Prieta
Birds like a lot of the same things that we do - big fields full of flowers make us happy. (We humans are probably not thinking about all of the lunch to be found there, though.)
Wet meadow with Goldfields, lupine and owl clover, Mines Road
Mines Road, south of Livermore (along with San Antonio Road and Del Puerto Canyon Road), is probably my favorite springtime destination in the Bay Area. In a wet year, like the one shown, it's dazzling...
More of Mines Road
Just for the heck of it... how about including a bird from Mines Road?
Bullock's Oriole, Mines Road
It's not just the places, either. Some of the best birding takes place at the margins of the day. The flat sun that glares on you mid-day keeps the birds less active, too. But the foggy dawn is alive with song...
Sunrise, Bodega Beach, Sonoma County
.... and the evening brings a chorus of calls, as everyone keeps in contact while they find a safe place to settle for the night.
Sunset at Grizzly Island Wildlife Refuge, Solano County
Sometimes it's hard to believe a desolate-seeming patch of land could support a healthy population of birds - but the Farallone Islands teem with life, despite their isolation and scant vegetation.
South Farallones, west of San Francisco
And sometimes it's hard to believe there's actually a patch of land underneath the birds.
Literally a birdscape, San Mateo coast
I am very fortunate to have had so many moments in places like this, and the birds were the icing on the cake.