Walking Distance(s): 2.63 miles total
1.) .8 mile
2.) 1.83 miles
Walking Time(s):
1.) 20 min. (5:46 - 6:06 p.m.)
2.) 44 min. (6:11 - 6:55 p.m.)
Start & End Point(s):
1.) Shore Dogs Park
2.) Public parking lot at other end of Radio Road
On the first leg of tonight's walk, I ambled from Shore Dogs Park, alongside the Wastewater Treatment Plant, to the end of the trail (red line on map) to gate with closed sign. Salt marsh mice and clapper rail birds are trying to make a recovery here on the other side of the fence. The pre-sunset light and view of ducks and other birds on the large pond nearby was great. However, along with some less wonderful smells, I was engulfed in a cloud of small gnats that were flying at ankle-to-eyeball level; and I had to walk around what looked like a lost carpet on the trail. There also seemed to be a brown haze/cloud hovering over part of the Bay, perhaps due to a fire somewhere. Each walk is full of new discoveries.
For the second leg of tonight's walk, I drove down to the other end of Radio Road, and parked in a public parking lot, and followed the trail (red line) closest to the Bay to the second public viewing platform (nearest to the intersection of Canvasback Way and Seabrook Court). From this raised observation area, I could see the San Mateo bridge, and the San Francisco skyline is growing closer each time I get a view of it. It was getting dark, but I was treated to a big moon starting to take shape, and a semi-silhouette view of a great blue heron on top of a chimney, on my way back to my car. Sadly, my camera was sitting at home. I'd left my house in a hurry, hoping to beat rush hour traffic on Highway 101 and to squeeze this walk in.
Combined Wildlife Sightings:
43 ducks; 14 little brown jobs (LBJs); 7 sea gulls; 2 American avocets; 15 black-necked stilts; 1 great egrets and 4 snowy egrets; 2 great blue herons; 4 brownish shorebirds (whimbrels or willets); an uncountable number of gnats; 1 unidentifiable blur in the bushes.
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