Today's Field Trip: Oyster Point
Today's Field Trip: Oyster Point
On a beautiful warm day yesterday, D. and I visited the section of Bay Trail between Oyster Point and Sierra Point, in South San Francisco, next to San Bruno Mountain. The area next to the Trail was comprised of office and industrial parks and hotel complexes, and the marina at Sierra Point, with the highway (US 101) and the CalTrain tracks very close by. The trail's path was paved and very attractively landscaped, with many benches and interpretive signs along the way; one section followed along a rectangular channel that was once used for building and launching liberty ships during WWII.
On weekends the area is almost deserted. There were a few people fishing on the other side of the channel, and a few joggers and cyclists, but it was easy to feel like we had the place to ourselves.
Of course there were birdies: a pied-billed grebe; a coot; a snowy egret; lots of ubiquitous gulls, terns and cormorants; some starlings and Brewer's blackbirds squabbling over someone's discarded fast food lunch in a hotel parking lot; and soaring over San Bruno Mountain across the highway from the trail, a turkey vulture, a red-tailed hawk, and what was probably a red-shouldered hawk soaring a little too high to make a positive identification.
I loved the warm wind and the sun-sparkled water of the cove. My hips and back were hurting before our walk was over, but there were lots of benches to rest on, plus the chance to get out of the City and have a leisurely stroll in the fresh air and sunshine was worth the effort.
Here are a few of the 140 pics D. took.
A pied-bill grebe.
Oyster Cove inlet.
Fruit of a strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo) along the trail.
Bell-shaped flowers of the strawberry tree.
The egret looking for some lunch in the inlet.
We saw lots of gum plant along the trail.
The little grebe in the sparkly blue waters of the inlet.
A very windy version of the Hawk Dance.
Oyster Cove Marina, where the rich folks park their boats.
The wind harp on top of Point San Bruno to the south pokes its steel fingers up above the nearby office park.
A well-manicured path.
More well-manicured path.
Blue office building in front of brown San Bruno Mountain.
A very hazy Mt Diablo, barely visible behind the masts at the Brisbane Marina.
Pretty heather growing next to an office building by the Trail.
.
On a beautiful warm day yesterday, D. and I visited the section of Bay Trail between Oyster Point and Sierra Point, in South San Francisco, next to San Bruno Mountain. The area next to the Trail was comprised of office and industrial parks and hotel complexes, and the marina at Sierra Point, with the highway (US 101) and the CalTrain tracks very close by. The trail's path was paved and very attractively landscaped, with many benches and interpretive signs along the way; one section followed along a rectangular channel that was once used for building and launching liberty ships during WWII.
On weekends the area is almost deserted. There were a few people fishing on the other side of the channel, and a few joggers and cyclists, but it was easy to feel like we had the place to ourselves.
Of course there were birdies: a pied-billed grebe; a coot; a snowy egret; lots of ubiquitous gulls, terns and cormorants; some starlings and Brewer's blackbirds squabbling over someone's discarded fast food lunch in a hotel parking lot; and soaring over San Bruno Mountain across the highway from the trail, a turkey vulture, a red-tailed hawk, and what was probably a red-shouldered hawk soaring a little too high to make a positive identification.
I loved the warm wind and the sun-sparkled water of the cove. My hips and back were hurting before our walk was over, but there were lots of benches to rest on, plus the chance to get out of the City and have a leisurely stroll in the fresh air and sunshine was worth the effort.
Here are a few of the 140 pics D. took.
A pied-bill grebe.
Oyster Cove inlet.
Fruit of a strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo) along the trail.
Bell-shaped flowers of the strawberry tree.
The egret looking for some lunch in the inlet.
We saw lots of gum plant along the trail.
The little grebe in the sparkly blue waters of the inlet.
A very windy version of the Hawk Dance.
Oyster Cove Marina, where the rich folks park their boats.
The wind harp on top of Point San Bruno to the south pokes its steel fingers up above the nearby office park.
A well-manicured path.
More well-manicured path.
Blue office building in front of brown San Bruno Mountain.
A very hazy Mt Diablo, barely visible behind the masts at the Brisbane Marina.
Pretty heather growing next to an office building by the Trail.
.