National Wildlife Refuge Warm SpringsOn Saturday D. and I went on a docent-led tour of the Warms Springs Unit of the National Wildlife Refuge to see the wildflower blooms around some of the last intact vernal pool habitat in the East Bay. We learned about the unique features of a vernal pool grassland and about the endangered species supported by ( Read more... )

Charleston and Shoreline Parks, June 2008

A recent search for some missing digital photographs of mine uncovered some other pics I had forgotten about.  These are from a visit to Charleston and Shoreline Parks in June 2008, and were taken by D ( Read more... )

A ghost town in San Francisco BayBack in 1876 a railroad was put through Station Island, nestled among the sloughs, creeks and marshes in southern San Francisco Bay.  The railroad put in two swing bridges at either end of the island and a bridge-tender's cabin in between.  Thus was the birth of Drawbridge (even though neither of the bridges were ( Read more... )

Charleston Park and Shoreline Park

On Sunday D. and I went to Charleston Park to look at the fig tree growing out of the crown of one of the palms in the park.  Last time we'd seen a wild parrot in the tree, but there was no sign of it this time.

So we wandered around there and moseyed over to Shoreline Park to look for burrowing owls.  Their ( Read more... )

Permanente Creek:  from Villa north to ShorelinePermanente Creek begins in the Santa Cruz Mountains to the south and finds its way down through the foothills and across the valley through Mountain View and into San Francisco Bay. At some point it gets routed into a concrete channel (we haven't found the exact spot yet) to guide it through the ( Read more... )

Don Edwards San Francisco Bay Wildlife Refuge 4

On Saturday D. and I went to the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Here's some pics we took ( Read more... )