The American avocet is the logo's icon for the 30,000-acre Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge, and during the winter multitudes of avocets feed in the shallow water of the San Francisco Bay off the eastern part of the reserve. The saltwater marsh part is a breeding ground for the endangered snowy plover. We have examined closely many plovers in many visits to Don Edwards, but they have always turned out to be semi-palmated—or black-bellied plovers passing through. The only snowy plovers we have seen are at Hayward Shores Regional Park (north of Don Edwards) and on the Pacific coast below Fort Funston.

The endangered species we have had good luck in finding is the California Clapper Rail. More than half of my lifetime sightings of rails has been at Don Edwards (east), including two on our most recent visit. During the summer, there are many marsh wrens in the salt marsh to the north as one enters the (east side) reserve, though they are easier to hear than to see from the boardwalk (which is new this year and seemingly little trod). Besides seeing rails at the edge of channels there, we have had lengthy looks at rails working along the opposite bank of a channel as we sat at a picnic table at the bottom of the hill southeast of the Visitor Center. During the winter, one or two black-shouldered kites are usually visible from the trail to the west from that picnic table (with century plants uphill) and the reserve seems to be the hunting territory of a male Northern Harrier Hawk (smaller, much whiter, and much more rarely seen than females), as well as Red-tailed Hawks and Loggerhead Shrike. The only Golden Eagle I have seen there is a stuffed one in the Visitor Center, though there is a lot of Golden Eagle food (ground squirrels).

During autumn and winter Edwards is a good place to hone skills at distinguishing West Coast shorebirds. Black-necked Stilts, Willets, Yellow-legs (greater and lesser), Sandpipers (least and western) and Dowitchers (long-billed and short-billed) are commonly seen working the mudflats for food. Curlews are oddly rare, being thick on the ground at Hayward Shores and Palo Alto Baylands on recent visits, and those are both better spots for seeing various kinds of ducks, though during the winter (when their plumage is less interesting) there are usually Eared Grebes, and Buffleheads not very far out in the bay, and Ruddy Ducks in the slough ponds and channels. Phalaropes may be further out in the bay, though more likely to be seen at Hayward Shores or the Las Gallinas Ponds in San Rafael. The endangered California Least Tern may turn up most anywhere along the San Francisco Bay, though Foerster's Terns are the most commonly seen ones (with Caspian Terns on inlets from the ocean).

Great Blue Herons, Great Egrets, and Snowy Egrets are almost certain to be seen and little challenge even without binoculars.

Allegedly, harbor seals give birth and nurse their young in the sloughs during the summer, though I have never seen harbor seals even offshore at Don Edwards. And I definitely have not seen the endangered Salt Water Harvest Mouse, and a California Gray Fox only once in 30-40 visits to the (east) reserve.

Other than looking at the exhibits in the Visitor Center (which has toilets, cold water, and soft drink vending machines outside it), walking, bird-watching, and trail-biking, there isn't much to do. There are a few picnic tables plus benches in the bay overlook outside the Visitor Center. Fires, swimming, camping, skateboarding, kite-flying, and collecting any natural objects are prohibited. Boating is permitted on the Bay and Plummer Creek, but not in the salt evaporation ponds or slough channels. Fishing is allowed by boat off the pier at the end of Marshlands Road and in Coyote Creek Lagoon and subject to state fishing regulations. Dogs must be kept on leashes not exceeding six feet in length at all times (and cleaned-up after) and are only permitted on the Tidelands Trail (in the east bay part) and Inner Bair Island (in the west bay part)

The main, East Bay part of the reserve is in Fremont, just southeast of the Dumbarton Bridge (California Highway 84)—the first exit (Thornton Avenue) coming off the bridge, or the last one before getting on it, less than a mile south of 84 then west (there are signs) onto Marshlands Road. Before getting to the visitor center, on the right (north) is a (new) parking lot for walking through the slough (partly on the new boardwalk). Further in on the left (south) is a large parking lot with the trailhead for the Tidelands Trail and access (up the hill) to the Visitor Center. Admission and parking are free. There are free maps, bird lists, and newsletters at the Visitor Center along with a few books and other items for sale, and stuffed birds.

It is only from picking up a new brochure that—after close to two decades of visiting the refuge!—that I learned there was a part of the refuge on the west side of the bay (Redwood City), so recently we visited it. It is a relatively new acquisition for the reserve and is going to be restored to wetland. It seems a popular biking spot (almost totally flat, in contrast to the hill on which the Visitor Center rests in the East Bay part). We were there in mid-August, before much migration activity and wondered if we were going to see any birds until reaching a channel on the flight path of the Redwood City Airport (which is next to an aviation museum). There are probably more birds there now. We saw standard bayshore birds: willets, stilts, avocets, snowy egrets, a great blue heron, least sandpipers, lesser yellowlegs, and some cliff swallows that seemed to be summering at the marina (probably under the docks as elsewhere in they have adapted to nesting on the sides and bottoms of bridges)..

To get to the Inner Bair Island part of the reserve, one takes the Whipple Avenue exit from Highway 101, and stays on it as it turns northeast to the Redwood City Marina. The reserve's parking lot (which is quite large, though lacking any rest room) is just before the restricted parking for the marina. The trail is back across the street, along a channel almost all the way back to 101, then north through a gate that indicates that one is entering the Don Edwards Nature Reserve. (Don Edwards, incidentally, was an East Bay US congressman who championed wetland conservation and restoration. I have no idea who Bair was.)

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I have never been to Don Edwards without my partner, who used to write here as Jiahong, and who is far better at spotting and identifying the birds than I am. He asked me to write this review and to dedicate it to Ed Grover, who lived in San Francisco once upon a time and who is being celebrated this month in a writeoff hosted by eplovejoy. So, Ed, this is from us both!




Recommended: Yes

Best time to go: September-November
Review Topic: Overview