Stinson Beach, Calif.
– In spring, heron and egret fancy turns to thoughts of love, in
its fashion.
This unfolds at a 1,000-acre preserve along coastal Highway 1
where the road ascends the sea cliffs and rides into western Marin
County.
Stinson Beach, Calif. – In spring, heron and egret fancy turns to thoughts of love, in its fashion.
This unfolds at a 1,000-acre preserve along coastal Highway 1 where the road ascends the sea cliffs and rides into western Marin County. Three miles north of Stinson Beach, beyond the Golden Gate Bridge, it drops down to Bolinas Lagoon at mile marker 16.
There, in reclusive Picher Canyon, lies the Bolinas Lagoon Preserve, the tops of two of its redwoods dotted with more than 100 great egret and great blue heron family nests. It’s a unique educational heronry owned by Audubon Canyon Ranch. The canyon site is open to the public weekends and holidays March through mid-July – during mating and nesting season.
Back across the highway over the lagoon’s tideland, perhaps searching for food for a new family, a great egret stealthily grabs a fish with its sharp, yellow beak.
Great blue heron and black-billed snowy egret, cousins, follow suit.
Highway 1 continues north into the Point Reyes National Seashore, rounding out any Sunday drive, about 80 miles one-way from the South Valley.
What about love back at the ranch?
“I think herons and egrets are formidable birds,” said Skip Schwartz, executive director of Audubon Canyon Ranch, who runs the nonprofit on a yearly budget of about $1.5 million, with only private funding. It’s all a labor of love.
Visitors, about 60 to 150 a day, are greeted by ranch guides and a battery of viewing scopes placed strategically around the preserve, along with question-and-answer sheets on these members of the Ardeid family. Because egrets and herons belong to the Ardeid family, it’s called a heronry instead of a rookery.
With the help of a force of anywhere from 400 to 700 docents and guides each year at three ranch properties, families and visitors can avail themselves of all things bird, animal and plant.
Three viewing platforms, as you climb the Kent and Griffin trails to get above the nests, help in observing family time heron- and egret-style.
You may borrow binoculars, and there are bleachers once you reach the site. Sometimes the air is punctured by squawks when a red-tailed hawk buzzes by the nests.
“Most mature birds wouldn’t bother to harm the heronry,” Schwartz said. “But by four weeks of age, when the chicks are alone and parents are hunting for food, it’s the most vulnerable time.”
“The herons and egrets are still coming in,” Schwartz said. “On a still evening as they first arrive in March, their bill clapping is a fairly dramatic sound. It’s an early sound, like a snapping. Our scientists think that it is a territorial display by males when claiming a site to build a nest.”
The preserve is unique because it is one of the few heronries – and there are hundreds in the Bay Area – that allow the public to see chicks and mating behavior. Like cotton puffs or white angels, the great egrets with wispy nuptial plumage this time of year and great blue herons with breast feathers appear atop the canopies. They hover over nests with mates guarding the aquamarine eggs, usually two to six per clutch.
“It’s an opportunity to visit an established site,” said Schwartz.
There are about 91 great egret, nine great blue heron, and one snowy egret nest to date, with four confirmed nests with eggs. Incubation can last for 29 days before the eggs hatch and you can see the chicks.
“You get out in nature, and your brain waves change to a different beat,” said Susan Prince of Point Reyes Station, a weekend coordinator. “There aren’t many places where you can get above the birds and look into their nests. This is a special teaching heronry.”
Two ponds named Monday and Tuesday also harbor newts, a favorite with the 3,000 to 3,500 school children who visit yearly for educational classes and stay at Volunteer Canyon, bused in free with transportation scholarships.
“The kids would say the newts have won their hearts,” said Gwen Heistand, resident biologist. “The rough-skinned newts and California newts act as real ambassadors to our ranch, and there are tons of cool insects like the dragonflies and frog hoppers.”
But it’s the herons and egrets that are taking the day.
“Right now, most of the herons and egrets are sitting on eggs, two by two in pairs,” Heistand said. “The courtship ritual involves flying in and presenting a twig to the female for building the nest.”
Snowy egrets are closer to tree branches and are harder to count, she said.
Visitors populate the Henderson Overlook, the platform just above the nests. “It’s a magical kind of place,” said Bob Gridley who was peering out with Linda Luntsford, both of Pacifica.
Sea captain Peter L. Bourne built the first farmhouse in the 1860s, now the headquarters off the parking lot near Audubon Creek. Threats by developers spearheaded the preserve’s formation in 1962.
Audubon Canyon Ranch also encompasses 500-acre Bouverie Preserve in Sonoma County and 500-acre Cypress Grove, a research station, at Tomales Bay.
Cliff swallows nesting in the eaves flank the natural history bookstore and display hall. Behind the buildings is a secluded picnic area with a great egret monument on an algaed rock right at the start of the vine-strewn, uphill viewing trail.
And there is a special bird-hide, a duplex wooden hut where you can sit quietly behind a screen and watch other birds and wildlife, without being seen at all.
Getting there:
Hours and Location: Bolinas Lagoon Preserve, 4900 Highway 1, Stinson Beach, open Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, 10am to 4pm, March 19 to July 17, for the heron and egret breeding season; weekdays by appointment; closed Mondays
Driving Time to Bolinas: About 2 hours one-way from South Valley
Driving Directions: Bolinas Lagoon Preserve is adjacent to Bolinas Lagoon on Highway 1, three miles north of Stinson Beach north of Golden Gate Bridge
E-mail: ac*@***et.org
Web site: www.egret.org
