Birds in the Baylands (Sunday Hiking, part 2)

[canyonwalker]

There's so much to see in the Sunnyvale baylands— once you get past the sight and smell of the fact that it's adjacent to a sewage treatment plant and not one but two dumps— that I split the trip into two blogs. I already posted Part 1 (see previous entry)... and that was just the first 1/4 mile of the hike! There was plenty more to see as we hiked a 4 mile loop.



I mentioned we always see egrets in this area. Well, not in hordes, but we usually see a few each time we visit. This one (above) was somewhat elusive. It got spooked every time we approached within 25 feet. Fortunately I had my good camera with my "birdshooter" telephoto lens ready. (I also used the birdshooter to get that closeup of the black-crowned night heron in the previous blog entry.)

Speaking of birds that do or don't appear in hordes.... Ducks, geese, and seagulls definitely appear in hordes out here.



This pic shows geese and seagulls. The ducks were avoiding this gaggle for some reason. Geese are bolder than egrets, so these let us approach closer before waddling off the trail, honking indignantly.

BTW, in the background of the pic above you see the hangars Two and Three at Moffett Field in Mountain View. They date from WWII. Aircraft were stationed here, and then tested here, through the Cold War. They're now historical buildings because they're actually wood structures and are among the world's largest freestanding structures.

Wiseguys among the crowd might ask, "So, if there's Hanger Two and Hangar Three, what about Hangar One?"

Easy. Just look slightly to the right:



Hangar One has been partially disassembled; it's that skeletal steel structure appearing like a ghost in the distance. It was built in the early 1930s to house Blimps (dirigibles; lighter-than-air ships) when they were used for wartime reconnaissance. Hangar One has its own Wikipedia page.

These three hangars have long been visual landmarks in the South Bay. Especially before the panels were removed from Hangar One about 10 years ago (they were constructed with hazardous materials) Hangar One was one of the most identifiable manmade features visible from mountains around the area.

Nowadays Google has a contract with the government to operate a small fleet of corporate jets there.

But hey, before I got off onto history and blimps and Google, I was talking about birds. And I promised ducks. Here's a 12-pack!



This looks like a good mama duck, right? She led her ducklings around the slough. Then she climbed up atop a small buoy they couldn't manage.

Mama ducks actually suck.



We wrapped up the hike as we looped back in close to the mainland. At the start of this hike I noted that it's next to the city's sewage treatment plant and a dump. Actually it's next to two dumps. The low, wide brown hill in the pic above is one of the dump areas. It's mostly covered over with dirt now and plumbed with pipes to prevent explosive buildup of methane gas from waste decomposing underneath. The slightly taller mounds just behind it are gravel quarries.

If I hadn't told you you're looking at a dump and a quarry you'd have thought it's a nice picture, right? Well, it still is. In beauty I walk.