Get outdoors and enjoy some winter bird watching

We may be under a stay-at-home order but that doesn’t preclude getting outside for a walk or hike. Here’s a list good bird watching places during the winter months courtesy of POST.

Located east of downtown Redwood City, Bair Island is the largest island in southern San Francisco Bay, spanning over 3,000 acres. Its mix of tidal channels, mudflats and salt marsh vegetation offers glimpses of white pelicans, terns, the western snowy plover and Ridgeway’s rail. Get trail information. Find out where to park.

A section of the California Coast Trail, Wavecrest Open Space is home to one of the largest concentrations of raptors in the Bay Area including red-tailed hawks. Here’s hiking and parking information.

The Levee Trail is located within the 55-acre Stevens Creek Shoreline Nature Study. On a one mile round trip, be on the lookout for great blue herons, coots and shovelers. Park at Lot F adjacent to Stevens Creek Trail near Crittenden Lane.

The 235-acre Pescadero Marsh Natural Preserve is the largest freshwater estuary on the Pacific Coast between San Francisco and Monterey counties and plays host to egrets, herons, and cormorants. There are four hiking trails. Find out closest parking.

Photos of (top to bottom) pelicans, red-tailed hawk and egret by Rick Morris (c) 2021