Field Trip: Rodeo Lagoon

Date: Monday September 16, 2024

Time: 7:30 AM

Our first Monthly Trip of the Fall will be to Rodeo Lagoon, led by William Legge. Participants must register using our new Google Registration Form that will be emailed to our Field Trip list on Saturday, August 24th at 9:00 a.m. Rodeo Lagoon is one of Marin’s largest freshwater lagoons separated from the Pacific Ocean by a narrow sandy beach. It is surrounded by willow groves and provides aquatic and mudflat habitat that supports waterfowl, migrating shorebirds and passerines. (NSAS Event)

Details:

Leader: William Legge, our Leader, has surveyed the birds of Rodeo Lagoon for a decade and will know all of the best places to find these exciting Fall migrants.

Description: Rodeo Lagoon is one of Marin’s largest freshwater lagoons separated from the Pacific Ocean by a narrow sandy beach. It is surrounded by willow groves and provides aquatic and mudflat habitat that supports waterfowl, migrating shorebirds and passerines. Regular visitors include: Northern Shoveler, Green-winged Teal, Bufflehead, Goldeneye, Western & Pied-billed Grebes, Snowy & Great Egrets Great Blue and Black-crowned Night Herons, Gulls, Cormorants, Pelicans and Murres. Swainson’s Thrush, Wilson’s, Yellow, Townsend’s, Black-throated Gray and Yellow-throat Warblers and occasional Redstarts are found amongst the willow thickets. Rodeo Lagoon has hosted numerous rarities from White and Yellow Wagtails, to Vermillion Flycatchers and Eastern Phoebes, and even a Willow Warbler that visited in October 2022. The Lagoon is nestled under the shadow of Hawk Hill where migrating hawks regularly pass by. Northern Harriers, Red-tailed, Copper’s and Sharp-shinned Hawks are daily visitors that soar along the flanks of the hill and high overhead on thermals before crossing the Bay.

Directions: Take the Alexander Ave. Exit from Highway 101 (the very last exit before the Golden Gate Bridge. Turn Right and proceed under the freeway and turn left onto Bunker Hill Road. Stay on Bunker Hill Road to the Y and keep left onto Mitchell Road and follow it to the last parking lot past the Marin Headlands Headquarters complex. The Walk will begin at the metal bridge crossing the west end of the Lagoon.

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submitted on August 23, 2024, at 01:26 PM PST

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