Ohlone Audubon Society

Mill Creek Road, Fremont
2025-04-26 08:30 - 12:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Mill Creek Road, Fremond, CA
Mill Creek Road, Fremont
Mill Creek Road is an underappreciated birding hotspot in Fremont. It parallels Mill Creek, which creates a rich riparian habitat that flows from Mission Peak. In late April, we hope to see migrants like Ash-throated Flycatcher, Cassin’s Vireo, migrating warblers, as well as Rufous Hummingbird, and maybe even a Calliope Hummingbird. Resident Rufous-crowned Sparrow should be singing, and we’ll likely hear the song of the recently arrived Grasshopper Sparrow, too. Lazuli Buntings and Black-headed Grosbeaks should be relatively abundant and singing on their breeding territories. We’ll walk about 1.5 – 2 miles on a paved road up the fairly gentle hill and then back again.
Directions: From I-880 S, take Auto Mall Pkwy east, then get on I-680 north for 2 miles, exit on Mission Blvd, turn right, then turn left on Mill Creek Rd after just a couple blocks. Park on the street near the corner of Mill Creek Rd and Linmore Dr.
There are no restrooms, so be sure to stop at the McDonalds or a gas station on Mission Blvd beforehand to use the facilities.

Test Trip #2
2025-04-19 10:00 - 16:00 | Zoom
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Pine Canyon, Walnut Creek
2025-04-19 08:30 - 12:00 | Pine Canyon, 1700 Castle Rock Rd, Walnut Creek, 94598, United States
Enjoy a nice walk through oak woodlands in the Diablo foothills. Paved trails and moderate hills will give us a chance to see birds such as Cassin’s Vireo, Rock and Canyon Wrens, and possibly nesting Peregrine Falcons. Scopes can be useful in certain areas, but they are not necessary. Meet at the Diablo Foothills Staging Area parking lot (1700 Castle Rock Rd.) at 8:30 am.
Directions: Take I-680/24 to Ygnacio Valley Rd. Turn right onto Ygnacio and then turn right again at Walnut Ave. (NOT Walnut Blvd.). Follow Walnut Ave. to the traffic circle and bear right onto Castle Rock Rd. Drive past the horse stables to Diablo Foothills parking area, 1700 Castle Rock Rd.

Garin Regional Park - Birding by Ear
2025-04-16 09:00 - 11:00 | Garin Regional Park, 1320 Garin Ave, , Hayward, CA, 94544, United States
Come explore by ear and other gadgets the willow and sycamore-lined creekside supporting an amazing array of insects, which in turn provides food for foraging and nesting Neotropical songbirds, such as Tree Swallows, Swainson’s Thrush, Black-headed Grosbeak, Bullock’s Oriole, Wilson’s Warbler, and much more. Research has revealed that this rural setting provides habitat for nearly 150 bird species of which more than 65 are breeding birds.
Directions/address: From Hwy 880 in Hayward, take the Industrial Parkway exit and travel east to Mission Blvd. Make a right onto Mission Blvd. and travel one block to Garin Ave and then make a left. The park entrance is approximately one mile uphill, address 1320 Garin Avenue, Hayward.

Bay Point Regional Shoreline
2025-04-12 05:30 - 08:30 | Bay Point Regional Shoreline, McAvoy Road in Bay Point, CA, Bay Point, CA, United States
“Secretive Marsh Birds Sunrise Saunter”
This pre-dawn adventure will focus on finding California Black Rail, Sora, Virginia Rail and American Bittern. During our stroll along the one-mile, flat Harrier Trail, we will explore its namesake bird while enjoying views of kites, shrikes, shorebirds, and wonderful waterfowl. We will use “Doc Quack’s” special access code to visit this newly restored marshland, so you must be there by 5:30 am as all access gates will be locked at 0545. Dress in layers and bring light rain gear as needed. This is a wheelchair-accessible field trip. Pre-registration is required, and all are welcome. Rain cancels the field trip.
Directions: From Highway 4 in Bay Point, exit at the Bay Point/San Marco Boulevard exit and go north onto Willow Pass Road, towards the river. After about one-half mile, turn left onto Port Chicago Highway. Proceed for about 1.25 miles and take McAvoy Road to the trail staging area on the left.
Reservations required by 4/9/2025 to driensche@ebparks.org

Sabercat Creek
2025-04-09 09:00 - 12:00 | Sabercat Creek, Quema Dr & Paseo Padre Pkwy, Fremont, CA, 94539, United States
Sabercat Creek trail follows a stream in Fremont with excellent riparian woodland in addition to many ornamentals. There are also grassy hillsides with sites for perching birds. We have a good chance to see both Allen’s and Anna’s Hummingbirds and have a five woodpecker day. Since we will be in the middle of Spring migration we should see great birds. We will start the trip from Old Mission Community Park where parking is plentiful and restrooms available. After a couple of blocks of street walking we will access the trail at its Pine Street entrance. Sabercat Creek has seen extensive excavations for fossils so there are many interpretive signs and even an online audio tour if you would rather listen to it than the birds. The trail is mostly level and paved the entire way. Total length is 3.2 miles but since it is an out-and-back, you can turn around whenever you wish.
Directions: Old Mission Community Park is at 1000 Pine Street in Fremont. Heading south on I680, take the first Mission Blvd exit. Turn left on Mission and then right on Pine. The park will be at the intersection of Pine and Ibero Way.
From I-880 take the Auto Mall Parkway/Durham Road exit. Head east on Durham Road then left on Paseo Padre Parkway. Make a right on Camino del Campo and then left on Ibero Way to the park.

Flows of Water and Waterbirds Across California
2025-04-01 19:30 - 21:00 | Zoom
Description: Nathan Van Schmidt will be talking about research on the challenges facing waterbirds of the Pacific Flyway. Over a million waterbirds utilize San Francisco Bay for migratory stopover or over-wintering habitat each year, including many species which have already lost substantial habitat elsewhere within the Western United States. Their habitat needs complicated efforts to restore tidal marsh throughout the Bay Area, and a careful design of a balanced mosaic of habitats may be necessary to ensure the diverse species’ persistence. He will dig into over two decades of monitoring data on ten foraging guilds including shorebirds, ducks, gulls, terns, fisheaters, and more within the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project and nearby remaining commercial salt production ponds, and draw connections between challenges facing these regions and other waterbird populations across the western United States. The talk will dive deep into the ecology of two unique waterbirds with specialized habitat needs — Wilson’s Phalaropes and California Black Rails — the former of which was recently petitioned to be listed under the Endangered Species Act due to threats to saline lakes across the Great Basin.

About the Speaker: Nathan Van Schmidt is a Science Director at San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory (SFBBO), running their Waterbird and Climate Change research programs. A native of the midwest, he obtained his B.S. from University of Wisconsin – Madison and moved to the Bay Area in 2011 to obtain his Ph.D. at U.C. Berkeley, where he studied how anthropogenic wetlands allowed Black Rails to persist through California’s droughts. He has worked as a researcher in the U.S. Geological Survey, U.C. Santa Cruz, and the International Crane Foundation. In his current role he leads monitoring and research on the Project’s non-breeding waterbird guilds, community scientist monitoring of colonial waterbird breeding activity across the nine counties of the Bay Area region, waterbird disease and abatement research, and is the Lead Author of the Central Coast Regional Report for California’s Fifth Climate Change Assessment. His interdisciplinary research couples long-term field ecology datasets on bird populations and their habitats with climate and land-use change forecasting to assess how species persist in human-dominated landscapes.

Scott Harris: RaptorQuest: Chasing America's Raptors
2025-03-04 19:00 - 21:00 | Zoom
Title: RaptorQuest: Chasing America’s Raptors

Description: Scott Harris spent 17 months chasing 53 Raptors across 34 states – his version of a Raptor Big Year. RaptorQuest is about his adventures, misadventures, successes and failures. From -36 degree days, to ones over 100 degrees, to just getting on the bird just in time, to the frustrations of missing one by minutes. It’s about the birds of course, but it’s also aboutthe people he met, the things he learned and why he’s already working onhis next adventure.

Presenter: Scott Harris and his wife Randi retired to South Carolina in March of 2020 – something Scott will tell you was one of the best decisions they have made

in their 45 years of marriage. It was also when he first started birding – a hobby he never imagined himself participating in, but now can’t imagine living without.His interests and hobbies include the largest collection of John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley in the worldand playing harmonica in a blues band. He has written more than fifty books in the past seven years and the one he’ll be discussing is his first entrée into the world ofbirding and birds.That book, RaptorQuest: Chasing America’s Raptors, is the story of hisyear-long adventure tracking down every species of Raptor in the Lower 48states.

Location: Zoom

Register here:https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIsf-iupj4iGNwWOZRGoiFQxSQ-ANlL8dNP#/registration

Owling in Garin Regional Park
2025-02-05 17:30 - 19:00 | CA
February 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, 5:30pm – 7pm

Leader: Bob Toleno RSVP: bob@toleno.com

Though highly sought after, owls are often the most difficult birds for us to see, for the obvious reason that most are typically only out after dark. On this trip, we’ll take a short walk (less than a mile over flat ground) into Garin Regional Park, with the primary goal of finding Western Screech-Owls, and getting a flashlight on them so all participants can get a look. February is when they’re starting their nesting cycle, so they should be active and vocal as soon as it gets dark. We will likely also hear Great Horned and American Barn Owls.

These trips will be limited to only FIVE participants per outing. You MUST RSVP to bob@toleno.com and specify which date you would like to go.

Try to have a back-up date in mind, also, in case the date you choose is already full. The meeting location and directions will be provided via email before the trip. If all trips fill up, there will be a waiting list. Any rain or wind at all will cancel an outing, though I will do my best to reschedule cancelled trips, if possible.

Location Owling in Garin Regional Park

North Livermore/Springtown
2025-01-25 09:00 - 12:00 | North Livermore/Springtown, 2010 Bluebell Dr, Livermore, California, 94551
Contact katbirdca@aol.com

We will walk along the Arroyo, where we can expect wading birds such as stilts and egrets, ducks, incl. Cinnamon Teal, and many wintering and resident songbirds. Rails and snipe are possible. The open fields are productive for raptors – Golden Eagle and Ferruginous Hawk have been seen here. Wide, level trails make walking easy. Bring your scope if you have one. Heavy rain cancels.

Directions: Take I-580 east to Exit 54 for First Street/Springtown Blvd; turn left onto First Street, which becomes Springtown Blvd. Turn right (east) on Bluebell Dr. and continue about a mile and a half to Marlin A. Pound Neighborhood Park. We will meet at the bridge crossing the Arroyo. Park on either side of the street. No restrooms are on our route, so you may wish to make a pit stop before arriving at the meeting point.

Leaders: Kathy Robertson & Karen Kramer

Location North Livermore/Springtown

Fall Migration & where to see it best
2024-09-30 19:00 - 21:00 | Zoom
September 2024 Membership Meeting

Owls with Denver Holt
2024-05-01 08:00 - 17:00 | CA

A Journey To Photograph all Fifty State Birds
2024-04-30 08:00 - 17:00 | CA

Birding Adventures in the Central Himalayan Kingdoms of Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan
2024-03-31 08:00 - 17:00 | CA

Invasive Spartina Removal Efforts
2024-02-29 08:00 - 17:00 | CA

A Century of Field Identification
2024-01-31 08:00 - 17:00 | CA

Is Extreme Heat Causing a Reduction in Local Riparian Breeding Birds?, Presenter: Dave Riensche
2023-11-30 08:00 - 17:00 | CA

California Condor Recovery in Northern California: Prey-go-neesh Flies Free
2023-10-31 08:00 - 17:00 | CA

The Magic of Central America: Costa Rica’s Birds and Ecology
2023-09-09 08:00 - 17:00 | CA

Humboldt County Birding: Past, present and why it is so amazing for birds
2023-05-31 08:00 - 17:00 | CA

Birding the Bay
2023-04-29 08:00 - 17:00 | CA
Part of SFBBO’s Birding the Bay Area Lecture Series

The fascinating world of the New World Blackbirds
2023-03-17 08:00 - 17:00 | CA

A Photographic Tour of the Birds of Midway Atoll
2023-02-28 08:00 - 17:00 | CA

California Black Rail Response to Marsh Enhancement at Point Pinole Regional Shoreline
2022-11-19 08:00 - 17:00 | CA

Field Journaling and Birds - How, Why, and Where to Start
2022-10-29 08:00 - 17:00 | CA

A 27 Year Wildflower Journey: The Making of Beauty and the Beast: California Wildflowers and Climate Change
2022-09-10 08:00 - 17:00 | CA

Dunlins by Lara Tseng
2021-06-22 08:00 - 17:00 | CA
Bird researcher and WFO member

Golden Eagle Population Surveys and Territory Monitoring in the Northern Diablo Range, California
2021-05-15 08:00 - 17:00 | CA

Trial by Fire: California Condor Recovery Amid A Turbulent Year on the Central Coast
2021-04-16 08:00 - 17:00 | CA

A Year In The Lives Of North American Owls
2021-03-19 08:00 - 17:00 | CA
