Hiking With My Birder: Looking for a Trophy Bird at Las Gallinas Ponds

 

Least Bittern

Date: July 15, 2023

Place: Las Gallinas Ponds, San Rafael, California

Coordinates: 38.025824, -122.517490

Length: 2 miles

Level: easy

 

When I realized that I had a free Saturday I suggested to Pappa Quail that we'd go hiking together. In turn, he asked me if I knew where San Rafael was. Apparently there's a nice birding trail at Las Gallinas Ponds, a nearby water treatment facility, and local birders said that there are least bitterns there. I didn't mind at all exploring a new trail and so we packed ourselves that Saturday morning and took off to San Raphael. When we arrived we found the tiny parking lot full and had to find parking along the access road. The number of cars indicated that this is a popular place for birding/hiking/biking and such. There's a county park very close to Las Gallinas, so I assumed many of the visitors there were birders. As it turned out, I was right.  

Our hike as captured by my GPS

Pappa Quail lingered behind a bit and meanwhile I advanced to the trailhead/ There was a narrow canal there and I stepped on the bridge and looked for wildlife. I didn't see any, though. 

Pappa Quail must have better eye than me because as soon as he joined me, he spotted a deer on the far side of the canal. 

Mule Deer

Las Gallinas Ponds are part of a water treatment facility. that means the water in the ponds is reclaimed water that already passed through the first, rigorous cleaning steps, and was released to the environment in a controlled manner. The ponds are belted by vegetation which continues the purification process with the natural process of bioremediation. These ponds provide habitat to wildlife, many of which are birds, both migratory and year-round residents.

Wildlife Pond

It was pretty late in the season to anticipate much bloom, but there was some, most of which of invasive, non-native species.

Yellow Star Thistle, Centaurea solstitialis

Las Gallinas is a complex of three ponds, the first of which is surrounded by with a thick belt of cattail and some other fresh water vegetation. There are several islands in this pond where birds can find refuge from land predators and human disturbance. This pond is called 'Wildlife Pond'.

Wildlife Pond

The first noticeable birds that flew over our heads were Canada geese, flying in a nice formation. They were calling loud as they passed but Pappa Quail didn't bother to look. Canada gees are the true sovereigns of our home city and we see them on a daily basis. So I photographed them.

Canada Geese

The cattail belt was very dense but here and there I could get a glimpse of the water. Or of the duckweed that covered the water. Actually, I was searching for frogs, but I didn't see any. 

As a general rule, the best way to find the location of a rare bird is to look for the birders - those hardcore birders that arrived way before you and already found the bird of desire, and were now simply sitting at that same observation spot and adding the hundredth photo of that bird to their memory card. There was a short observation deck that extended through the cattail belt and over the water. At the end of the deck were two birders and they happily pointed at the far shore of the pond. Pappa Quail handed me the binoculars and raised his camera. Indeed there was a least bittern there, barely visible at the edge of the cattails, far far away. 

Hiding Least Bittern

The birder couple were very nice and we had a good and very informative chat with them. The bittern changed position every now and then, and in between hidden bittern photos, Pappa Quail took notice of some other birds that were in the pond. 

Juvenile Gallinule

Some of the birds weren't exactly in the pond, but they were near by.  Even if not waterfowl, their habitat was still very much those reclaimed water ponds. 

Song Sparrow

Some of these birds I had to convince Pappa Quail to photograph. He was too focused on the least bitten to pay heed to common, frequently seen birds. 

Barn Swallows

Not that gallinules are rare, but it was interesting to see them in a family constellation. Pappa Quail saw them at the far end of the pond, almost too far for even his powerful lens. He pointed them out to me and I could only see them through the binoculars. A few adult gallinule, what used to be called 'moor hens', and a bunch of young chicks. 

Gallinule family

In fact, there were many juvenile birds all over the area. It was the season for the fledgelings to fledge. Pappa Quail added a young night heron to his day's sighting list. 

Juvenile Black-capped Night Heron

Eventually I got bored of staring through the binoculars at the brown spot on the other side of the pond, the spot that was the least bittern. From that distance I could say that I saw the bird, but not what was so special about it. I went back to the trail and looked at the yellow flowering bush that competed with the cattails on a spot at the water. The bugs loved those flowers. 

Katydid

After a few minutes Pappa Quail joined me and we resumed our walk around the ponds. I don't know if there was a difference in water quality between the Wildlife Pond and the two other ponds but there certainly was a big difference in the surrounding vegetation. The two other ponds had nearly bare shores with dry weeds, an occasional tree, and some bushes here and there. 

Some of those bushes were roses though, and I just love roses. The insects loved the roses too and the lovely scented flowers attracted many pollinators. 

California Wild Rose, Rosa californica

A turkey vulture circled overhead. Once more IO had to convince Pappa Quail that the vulture was worthy of a photo. 

Turkey Vulture

The great egret was close enough to the shore so I didn't have to bother Pappa Quail to photograph it. my wide lens was good enough for the task. 

Great Egret

There was another plant that was very common along the shores of the two other ponds - the Himalayan blackberry. It is a non-native, invasive plant in California, but I was thrilled to see that the berries were in season. It was only after I gorged myself with blackberries that the thought occurred to me that maybe harvesting at a water treatment facility isn't the greatest idea. Plans have a great filtering ability though, and I didn't suffer any consequences save for purple fingertips and some scratches on my arms. 

Himalayan Blackberry, Rubus armeniacus

Many of the blackberries were still blooming too, meaning that the berry season would go on for a long while. The more accessible plants had mostly red, unripe berries on them, indicating that I wasn't the only one harvesting there. 

Himalayan Blackberry, Rubus armeniacus, non-native, invasive. 

Another plant I like to chew on when I see it on my hikes is the wild fennel, also a non-native, invasive species. 

Fennel, Foeniculum vulgare, non-native, invasive. 

Nearly all the plants by the ponds were non-native. Here and there though, I did find some California native plants, such as this sedge. 

Sedge, Carex sp. 

As we curved around the farther pond the ridge line of the coastal range was coming into view. The day was getting hot and I looked longingly at the forest that shaded those slopes. 

Las Gallinas Ponds

A tern crossed my view. I raised my camera and clicked a few shots, but my camera had a wide view lens that day and the tern turned out as a few blurry pixels. Pappa Quail got much better photos of that magnificent bird.  

Forster's Tern

On the other hand, I got nicer photos of the California poppies that were blooming near the ponds. There weren't many of them, though. 

California Poppy, Eschscholzia californica

We were rounding up our walk around the other two ponds, which unlike the Wildlife Pond,  had very few birds in them. When Mount Tam came into view I suggested that we'd go on a second hike at Stinson Beach after we finished this one. Our original thought was to go on a second hike nearby, perhaps in China Camp State Park, but it was getting too hot and the coast would be a better choice in this weather. 

Las Gallinas Ponds

Pappa Quail agreed to go to the coast but he thought that it would take too long to get to Stinson Beach. Where else could we go that would be quicker and still along the coast? I was hopping from one rare shaded spot to another. One of those spots was casted by a California buckeye nearing the end of its bloom.  

California Buckeye, Aesculus californica 

Away from the trees we had to tolerate the now almost direct sun. We also found out at that time that we had forgotten the sunscreen in the car. Pappa Quail increased his pace, not caring to look at the mama mallard with the cute ducklings that swam along the pond's shore. 

Mallards, Female with ducklings

A snowy egret stood alone on the side of the pond, not caring about us, or about the mounting heat. I had to catch up with Pappa Quail to tell him we could go to Marin Headlands for the second hike. It was easier to get there, it'll be much cooler, and there were plenty of good hikes in the area. 

Snowy Egret

We came around the farther ponds and were approaching Wildlife Pond again. I thought we would go right away around its other side but Pappa Quail wanted to go back for a few minutes to that deck where we saw the bittern. I saw a bench under a small tree near the trail junction and told him I'll be waiting for him there. 

I sat down and after two minutes or so my phone rang. It was Pappa Quail, and he told me in an excited and hushed voice to hurry over to him. I quickly went over and saw that he found a least bittern that was all out in the open, and very close to the trail. Now I could see how truly magnificent this bird is. It didn't look at all like the American bittern that I was already familiar with. The bittern was foraging, and this post is headed with Pappa Quail's photo of that bird holding a small fish in its bill. After a few minutes Pappa Quail went over to the deck and called the other birders over. Meanwhile more birders joined us, and soon there was a little crowd of people with cameras and binoculars, all trained on that one pretty bird that seemed completely oblivious to our presence there and our focus on it. 

Least Bittern

Meanwhile a black phoebe was doing its fly-catching air loops just off to the side. I pulled at Pappa Quail's sleeve and reluctantly he photographed that phoebe as well. 

Black Phoebe 

I don't remember how long we stayed there but we managed to leave while the bittern was still out in the open. When we resumed our hike there was quite a crowd watching it. Pappa Quail was very pleased. I was happy too, but I told him it was on him to tell the elder chika that we saw the bittern. I went on looking for the wildflowers that bloomed along the trail. 

There were even a few butterflies flying around us and I managed to photograph a few of them. The swallowtail came out the best. 

Swallowtail

We were circling the Wildlife Pond again, this time on its north side. It was from this angle that I got to see the egret rookery. 

Egret Rookery

Soon our view of the water was blocked by the high growing cattails. Pappa Quail remained on the main path, but I saw some flowers blooming on the dry side of the trail so I went over to check them out. 

Dog Fennel, Anthemis colula, non-native

All of the wildflowers that I saw blooming on the dry side of the trail were, unsurprisingly, of the aster family. The also were also non-native species. 

Chicory, Chicorium intybus, non-native

I went back to the pond side of the trail. The cattails blocked all view of the water and of any birds that might have been there. The cattails themselves are pretty to look at, though. 

Cattail, Typha domingensis

We completed the loop around Wildlife Pond. As he crossed the bridge on the way to the parking area, Pappa Quail paused and scanned the little canal. Sure enough, he found another bird there - a green heron. 

Green Heron

This little hike was a successful one - we hiked a trail that was new to us, and got to see the coveted least bittern, and many other cool birds.  The day was still young though, and we wanted to go on another trail. The intense heat left us only one sensible direction - coastal. We got in the car and drove off to Marine Headland.