By Guest Blogger Dorian Anderson
This is the first of a series of blog posts by Dorian recounting his six-day Circa Bay Ride around the San Francisco Bay to raise awarenes about the health benefits of birding and raise money for SFBBO’s 2024 Spring Appeal. During the first day of his ride, he led bird walks at Coyote Point in San Mateo and the Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve.
Let’s state this up front – biking in crappy weather is not fun. And I speak from experience because I outlasted a lot of it during my 18,000-mile, transcontinental odyssey (aka “Biking for Birds’) in 2014!
The point of this is to say that the weather forecast for my six-day, circa-SF Bay ride couldn’t be better! Temperatures today started in the mid-forties and ended in the high fifties, so my ride from San Mateo to Milpitas was really nice. When all the twists, turns, and birding detours were accounted for, I covered 47 miles (note the map says 44.5, but I forgot to turn my Strava tracker on for a 2.5 mile stretch).
The day started at Coyote Point, where I led a bird walk for eight intrepid folks. A Great-tailed Grackle appeared at our rendezvous point — always a good find on the San Mateo bay shore — and we scored a variety of shorebirds and ducks across two subsequent hours. It was nice to see a pair of Ospreys bringing sticks to a potential nesting platform, and everyone was thrilled when a pair of Clark’s Grebes reared up out of the water and rushed across the surface!
Other highlights included breeding plumage Horned Grebes, a trio of terns (Caspian, Elegant, and Forster’s), and comparison views between Tree, Violet-Green, Barn, and Northern Rough-winged Swallows. I had the male Harlequin Duck on a scouting pass ahead of the group’s arrival, but we were unable to locate it for anyone else. Bummer!
That walk concluded, I started southeast with birding pauses at Nob Hill Pond in Redwood Shores and O’Connor Pond in East Palo Alto. A northwest tailwind lent welcomed assistance and sped me into the Palo Alto Baylands ahead of schedule. With time to spare, I cranked over to the Renzel Wetlands and picked up the continuing Harris’s Sparrow. I first saw the vagrant individual — it should be wintering in KS/OK/TX — on Feb 13, a few days after it was initially reported, but it was fun to tick it again.
Returning to the Baylands at 3pm, I escorted a raucous group of 18 around the reserve for the next two hours. Dabbling ducks were present in expected abundance, but it was a bold Ridgway’s Rail which stole the show (photo by Chris Overiongton)! The bird climbed out of the slough and walked through the vegetation barely twenty feet from us. It was a sweet encounter with a very shy bird! Scope views of Black-necked Stilts, American Avocets, and Greater Yellowlegs put the cap on a nice loop. Almost forgot – a beautiful male Northern Harrier (aka ‘Gray Ghost’) gave us a nice fly-by.
I departed the Baylands at 5:15pm and powered south through Shoreline and towards Sunnyvale, where I tried for the Tropical Kingbird. Daylight dwindling towards the end of my allotted 20 minutes, I found the bird, continued to Alviso, grabbed dinner at Chipotle, and rolled into my overnight in Milpitas at 7:15. That I didn’t feel winded or tired at any point in the day was great. Hopefully that trend will continue!
Tomorrow I will lead a third bird walk, at Coyote Hills in Fremont, before leaving the bay and slogging through developed stretches of Hayward and Castro Valley en route to Moraga. Sure, it’s a bit off the Bay and will require significant climbing to overcome the intervening East Bay hills, but I’ll be staying with my best friend from high school, who I haven’t seen in a few years. I’ll be pretty wrapped up with him and his family tomorrow, but I’ll update you on my progress.In the meantime, please support SFBBO’s programs to keep birds, ecosystems, and communities healthy by making a donation to their 2024 Spring Appeal – donatons of $50 or more are eligible to receive a signed copy of my new book!An avid birder since childhood, Dorian Anderson abandoned his hobby at age 15, focusing instead on a demanding scientific career while simultaneously struggling with substance abuse. While working as a postdoctoral fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital, Dorian decided to leave the academic rat race and focused on the next phase of his life, returning to birding. In 2014, he embarked on his Biking for Birds project, the first North American Big Year completed entirely by bicycle. During this incredible journey, he biked 17,830 miles (28,500 km) and observed 618 bird species while raising funds for bird habitat conservation. Since his cycling Big Year, he has transitioned to a professional life as a birding guide, writer, and public speaker.
