Audubon Canyon Ranch’s Bolinas Lagoon Preserve, three miles north of Stinson Beach, reopens this weekend and stays open till July 13. The pitch: it’s when 100 nesting pairs of egrets and herons return to a grove of redwoods near the lagoon every year. The thousand-acre preserve has viewing platforms and eight miles of hiking trails.
Here’s a description from the preserve Web site:
The number of nests in this colony varies from year to year but usually totals more than 100 pairs, with Great Egrets making up the majority in recent times. The egrets and herons nesting at Bolinas Lagoon Preserve are a main attraction of this preserve, but you can also find black-tail deer, bobcat, badger, gray fox, raccoon, brush rabbit, meadow mouse, etc. There are also numerous landbirds, reptiles, and amphibians. The Preserve’s frontage along Bolinas Lagoon brings more than 60 species of water and shore birds into view – from sandpipers to osprey to pelicans – as well as some of the resident harbor seals.
Sounds promising. This page has driving directions. It’s open to the public on weekends and holidays, but you have to go by appointment during the week.
Here’s a picture I took looking out over Bolinas Lagoon last September.
And of course there must be a Google terrain map: