Tuesday, July 8th, 2008
This collection of links focuses on the Stevens Creek Nature Trail and the sag pond which is the source of Stevens Creek.
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Tags: creek, field, hike, mi, Milpitas Camera Club, monte bello, Monte Bello Open Space Preserve, Near-by, Neil Wiley's, Photo, pond, sag, spcwc, stevens creek, stevens creek nature trail, The Land, The San Andreas, Tom Mangan, Trailspotting, Trimble, USGS, Weekly Walker
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Wednesday, December 12th, 2007
First, a link to an older story about a Zeppelin possibly making use of Moffett Field. To my uninformed eye, that looks like a delightful co-use of the space, and my steampunk sensibilities prompt me to wonder if the bay area needs lots of zeppelins for disaster relief. About the time i ran across that article I found Steve Williams‘ site. He is “a pilot and aircraft owner from Mountain View. [His] goal for [his] web site is to record news and opinions about public use of Moffett Field, and especially civil aviation use.” He is such a well measured correspondent and his site provides such a useful service, i hope that civil aviation use can be found to have no negative effect on the wildlife refuge. He’s provided an update on the Hanger One report from the Navy, delayed until January.
In other news, the SF Chronicle ran an article about the release of the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project report with this supportive blog entry from a hiker. I wish i could have taken more time off from work to be involved in the report development, and wonder if i should volunteer to be on the Alviso Ponds & Santa Clara County Working Group. There seem to be no surprises. The Chron reports that, “Today’s plan favors converting 90 percent of the former ponds to tidal marsh,” and mentions the concept of adaptive management (explained in a KQED segment) and how that may change that target date as observations are made about the effects of the early changes. I’m personally delighted to hear that, “A 2 1/2-mile segment of the Bay Trail will open between Mountain View’s Stevens Creek and Sunnyvale for hiking, biking and watching wildlife.” The December Newsletter reports, “Next year should be particularly exciting as we plan to … open the segment of Bay Trail adjacent to Moffett Field.” I’m not patient enough to dig out an exact date, but i think the work i’ve been observing has been of trail development. I hope it’s soon. When i walk out to the bay on the trail beside the creek, i really enjoy the sense of being so far away from sub/urban life and the changing views of the Moffett Field buildings. I think this will be an exciting addition. I do hope that in opening it up to public use that the public can respect the wildlife habitat and that i don’t have any more encounters with runners with their dogs off leash. (Dogs are not allowed in the Don Edwards section of the Stevens Creek Trail.)
Just as as side note, as i look at the maps being put out as part of the restoration planning, i note the well marked Hetch Hetcy aqueduct and ponder again whether Santa Clara parcel data has grounds for not responding to freedom of information requests for data on the grounds of a threat to homeland security. Hrmph.
Hangar One, Don Edwards NWR,South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project,salt ponds
Tags: bay, bay trail, Dogs, Don Edwards, Hangar One Don Edwards NWR South Bay Salt Pond Restorat, Hanger One, He's, Hetch Hetcy, Hrmph, I'm, January, KQED, Looks, Moffett Field, mountain view, Mountain View's Stevens Creek, Navy, pond, report, Santa Clara, SF Chronicle, South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project, Steve Williams', Stevens Creek Trail, Sunnyvale, The Chron, The December Newsletter, Today's, trail, Zeppelin
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Friday, September 21st, 2007
KQED’s “Quest” show produced a segment on the salt pond restoration which introduces the concept of adaptive management and how that will be well implemented in the fifty year project of transitioning the industrial salt ponds into a variety of restored and managed habitats in the south bay.
View the segment then make comments
The July-September 2007 issue of Bay Nature has some information on the restoration of San Pablo Bay wetlands and salt marshes (ie: North Bay) The full supplement is available as a 2.2 MB PDF. The October-December 2004 issue has a south bay report that may still be of interests for background reading.
salt ponds, wetlands, san francisco bay, don edwards, Don Edwards National Wildlife Refuge, adaptive management, salt marshes
Tags: bay, Bay Nature, Don Edwards National Wildlife Refuge, KQED's Quest, management, MB PDF The October-December, North Bay The, pond, restoration, salt, San Pablo Bay, The July-September, View
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Sunday, July 22nd, 2007
Early in the day, i updated the page with GIS data for Stevens Creek.
I met my walking companion at 12:30 at the Crittendon trailhead. From the bridge, it was clear the tide was out — it seemed further out than i’ve seen it before. We were looking upstream at the banks for the turtle when we noticed a brown mammal swimming upstream, its long tail out behind it like a rudder. It was clearly very comfortable in the water and dived several times as it continued up stream. We concluded that it was a muskrat, since it was larger than a ground squirrel (we saw several scampering before us) and muskrats have been found in Charleston Marsh.
There were many trucks coming down the east side of the creek, leaving. We were walking on the low road between the creek and the east levee and met a vehicle. The driver was from the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory, and he explained that there was an informal bird count, folks were checking on reports of a nesting black skimmer. Today, there’s a report from Al Eisner to the South-Bay-Birds mailing list about the lower reach [see below] that makes no mention of Black Skimmers, but there was a post about black skimmers showing nesting behavior in Alviso.
My friend and I did not see much to remark in the Crittenden Marsh, which must now be very saline. Along the banks of the creek at around salt pond AB1 there were many great and snowy egrets and brown lumps high on the bank. My friend was able to identify the lumps as probably gadwalls; looking through the binoculars revealed a lovely great blue heron well camouflaged by the grasses. In AB1 there were a great number of snowy and great egrets as well as white pelicans. At the mouth of the creek it was clear many birds were feeding at the the edge of the mud flats where the creek channel met the bay, too far away to observe.
We could also hear raucous feeding in the salt pond to the west, but couldn’t see the birds. Terns dipped in the creek and the salt pond, four or five ruddy ducks bobbed in the north west corner of AB1. Walking back we noticed over three grebes bobbing and diving in A2E.
My friend was able to identify this plant for me. It’s been chopped far back at this point. It’s a Sambucus mexicana which i’ve documented further up the creek near the Microsoft buildings. I believe those were planted by the Friends of Stevens Creek trail. We also noticed plenty of patches of saltmarsh dodder.
We returned to the trailhead at around 2:30. Great Walk!
Excerpts from Al Eisner’s bird report to the South Bay Bird list are below
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Tags: Alviso, American White Pelicans, bird, Black Skimmers, Brown Pelicans, charleston marsh, creek, Crittenden Lane, crittenden marsh, Crittendon, egrets, Excerpts, Forster's-type Terns, Friends, GIS, great, Great Walk, Greater Yellowlegs, Gulls, In AB, It's, Least Sandpipers, Least Terns, Microsoft, pelicans, pond, Sambucus, San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory, Semipalmated Plovers, Snowy, South Bay Bird, South-Bay-Birds, stevens creek, Stevens CreekUse, Stilts, Terns, Walking
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