San Pablo Bay Trail – Mare Island

Mare Island’s San Pablo Bay Trail winds along marshes that extend to the San Pablo Bay with grassland and marsh estuarine habitat perfect for many birds.  A multitude of Bay Shore Waterfowl are always possible during the Fall and Winter.

Common Residents and Breeding Birds: Mallard, Gadwall, Cinnamon Teal, Canada Geese, Coot, Pied-billed Grebes, Mute Swan, Great and Snowy Egrets and Great Blue and Black-crowned Night Herons, Black-Necked Stilts, Killdeer, Anna’s and Allen’s Hummingbirds, Marsh Wrens, Morning Doves, Black Phoebes, Western Bluebirds, Mockingbirds, Ring-necked Pheasants, House Finch, California Towhees, Song and Savanah Sparrows, along with Red-winged Blackbirds and Common Yellowthroats nest along the trail. Northern Harrier, White-Tailed Kites, American Kestrel, Red-tailed and Red-shouldered Hawks are some of the raptors that visit the marshes regularly.

Migrants: A number of waterfowl and shorebirds visit the wetlands along the trail during the Fall and Winter months including American Wigeon, Northern Shoveler, Northern Pintail, Least and Western Sandpipers, American Avocets, Greater Yellowlegs, Long-billed Dowitcher, Dunlin, Black-bellied and Semipalmated Plovers, Long-billed Curlew, Marbled Godwit, and Willet. Many gulls frequent the Bay including Western, Ring-billed, California, Short-billed (Mew), Herring, Glaucous-winged, and Thayer’s as well as Caspian and Forster’s Terns. Wintering Merlin, Peregrine Falcons, Osprey and Bald Eagles visit in search of the passerines, shorebirds and fish that they prey upon. Western Meadowlarks, American Pipits, Yellow-Rumped Warblers, White-crowned and Golden-crowned, Fox, and Lincoln Sparrows can be found in the thickets and brush along the trail. Upon reaching the Bay one can observe Common and Red-throated Loons, Western and Clark’s Grebes, Surf Scoters, Bufflehead, Canvasback, Ruddy, Redhead, Scaup, and Ring-necked Ducks during the Fall and Winter Months.