Eden Landing Ecological Reserve
I went to Eden Landing Ecological Reserve in Hayward a few weeks ago to take a walk before sunset. It’s right off of the south side of the San Mateo Bridge. It was amaaazinggg, highly recommend!!! This was my first time there. I didn’t really have any major expectations, and I left extremely happy. The wildlife diversity and the beauty of the landscape were incredible, especially being one of the only people there.
The trail is a big loop, and I didn’t map it, but I’m assuming it was about 4.5-5 miles around? It took me roughly just under 2 hours to get back to my car. Until the last 5 minutes, I was literally the only person there. I loved it! When I was getting close to the car, a biker passed me… that was it! Felt so nice to be close eough to civilization, but feel very remote.
It’s always exciting to download my photos because I usually see some species that I didn’t notice in the camera. From a distance, I thought this group of ducks was mostly northern shovelers… they were so far away! But when I got home, I saw they were northern pintails! I’ve never seen a pintail before, and I really wish they were closer. This photo was shot at full zoom, 3000mm… hard to actually see what I was shooting…not bad!
It was very thrilling to see my first Northern Harrier! I was walking along the path, and I didn’t see it. It suddenly popped up right in front of me and flew away… landing on a little piece of land out in the water. I managed to get some shots through the chain-link fence… it wasn’t easy because I was at full zoom, but I did it! At first glance, I thought it was an owl; it was huge and had a giant wingspan!
It was awesome because right as I was finishing up my walk, a huge bird flew right over my head, and it was the northern harrier again!!
Birds at Eden Landing Ecological Reserve: