Rosendin Park Area of Anderson County Park (Spring):
Pond and Petals
by Rick Herder and Eve Meier
Visit the quiet Rosendin Park in the rolling hills of Morgan Hill for a wide variety of birds, the seasonal pond, sweeping views and the wildflowers!
Trip Covers: April - June
Key Birds: White-throated Swift, Golden Eagle, Bald Eagle, spring migrants
How to Bird
Rosendin Park is a small quiet section of Anderson Lake County Park in Morgan Hill and it remains open even while seismic retrofitting of Anderson Dam continues. The park has a seasonal pond which is surrounded by rolling hills of oak savanna, gray pine, chaparral and grassland. There are nice views of the reservoir, the dam, and Mount Hamilton. Because this park is located at the end of a road passing through a private HOA, it is uncrowded, with most visitors being from the surrounding neighborhood.
Rosendin Pond. This pond in this park is surrounded by wooded areas, grasslands, and chaparral. A portion of the small knob is just to the left in this photo.
On this trip, you will make a clockwise 2-mile loop around Rosendin Pond and a small knob. The wide dirt trail has a gentle slope and passes through a variety of habitats so you should be able to find a good number of bird species. The spring wildflowers are nice too! There are a few benches with views along the way.
Starting from the parking lot, follow the very short trail and turn left at the cement bench (#1 on map) so that you are passing through the meadow headed towards the higher wooded area. Look for coveys of California Quail scurrying about or, if you are visiting in early spring, Golden-crowned Sparrows foraging under the coyote bush. Lesser Goldfinches may be calling from the tops of the oaks.
Rosendin Park trail entrance. Take the first left just up ahead to explore the wooded area alongside the pond.
Continue on the trail into the shady area of oak and gray pine woodland. The pond will be on your right but the views of it will be obscured; you’ll have better views later. Along this section of the trail, the Acorn Woodpeckers and California Scrub-Jays are noisy and hard to miss. Listen for the quieter tapping of Hairy Woodpeckers. Scan the gray pines for roosting Band-tailed Pigeons. Watch the tops of the oak trees for spring migrants such as Black-throated Gray Warblers, Western Tanagers and Black-headed Grosbeaks. Orange-crowned Warblers, another spring migrant, will be singing from the shady understory. Listen for their trilling song that rises in the middle and ends on a falling note.
The Orange-crowned Warbler is a small greenish-yellow warbler with a thin, sharply pointed bill, a thin dark eye-line, and a pale partial eye ring. The orange crown is hard to see. Photo by Luis Villablanca
Shortly after passing the pond, you will leave the wooded area and reach the next trail junction (#2 on map). The small knob is now in front of you. Turn left, keeping the knob to your right as you continue your clockwise loop. You’ll soon pass the closed spur trail that leads to the boat launch parking lot. Note the cliff face on your right (#3 on map). A ridge of serpentine runs from south of Anderson Lake through the lake and north through Coyote Ridge up to the Hellyer area in San Jose. This cliff and the trail you are walking on is part of this large serpentine outcrop. Serpentinite rock is bluish-green, and it breaks down into a red nutrient-poor soil. This cliff has serpentine-tolerant plants such as the endangered coyote ceanothus and, in spring, a nice showing of serpentine-tolerant wildflowers including Chinese houses and gilia. These plants can thrive where many imported grasses and invasive plants can’t grow.
Chinese houses by Ron Horii
California gilia by Ron Horii
Coyote ceanothus by Ron Horii
Also, along this stretch of the trail, you will have your best views of the dam and reservoir (#4 on map). Here’s where you may need your scope. Check the water for Canada Geese, Clark’s Grebes and Western Grebes. At some point during most springs, Forster’s Terns visit the lake for a week or so. Or you may hear the raspy call of a Caspian Tern. Scan the skies for Golden and Bald Eagle, Osprey and Peregrine Falcon.
Juvenile Golden Eagle by Dave Zittin
Juvenile Bald Eagle by Tom Grey
While Golden and Bald Eagles are easy to tell apart, you will want to be able to identify the juvenile eagles as well. A juvenile Golden Eagle is uniformly brown with distinctive white wing patches and a white tail base. A juvenile Bald Eagle lacks the distinctive white head and tail of the adult; it is a mottled brown and white. Also notice the head size of the two birds, a Golden Eagle has a relatively small head compared to the Bald Eagle.
Before leaving this area, remember to scan the treetops on the far side of the reservoir. Both eagles will perch on the tops of the tall trees surrounding the reservoir. Also check the manzanitas and other shrubs that line this section of the trail for Spotted Towhees, California Thrashers, Wrentits and Purple Finches.
Continue around the knob by making a right onto the Gray Pine Trail (#5 on map). (Don’t continue on the Lake View Trail. Read the “Ready for More?” section for more information on that section of the trail.) You will soon see the pond in front of you but, before heading towards the pond, take the short spur trail up to the top of the knob (#6 on map). There are a couple of benches on top providing nice views of the surroundings.
View of reservoir from bench on top of the knob. The reservoir was created in 1950 by the construction of the Anderson Dam. Due to seismic concerns, the dam is currently undergoing retrofitting and the reservoir capacity has been greatly reduced. This work is expected to continue until 2031.
While on top of the knob, in addition to the raptors mentioned previously, also look for the White-throated Swifts which are usually streaking and screeching overhead. They are very noisy, and if they are around, can’t be missed. They nest in the crevice of a nearby cliff face. These birds have small feet that are not designed for perching; they can only cling to vertical surfaces so they spend most of their time in the air.
White-throated Swifts are black and white, cigar-shaped birds with long narrow pointed wings and very stiff wing beats. Photo by Carter Gasiorowski.
When you are done enjoying the views, head back down the knob and walk in the direction of the pond. Continue down the trail keeping the pond on your right. This seasonal pond (#8 on map) almost magically appears with the first storms of the season but dries up every summer. Early spring, look for Ring-necked Ducks, American Wigeons, Buffleheads and Mallards and the occasional Hooded Merganser and Pied-billed Grebe swimming on the surface of the water. Notice the Tree and Violet-green Swallows foraging for flying insects above the water. By the end of spring, this pond will have dried up.
View of the seasonal pond after heading down from the top of the knob.
After checking out the pond, continue on the trail, passing through the meadow of coyote bush and scattered oaks. Along this section of the trail, watch for the Western Kingbirds swooping from their perches or hovering to catch their prey and listen for Ash-throated Flycatchers calling “ka-brick” from the tree tops. Grasshopper Sparrows have been found some summers as well. These sparrows can be hard to spot due to their stealthy behavior and camouflaged plumage but have a distinctive insect-like song. And the wildflowers continue! Look for both yellow and white mariposa lilies in the grass during late spring. Most years there are good showings of tidy tips covering these meadows. The threatened fragrant fritillary wildflower is established in this area and it blooms in late winter through early spring.
Western Kingbird, a species of flycatcher. Luis Villablanca
Mariposa Lily by Ron Horii
Tidy Tips by Ron Horii
Fragrant Fritillary by Paul Billig
Make a left at the next trail intersection (#1 on map) and the parking lot will be directly in front of you.
Ready for more?
If you want a slightly longer walk, the Lakeview Trail continues from where you turned onto the Gray Pine Trail and loops around for 0.5 miles to meet the main trail near the sag pond. This trail has more views of the lake and the hills beyond, where occasionally elk and feral boar can be see grazing. It is also another good area for spring wildflowers, including several species of linanthus and clarkia, but it is a little more rocky and steep than the rest of the trails in this park.
Common linanthus by Paul Billig
Clarkia by Ron Horii
Or, head on over to the Live Oak Group Area in Anderson County Park for a peek at the Wood Ducks and have a picnic lunch under the oaks.
Interactive Map
The red shaded areas show the closed sections of Anderson Lake County Park.
Route Overview with Trail Names
This area is small and bounded by the surrounding neighborhood and the reservoir. There’s only one way in and one way out, so you can’t get lost. For the purposes of this trip, we provided directions based on the physical features of the park (the pond and the small knob), rather than the trail names. A summary of the route using the trail names is below and can be used in conjunction with a park map. Helpful hint: I like to take a photo of the trail map that is posted at the trail entrance.
from parking lot, left onto Cochrane Trail, travel 0.5 miles
left onto Rancho Laguna Seca Trail, travel 0.2 miles
right onto Lakeview Trail, travel 0.1 miles
right onto Gray Pine Trail, travel 0.2 miles (with optional 0.2 mile trip up knob and back)
left onto Rancho Laguna Seca Trail, 0.4 miles
left to the parking lot
Directions: From US-101 in Morgan Hill, exit East Dunne Ave. Travel east on E Dunne Ave for 3.1 miles. Veer to the left to continue into the Holiday Estates HOA area and follow Holiday Dr through the hilly neighborhood. (This intersection can be easy to miss.) The parking lot will be in 2.1 miles at the end of the road. Latitude/Longitude: 37.160500, -121.617045
Notes: The Holiday Dr entrance to Rosendin Park was once restricted to the public. We’ve contacted both the park ranger and the City of Morgan Hill to confirm that it is now open. You will need to pass through the Holiday Estates HOA. This is private property and no parking is allowed along these roads.
Parking: Small paved parking lot and a pullout. No ADA parking available. This small lot could fill up by late morning on weekends.
Fees: None
Public Transportation: No public transportation nearby
Park Hours: 8 am - sunset
Facilities: No bathrooms or drinking water. The closest facilities are at the Live Oak Picnic Area in Anderson County Park Latitude/Longitude: 37.165023, -121.638778
Trip Mileage: 2 miles round trip
Trail Conditions: Packed hard dirt, quiet trails, mostly full sun, slight elevation gain, several benches along the route. Muddy after a rain. You may want to bring a scope for better views of birds on the reservoir.
Accessibility: Hard packed dirt trails can be a little pitted but trail is flat up to the east side of the sag pond. We don’t recommend this trip for those in wheelchairs.
Bikes: Bikes are allowed but not recommended for this trip
Dogs: Dogs are allowed on 6-ft leash
More Information
eBird hotspot: Anderson Lake CP--Rosendin Park
All About Birds: White-throated Swift
More Resources
For more trips like this one, visit Self-Guided Field Trips.
Visit the SCVAS Birding Resources page for more information on where to bird, our birding community, bird identification resources and more.
Read “What to Look for Now” by SCVAS Executive Director Matthew Dodder.
Banner Photo Credit: Black-throated Gray Warbler by Brooke Miller
Last Updated: 3/23/2022
Enjoyed this Trip?
Support the work of Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society and become a member. To contact the trip writer with comments, questions or location updates, please email fieldtrips@scvas.org. You can also post in the comment section below. (If you’d like to post anonymously, type your comment, select “Post Comment”, then simply provide a name, like “Guest”, and select “Comment as Guest”.)