Self-guided Birding Locations
Visit Almaden Quicksilver County Park in San Jose in the fall and winter months to enjoy the cooler weather, learn a bit about quicksilver mining, and hear the Golden-crowned Sparrows calling “no gold here” from the grassy hillsides.
A small, uncrowded place in East San Jose, jam-packed with waterfowl in the winter and offering great photo opportunities of ducks, herons, and shorebirds. The trails are made from gravel and offer easy, level walking, and there is plenty of sun during the colder months. The mix of creekside and pond habitat can result in a large number of species observed, especially in the winter and when water levels are favorable.
Easily reachable by car or public transit (the VTA 51 bus), this Cupertino city park has a level paved trail that follows the creek through orchards, forest and fields and is lined with benches at reasonable intervals, making it a beautiful, accessible natural area in the heart of Silicon Valley. The paved trail continues south through McClellan Ranch Preserve, where SCVAS's headquarters are located.
A lake for winter ducks and summer swallows, a panoramic vista for soaring hawks and cruising vultures, redwoods and oaks for woodpeckers, juncos, and bluebirds, and chaparral for towhees, wrens and jays! Foothills Nature Preserve in Palo Alto, newly opened to the public, has it all, all year round for everyone!
Enjoy this easy, partially shaded walk alongside the Los Alamitos Creek in Almaden Valley. Bird life is plentiful and varied, especially in the spring! Or visit in the summer to take advantage of the shady trails.
Enjoy some interesting birding on this short half-mile easy-paced paved loop in a quiet San José neighborhood. Those of us who have birded this area for many years have discovered a mix of montane, riparian and lowland birds throughout the seasons including migrants and occasionally an unusual vagrant.
Visit the Los Gatos Creek Trail south of East Main Street in Los Gatos to find the American Dipper, America’s only aquatic songbird. Watch these birds walk, wade, swim and even dive in and out of the water as they hunt for food.
In the mood to get off the rugged trails and try something different? Visit the beautiful grounds of this Saratoga park. Meander the formal gardens of the villa while enjoying the various art installations and the birds.
Penitencia Creek Trail in east San José is a beautiful, shaded creek side trail with easy level walking where wildlife and birds abound. While it can be crowded after 10 a.m. on weekends, early mornings offer solitude and silence and increase the chance for wildlife and bird encounters. Deer (and their fawns) are especially common, and bobcats, snakes, and other creatures are sometimes seen. The creek hosts numerous Steelhead Trout, and in the past may have supported Coho Salmon.
Just a short hop off Highway 280 in Cupertino brings you to this, our very first Santa Clara County park. Drive through lower Stevens Creek Canyon, stopping to bird at parking spots and picnic areas. Shady creeksides, a reservoir to scan, and oak and chaparral hillsides are alive with resident and migrant birds. The secret to finding them is to come early to beat the heat and crowds. And don’t forget your picnic lunch!
If you are not sure if you are a larophobe or a larophile then come along the Adobe Creek Loop Trail between the Palo Alto Flood Control Basin and Charleston Slough in Mountain View and watch the antics of the California Gulls in their colony. We find these noisy birds so fun and hope you do too.
May to June, Western and Clark’s Grebes are taking care of their downy young. You can see babies on their parents’ backs as well as juveniles on their own in the water near their parents. Calero Reservoir in San José south of Almaden Valley can be a fairly easy place to watch them.
The “Beautiful Mountain” lives up to its name. Located west of Palo Alto, sweeping views and multiple microhabitats make this preserve a visual delight to walk through. Many of our most coveted summer breeding birds are attracted to the richness of this park. Lazuli Bunting is an excellent example of a species that drops in to breed at this location. Sometimes residents such as Pileated Woodpecker can also be seen.
Much has changed since the fire of 2020, but this area remains productive for birding. Drive through grassland, cottonwood riparian, oak savanna, and canyon habitats in Stanislaus County to search for Grasshopper Sparrow, Blue Grosbeak. There is also a chance of Costa’s Hummingbird and Greater Roadrunner. Continue toward San Antonio Valley for Bell’s Sparrow and Lewis’s Woodpecker.
This small section of Santa Teresa County Park, located in San José, offers a variety of habitats including oak woodland, grassland, sage scrub, chaparral, riparian, and freshwater seeps, attracting a larger variety of birds than would a single habitat. My favorite of these birds arrives in the second half of April: the Lazuli Bunting, whose song is a complex series of jumbling notes. I get goosebumps when I hear the first bird of the season singing his song.
Just as the Ohlone people greeted the sun each morning at dawn for hundreds of years, so the swallows begin their daily swooping flights over the ponds, creeks, sloughs, and marshes of the Palo Alto Baylands. Though late spring and summer is thought of as a "quieter" time for birds, at the Palo Alto Baylands there continues to be a variety of avian species that are fascinating, interesting and entertaining to observe and enjoy.
Skyline Boulevard runs at the top of the Santa Cruz Mountains. This higher elevation area is home to a variety of birds which are harder to find in other parts of the county. This guide covers 3 stops along Skyline Blvd which can be visited by car and with a minimal amount of walking.
The San Francisco Bay is a critical habitat in spring, both as a migratory stopover and as breeding grounds for many birds. Birding at the Don Edwards National Wildlife Refuge Environmental Education Center (EEC) in Alviso allows close views of the extraordinary species diversity that makes use of this habitat, all in a short distance on flat ground.
This spring trip south of San José gives great vistas of the South Bay and views as far away as San Francisco and Mt Diablo. Butterflies and bees distract as you try to spot the calling California Thrashers, Wrentits and Blue-gray Gnatcatchers. Above, ravens and vultures are joined by hawks and swallows. Trails are alive with wildflowers, insects, and birds and if you're lucky, a Merriam Chipmunk or Western Whiptail among the manzanita.
Hunting Hollow is nature lover’s paradise. Located in the South County east of Morgan Hill, it is a perfect place to bird without the crowds. Even if the parking lot looks full, trail conditions should still be peaceful. The broad trail takes you along a riparian corridor among oak woodlands and meadows, complete with stream crossing and vernal pools. The route covered here ends at a pond that occasionally has Wood Ducks and other surprises.
