Audubon California staff have been out at San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge a great deal lately, monitoring birds and studying mammals in preparation for our tidal marsh enhancement project that is ramping up in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Here are some updates.

With regard to birds, at Tolay Creek upper lagoon, we saw some shorebirds in the levee setback area, mostly Willets and American Avocets feeding. Some Marbled Godwits and dowitchers were also present, and about 10 Greater Scaup floated in on the tide or were busy preening on the edge of the breached levee. A Black Rail and a White-tailed Kite were among the few birds that we found as we reached to the west side of Tubbs Island.

At the Tubbs Island lagoon, we encountered Black-crowned Night Herons, Snowy Egrets, Long-billed Curlews, Semipalmated Plovers, and about 100 Least Sandpipers, along with a smattering of previously mentioned shorebird species. At the Tolay Creek lower lagoon just to the north, extensive mudflats were still uncovered and we counted about 400 Willets, 200 American Avocets, 25 godwits, 15 curlews, 10 dowitchers, a Black-bellied Plover, and 6 Mallards.

At the larger of the 2 western marsh interior mudflats, we watched Least Sandpipers and Semipalmated Plovers begin to arrive and forage. They were eventually joined by the first Western Sandpipers and a few of the larger shorebirds.

The large northern marsh interior mudflat area of Tubbs Island held the most birds: about 140 dowitchers, 30 Ring-billed Gulls, 200 godwits, 700 Willets, 85 Black-bellied Plovers, 40 curlews, and two Black-necked Stilts. Others in our party counted 80 Ring-billed Gulls, 6 Canada Geese, and 50 avocets in the upper lagoon. At the West End unit control area to the east, next to Skaggs Island Road, we recorded over 200 Western Sandpipers, 60+ avocets, and 124 godwits.

The second round of mammal trapping went well. These are nonlethal traps that we’re using just to get an idea of the kind of small mammals one might find in the area. Over the three nights of trapping, we observed salt marsh harvest mice, California voles, deer mice, house mice.