You know you've become addicted to birding when you start using vacation days to look for Burrowing Owls. That's what we did yesterday. We spent the day at Abbots Lagoon, a new area of Point Reyes for us. Abbots Lagoon is full of wildlife. We passed the largest Bobcat we've ever seen on the drive, and once we pulled into the trail head parking lot we could see deer and a coyote out in the field. While we did not end up seeing any Burrowing Owls, we did see a large number of dirt mounds where you would expect to see them. By the end of the day my total of sightings this year had passed 50 species of birds.
The Abbots Lagoon trail takes you by a large open field, a beautiful lagoon, sand dunes, and eventually leads you out to the ocean. There weren't many people on the trail while we hiked it, so it made for optimal wildlife viewing. We passed one couple that was on their way back from the beach. They had just seen a whale near the shore, but unfortunately we were too late to see it.
We will definitely be returning to Abbots Lagoon again soon. We spotted a lot of new birds here (including a juvenile Night Heron and a group of Horned Larks). The scenery is so lush and beautiful it almost looks fake. It is supposed to be a hot spot for Burrowing Owls, so hopefully we'll have the chance to see one on a future visit.
On our drive home we stopped at a cute little coffee shop called Blackbird. There was some photos for sale of Burrowing Owls and Badgers taken at.... none other than Abbots Lagoon ! So we are definitely sold on Abbots and will be back to spend the day again soon.
54 species and counting !
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