Willet

Elkhorn Slough is a Federal Wildlife Preserve that is located along the coast, halfway between Monterey and Santa Cruz. It is located inland from Moss Landing. You just turn at the power plant, the one with the big smoke stacks. After we turned, we thought that we had gotten lost, having driven inland father than we thought needed, but we were on the right route. The slough is a saltwater marsh. At one point in the past the landowner, a dairy farmer, had reclaimed the marsh, but it has since been restored to its natural state. There were plenty of birds to see there and the binoculars that they had to check out were pretty good ones (8×42). The entrance fee was a bit odd, $4.12 per person. We (Chris, Anne and I) never got an explanation for that pricing oddity. The parking lot and the nature center are on a bluff overlooking the slough. We hiked down the hill, past the remains of the old barns and then down to the slough. It was low tide when we got there, so many of the mudflats were exposed. The slough has raised wooden walkways that allowed us to get out into the middle of the marsh. Being raised up there like that afforded us a good view of the surrounding slough, but also made it clear to the birds that people were there. This caused them to be a bit standoffish. The birds at Asilomar were more comfortable in the presence of people than the ones at the slough and most of them were the same species. Still, Elkhorn seems to be an excellent birding spot. I just wish that I could visit it more often and learn its ways.