Santa
Cruz County is the second smallest of California’s 58 counties. It lies
amidst the very active bird watching community of central California,
but it has remained rather poorly known by birders from out of the area.
Even local birders have sometimes found themselves wondering which
places they should visit. Dark rumors once held that a mysterious inner
circle kept the county’s birding hot spots secret. Fortunately, this
myth has died, and an active local club and a popular local birding
email list server have helped to alert everyone to the many birding
opportunities in the county. This guide adds to those resources.
Santa Cruz County lacks the
famous birding destinations that attract many visitors elsewhere on the
central coast. But the county does have large, bird-rich parklands,
outstanding coastline, and accessible open spaces, with fine birding
opportunities from ocean to mountaintop, and seasonal wetland to old
growth forest. Through its field trips, monthly meetings, newsletter,
and website, the Santa Cruz Bird Club has for over half a century shared
the county’s birding riches with birdwatchers from near and far, and
welcomed and helped all who seek birds here. Now we are pleased to offer
this first comprehensive guide to the birding riches of Santa Cruz
County.
Many
local birders have helped to develop our collective knowledge of birding
spots in Santa Cruz County. While the contributors of this guide each
pioneered birding at places described in this guide, other members of
the Santa Cruz Bird Club have helped to build our knowledge of birding
opportunities here over the past 50 years. Some of the most influential
local birders in this regard were Randy Morgan, Bruce LaBar, and Doug
George. Todd Newberry’s gentle but persistent prodding and thorough
editing of drafts of the text helped bring this guide to completion. I
am also grateful to William Bousman, Les Chibana, Jeff Davis, Scott
Edwards, Ed Frost, Steve Gerow, Leda Beth Gray, Lois and Wally Goldfrank,
Laird Henkel, Amber Hensley, Clay Kempf, Peter Metropulos, Randy Morgan,
Steve Rovell, Michelle Scott, and Roger Wolfe for reviewing and
providing helpful comments on drafts of this guide.
Preparation and presentation of this guide was made possible by generous
contributions to a fund established in memory of Bob Merrill. Before he
died in 1996, Bob contributed several site descriptions for an initial
draft of this guide. |