Coyote Hills Park

Wanderlust

We really enjoy exploring! That makes up for most if not all of the many small frustrations of moving from the great city of NY. Within just a few moments we can be in places that are truly sublime. (For those who know about nature reserves Don Edwards Reserve is literally a bike ride away.) Small regional parks like Coyote Hill pepper the landscape around the Bay Area.

We are only beginning to really understand the landscape. Basically we live in a huge flooded river valley or Fjord which forms the greater San Francisco Bay Area. San Jose is just south of the southern tip of the Fjord. All around this great tidal bay are salt marshes that host an awesome number of waterfowl. ( I do mean that in the most literal possible way.) On our recent hike to Coyote Hills we were privileged to have White Pelicans soar over us numerous times. Egrets and Herons abound. We spotted Cinnamon teals and Common Moorhens. And all this in the late afternoon -- by far the worst time to go looking for interesting birds!!

The Coyote Hills are no doubt aptly named considering all the "scat" Nye and I were able to spot. Nye is a fair naturalist for someone who is so young and raised in a city! Makes me rather proud :) We found that we were enjoying both the aquatic landscape, salt marshes and our explorations of these geologically interesting hills.

One thing that we've actually been enjoying is the way that the hills on the eastern slope of the area turn to amber starting in June. The grasses go to seed quite early and their casings dance in the wind. For folks who have been living in NY this attention to the nuance of the natural landscape is really very entertaining. To the East of San Jose the hills glow golden, to the west they are lush and green. This may sound a bit hollow until I tell you that overarching these wonderful amber waves of grasses is the most azure of sky only occasionally populated by a fluffy white cloud.


We moved on to the Grasslands

And that is when the male and female Marsh Hawks showed up. (Okay, anyone who doesn't know the term "Gray ghost" just check out here. This is for bird geeks only! If you read on you have to pretend you know what we're talking about, okay?) We were thrilled to spot a "Gray Ghost" aka a male Marsh Hawk (can you say rare as Hen's Teeth?) lofting over those amber hills close to the marshland (okay, if you are not a birder, just to understand- these guys are rare, really, but if you're having trouble just consider that spotting one in CT would be legendary@!!! We were of course super excited. I've by now made sure Arch understands this type of thing.) Suffice it to say that when a female March Hawk shows up and started to play/harass the male (aka Gray Ghost) we were thrilled. For those who have never seen these birds they are large, brown or in the case of the "ghost" gray with pronounced coloration on their long tail feathers. What is best of all is the way that they seem to float above the landscape kite like. They are quiet beautiful!! (Oh and let us now forget the score of white pelican's occasionally wheeling overhead.)

All in all very picturesque. At Coyote Hills ee hiked among the salt marsh grasses and spotted Egrets, Teal, Huge Carp, Herons, Pelicans, Gulls, Moorhen, etc. Then we hiked up into the hills for a view of the greater bay and some spectacular metamorphic rock formations.
e explored so close to our new home!

Callie is quite wonderful choice to be faced with --"shall we go to the rain forest or to the scrub desert today?" We are so thrilled to be able to explore all the parks small and large in the area around our new home. We invite anyone who cares to join us to come and hike the hills, beaches, and other areas of that are so close to San Jose.

With Love,

Sara, Arch, & Nye