Skyline interns awoke on a beautiful Saturday morning this past weekend to meet the rest of their Earth Team interns at the Jingletown Native Plant Garden. Elena Stenger of Friends of Sausal Creek had coordinated a lovely field day for us, involving birding and restoration.
We began the day meeting at the native plant garden, where interns filled up on breakfast snacks. Skyline interns began mingling with some of the Arroyo and San Lorenzo interns that had joined us for this event. Before we knew it, Elena had arrived to walk us to the shoreline. We began an enriching walk along the bay, looking for birds as we walked.
Arroyo intern Matthew even volunteered to keep track of how many birds we saw, and which species. He recorded that we saw 2 crows, 1 brown pelican, 21 American coots, 2 dowitchers, 1 great egret, over 100 gulls, 9 least sandpipers, 12 mallard ducks, 2 Northern shovelers, 1 peregrine falcon, and 1 snowy egret. Most of the birds we saw were congregated in one area, under a bridge, thanks to low tide. They were mostly seen foraging or grooming, but some birds were also seen swimming and flying. Interns learned how to identify all of the different species, thanks to a handy identification sheet. We even were able to identify the gulls down to species, noting that most of the gulls present were Western gulls.
After our bird walk, we made our way back to the native plant garden to start the restoration portion of our day! Elena explained to us that we would be weeding out the non-native plants that had made their way into the garden. She explained how to identify the specific plants that we would be targeting, and how to pull them out effectively.
After finishing the weeding, we began to sheet mulch using some cardboard. We then covered the cardboard in mulch, and were all done! You could tell there was a real improvement in the garden, allowing it to focus much more on native plants.
Overall, interns had a great time getting outside and learning about birds and plants. Special thank you to Elena and Friends of Sausal Creek for organizing this!
