Читать книгу Afoot & Afield: Orange County. A Comprehensive Hiking Guide онлайн

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This hike makes a loop around Bolsa Chica Slough. Binoculars, spotting scopes, and/or cameras are de rigueur, of course.

First, consider paying a visit to the Bolsa Chica Interpretive Center on Warner Avenue at the Pacific Coast Highway. Visitors can also get a checklist of local birds and information about the reserve there. You could also start your hike from there, if you’d like.

From the parking lot on the PCH, a long, wooden bridge leads over some shallow stretches of tide water invaded by typical saltwater marsh plants: cordgrass, alkali heath, sea lavender, and pickleweed. Interpretive panels tell of two endangered species of birds that frequent this area: the least tern, which nests on two small, sandy islands nearby; and the Belding’s savannah sparrow, a bird that can drink seawater, processing it with its hyperefficient kidneys. Early on weekend mornings, photographers use the bridge as a stable platform for their often sophisticated equipment.

On the far side of the bridge, a path goes left atop a levee, eventually encircling a segment of the slough. On the surface and the shoreline, you may spot gulls, terns, egrets, cormorants, pelicans, stilts, plovers, avocets, grebes, marsh hawks, herons, and kites. The number and diversity of birds vary with the season.