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Out and about in the Marin Headlands, San Francisco - Charles Post with his dog and the new SWAROVSKI OPTIK CL Pocket binoculars Out and about in the Marin Headlands, San Francisco - Charles Post with his dog and the new SWAROVSKI OPTIK CL Pocket binoculars Out and about in the Marin Headlands, San Francisco - Charles Post with his dog and the new SWAROVSKI OPTIK CL Pocket binoculars

in the Marin Headlands, San Francisco

Out and about

By now the gray whales have begun their ancient march north from the nursery waters of Baja California. Unlike any other, this 12,000-mile (19,312 km) journey is considered the longest known migration of any mammal on Earth. With young in tow, they head towards Alaska and the arctic sea ice. There, where the productive waters of the Bering, Chukchi and Beaufort Seas swell with life, the gray whales will feast and raise their young until October when they head south once again.

What we were looking for were the deep exhales of a passing gray whale, nothing more than a momentary whisp of breath amongst the whitecaps and rolling swell.Charles Post

With a gentle northwesterly wind drifting across the headlands, we scanned the nearshore waters for signs of cetacea. Often a trained and keen eye is required to pull the breadcrumbs from the sea. What we were looking for were the deep exhales of a passing gray whale, nothing more than a momentary whisp of breath amongst the whitecaps and rolling swell. Between us and the whales, tides of surf scoters and double crested cormorants, Brandt’s cormorants, western gulls, and California pelicans came and went presumably in search of roost and rest, food or friends.

Surf Scoter by Glenn BartleyWhite-crowned  Sparrow by Charles Post

Surf Scoters by Glenn Bartley

White-crowned Sparrow by Charles Post

While we scanned the distant horizon, our eyes fixed seaward, I couldn’t help but notice the white crowned sparrows fluttering about. The males proud and vivacious, sang their coastal scrub serenade from the tallest of the coyote brush and lupine that pepper the headlands creating a mosaic well suited for not just the local sparrows but a host of other curious species many of whom feed the hovering red tail hawks that frequent the airspace overhead.

Out and about in the Marin Headlands, San Francisco O/ - Charles Post ready to take a look through the CL Pocket
Out and about in the Marin Headlands, San Francisco O/ - Charles Post CL Pocket hands
It may be easy to imagine this place being hidden away deep in some coastal wilderness

but in fact the Marin Headlands are nested within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, an 82,000-acre nature preserve all within sight and a stone's throw of San Francisco’s urban metropolis. Here where the sloping chapparal ecosystem meets the sea and, in the more northerly facing slopes, redwoods and willow, I find myself at a unique confluence of ecosystems.

Rich with edges and ecotone overlap, the Marin Headlands have been recognized as one of the planet’s biodiversity hot spots, one that supports over 250 species of birds alone. Charles Post

Depending on where you plant your feet, and at what point in any given season you make a visit will influence who you’re likely to meet on any particular foray into the field. And it’s precisely this probability of encountering biodiversity that makes this slice of nature, this corner of the globe among my favorite places to lean into my binoculars and take a good look around.

Out and about in the Marin Headlands, San Francisco - About the Author: Charles Post

Über den Autor:

Charles Post


ist ein in Montana ansässiger Ökologe, Explorers Club Fellow und preisgekrönter Filmemacher mit einer Vorliebe für die Vogelbeobachtung, die Jagd und das Erkunden der Berge mit seiner Frau Rachel Pohl (die die Bilder in diesem Blog aufgenommen hat) und ihrem Samojeden Knute an seiner Seite. Nach fast einem Jahrzehnt Feldforschung und Studien an der U.C. Berkeley, wo er seinen Bachelor- und Master-Abschluss in Ökologie erlangte, begab sich Charles Post auf eine kreative Reise. Er befasste sich mit einer Vielzahl von Themen, unter anderen mit dem Rückgang der Dreizehenmöwen in der norwegischen Arktis sowie der Schönheit und Empfindlichkeit wandernder Greifvögel in ganz Nordamerika.

Weitere Information und spannende Abenteuer finden Sie auf ihren Instagram- Konten:  @charles_post und @rachel.pohl.

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