Pacheco Pond is rather overlooked by most birders. It isn’t as big and amenity-loaded as Stafford Lake, nor as fancily circumnavigated and well-maintained as San Rafael’s Las Gallinas Ponds. It can, in fact, feel rather neglected, with a public but minimal and “unimproved” trail going only along one side, uncontrolled invasive plants, and an uninviting little parking area with worn out signs and a poor connection to the path (you have to walk east along the bike lane for 40 yards or so). But as far as bird life goes – and this is the important part – Pacheco Pond is the best publicly accessible freshwater-ish pond we have in Novato, with the additional irreplaceable benefits of adjacency to other bird rich areas. True, it may lack polish, bells, and whistles, but one good first step towards an eventual sprucing up would be for the birding community to give it some love and recognition. Starting right now!
A little context: Pacheco Pond is located along Bel Marin Keys Boulevard in southern Novato, in the transition between the commercial/industrial area and the residential neighborhood to the east, towards the bay. The pond is managed by the Marin County Flood Control District and California Fish & Wildlife. At the south end, the pond receives the freshwater Arroyo San Jose/Ignacio Creek, while on the north end there is controlled inflow from Novato Creek, which originates above Stafford Lake but becomes brackish in this lower section near the bay. The namesake Sr. Ygnacio Pacheco was the original holder of the Rancho San Jose Mexican land grant, including what is now Bel Marin Keys, Hamilton, and Ignacio. Now he gets a shopping center, a road, and a pond named after him.
Immediately to the south is the Hamilton Wetlands segment of the Bay Trail, which connects to the Pacheco Pond trail and indeed borders the southern end of the pond itself, with a relatively fancy observation platform on that more civilized end. Someday, the Pacheco trail will presumably be widened, graded, and elevated to official membership in the Bay Trail, the planned 500 mile route that will one day circumnavigate the Bay. There are also currently existing connections to what is technically known as Bel Marin Keys Unit V, site of the next phase of the California State Coastal Conservancy restoration project that has already transformed Hamilton, on the dirt roads leading out into the agricultural areas to the east, where a few more seasonal ponds will be integrated into the future wetlands.
Waterbirds
As with all local bodies of water, winter is much the busiest time of year. In summer (something like May-Aug), most ducks are off to the north somewhere, leaving only pied-billed grebes, mallards, Canada geese, and non-native mute swans as abundant resident swimmers. What are grebes anyways? Well, they have a separate evolutionary lineage from the ducks, most obviously demonstrated by their lack of wide, duck-like bills, by the position of their feet on the extreme rear of their body (making them essentially incapable of walking on land), and by their possession of unusual-looking lobed toes rather than the more completely webbed feet of ducks (see a fine collection of odd grebe feet pictures and an explanation of the behavior in the pic below here). Pied-billed grebes are the most easily identified of our grebes: small, brown, with a dark band on their bill, and present year-round. Our other four grebes (smallish eared and horned, big Clark’s and western grebes) are varying levels of black and white and do not breed in Marin.
The abundance of these other three – mallards, Canada geese, and mute swan – that make up the main swimming residents of summer might contribute to Pacheco Pond’s lack of general birder cachet. Mallards are too common to interest many birders, and frequently mix and interbreed here with domesticated members of the species, thereby falling short of idealistic nature lovers’ ideas of undisturbed wildness. Canada geese are the rare bird that has changed their migration patterns due to human activity, with a sizeable population now resident in Bay Area parks and ponds, forsaking their wonderful flights of big migratory honking Vs.
And mute swans were a European import brought in for estate adornment and scenic value, but who have revealed themselves to be quite intent on thriving in California and expanding their range, sometimes at the expense of smaller native species which they are able to boss around. Philosophically, however, it might well be pointed out that if interbreeding with those who look a little different, giving up on nomadism in favor of fixed settlement, and displacing native species are crimes for which individuals should be held accountable, many humans would have to likewise place themselves in the denigrated category of “trash birds,” unworthy of respect or attention. Or you could take a more positive, less judgmental position: there are no trash birds!
Anyways, in winter the pond is visited by an increased variety of ducks, as well as some wading shorebirds in moderately shallow water (still mostly long-legged species like stilts, avocets, and yellowlegs). Some ducks you could see here include northern shovelers, gadwalls, American wigeon, green-winged teal, and cinnamon teal. These species typically start increasing in numbers in September. As we move into October and November, you can also see ruddy ducks, bufflehead, and the occasional goldeneye.
One specialty of freshwater ponds with lots of concealing vegetation is the rail family. The two main swimmers are the winter-common American coots (an all black bird with a small white bill) and the year-round but non-flocking common gallinule (a similarly-sized black bird with a prominent red shield on the bill). One common name for coots is “mud hen;” the former common name for the gallinule was “moorhen” – both of these names point to a unifying chicken-like quality to these birds, most obviously in their small bills and unwebbed feet compared to the ducks they may superficially resemble when out having a paddle on Pacheco Pond.
In addition to these two visible swimmers are the really sneaky rails, lurking right on the marshy edges and weaving their way through the cattails and such. There are two main species here: the small sora and the larger Virginia rail. (Ridgway’s rail and black rails are more abundant in the nearby tidal salt marsh.) Rails are as a rule difficult to see and are more often heard, soras with a high-pitched onomatopoeia of their name or a high, rapidly descending whinny and Virginia rails with an array of bellows and grunts.
So-ra, so-ra, so-ra…
The sora whinny
Finally, we can wrap up the strictly water-tied species with a few more unrelated birds of special magnificence. The belted kingfisher has a cartoonishly large head, a cool name, a more colorful female, and dives to catch fish, all of which make it stand out as a perennial subject of fascination. White pelicans can be seen year-round, but do not breed locally (summer birds are mostly non-breeding younger birds). Water-loving songbirds include the bubbly marsh wren, the handsome masked bandit the common yellowthroat, and the smudgy bumpkin the song sparrow.
And if we’re talking about weird and wonderful waterbirds, it would be criminal to omit the black-crowned night heron. These chunky black and white herons have big plastic red eyes, were charismatic enough to attract a campaign to make them the official bird of Oakland, and were the subject of this appreciative recognition in an eloquent Robinson Jeffer’s poem (“Autumn Evening”):
A heron flew over
With that remote ridiculous cry, “Quawk,” the cry
That seems to make silence more silent. A dozen
Flops of the wing, a drooping glide, at the end of the glide
The cry, and a dozen flops of the wing.
I watched him pass on the autumn-colored sky; beyond him
Jupiter shone for evening star.
The sea’s voice worked into my mood, I thought “No matter
What happens to men . . . the world’s well made though.”
Flying birds
The pond is the main attraction. But we shouldn’t ignore the landward side completely. Although it isn’t exactly a pristine wilderness, that doesn’t mean it can’t attract a lot of birds. A good chunk of the trail is dominated by eucalyptus, those tall, fragrant Australians and major nectar producers. Although lacking the diversity of a native woodland, the flowers and sap of eucalyptus are attractive to lots of birds, including orioles in summer, hummingbirds year-round, and naturally red-breasted sapsuckers in winter. Yellow-rumped warblers and ruby-crowned kinglets run tirelessly around the trees in winter as well, both tasting the sweet nectar themselves and catching insects drawn to it. Great egrets nest colonially (a “rookery”) with more than a dozen nests in a tall stand of “euks” visible to the east of the pond. In June or so, you can watch the parents making the short commute to the pond to fish for their ravenous nest-bound young.
Lastly, raptors. Open fields like the agricultural areas to the east are ideal hunting grounds for several raptor species, with a few trees and utility towers for nest sites and hunting perches. The common red-tailed and red-shouldered hawks can be seen year-round, and even one or two peregrine falcons seem to be regular residents. Usually, these birds nest either on coastal cliffs or urban ledges, then increase in number in winter as northern birds come down with the shorebirds and waterfowl.
So winter is when you would expect to see them. But I have seen a pair of peregrines repeatedly in June here, calling in a rather territorial matter. Is there a potential nest site nearby? We need more summer observations posted to eBird! Kestrels and occasional merlins are found in winter and kites and harriers are seen all year-round in the adjacent fields.
If you visit in summer, say late June, and happen upon the period when the hay is being harvested, make sure to check out that too. Raptors, corvids, and egrets follow the tractor in the field, watching for rodents and other prey. This kind of stirring up of prey can be a powerful draw: on multiple occasions, I have seen such hay fields under harvest in Novato attract Swainson’s hawks, Central Valley breeders that haven’t really established a foothold in Marin yet, but which have been tentaively re-establishing themselves in their historical breeding range in the Bay Area. It could happen here!
Practical Details
Getting There: According to Google, 700 Bel Marin Keys Boulevard in Novato seems to land you right in front of the pond, though the pond itself doesn’t really have a numbered address. To get there, take the Bel Marin Keys exit from Highway 101 and travel east on Bel Marin Keys Blvd for two miles, passing through the commercial/industrial section and then arriving at a small parking area on the right, facing the pond. The trail is unfortunately not quite connected to the parking area, which leaves the road about 40 yards up the road.
Alternatively, if you drive past the Pacheco Pond parking area and the meditation center, a small unnamed road immediately before the Bel Marin Keys residential neighborhood leads to a signed trailhead for the Bel Marin Keys Unit V restoration area. Bearing right on these dirt roads/trails leads through a small patch of trees and then connects to the Pacheco Pond trail mid-pond.
You can also access Pacheco Pond from the Bay Trail at Hamilton Wetlands. See that profile for the different ways of accessing the trail; the northern end of the Hamilton section ends at a viewing platform overlooking Pacheco Pond, with the narrower “unimproved” trail continuing along the eastern side of the pond.
Getting Around: Access is essentially only available via a trail on the eastern side of the pond that runs directly between Bel Marin Keys Blvd and the Bay Trail at Hamilton Wetlands. The one fork along this trail connects to the dirt roads providing informal access to the agricultural areas and future wetlands restoration area designated as Bel Marin Keys Unit V.
Birds: See past and recent sightings on Pacheco Pond’s eBird hotspot listing. Then help to fill in the gaps in our knowledge! Is there really a pair of breeding-season peregrines? Are Swainson’s hawks becoming regular summer visitors? Are grackles colonizing the pond? Don’t common yellowthroats breed there? These things would be good to know and you are just the person to solve these mysteries.
White pelicans at Pacheco Pond by Mark Gunn
Excellent – thank you again, Jack!