If you weren’t able to make it to Love Your Wetlands Day last weekend, join our friends with San Diego Audubon and the UC San Diego Natural Reserve System for a Wander the Wetlands event at Kendall-Frost Marsh this Saturday morning, Feb. 11th, from 9 to 11 a.m.
You’ll be able to spot some of the birds spending their winter months in San Diego at Kendall-Frost on a walk around the marsh’s upland, and a rising tide will bring the birds and wildlife a little closer to the shore and the UC San Diego Natural Reserve trailer. Reserve gates at the southeast corner of Pacific Beach Dr. and Crown Point Dr. open at 9 a.m., and the walk will begin at 9:15.
And while no registration is necessary for the walk, you will need to register to join UC San Diego Natural Reserve System manager Isabelle Kay in building nesting platforms for endangered Ridgway’s rails Saturday morning.
On the federal Endangered Species list since 1973, the rails normally nest in deep cord grass, but the cord grass at Kendall-Frost is neither tall enough or verdant enough to provide rails with the cover they need, so volunteers build and maintain nesting platforms with covers made from palm fronds or other natural materials to give rails help in raising their families at Kendall-Frost.
E-mail nrs@ucsd.edu if you’re interested in helping with the platforms, and arrive at 9 a.m. to recieve Isabelle’s raft repair instructions. More at the San Diego Audubon Society website.
Photos by Craig Chaddock