Byxbee Park
MVP:
Andrew—My friend Andrew shared the GPS coordinates on where to find a burrowing owl at Byxbee Park and when we went, it was totally there! It was so cool seeing a burrowing owl for the first time in my life!
Hike Review:
We parked on E Bayshore Road, and hiked a big loop around the perimeter of Byxbee Park.
The trails were wide, gravel or packed dirt roads with lots of room for passing.
There was zero shade on the trail, which was nice because the sun did a great job of warming us up.
There are tons of birds and rabbits that can easily be spotted while hiking.
There is a 5k run that happens every Saturday at 8am, so there was a bit more trail traffic than expected, but that was only for a short half mile stretch.
You can almost always hear the drone of highway 101, but it blends in after a bit, and isn’t too bad.
Friend:
We ran into a cyclist, whose name was Ian, on the trail and he was very friendly and helpful. He told us the names of the owls, where to see more of them, and was just a dear. He also told us where he saw a beaver a few months ago... apparently, there are two in the Mayfield Slough.
What Happened?
3.4 miles, 1 hr 41 mins, 105 ft of ascent
On Friday, I saw a post by Andrew where he shared some pictures of the burrowing owl. Seeing that, I talked to him about where I could see it and he happily shared the GPS coordinates of the current nest and where he had seen one before. With this information, I convinced the girls (didn’t take much convincing, actually) to wake up early to go see (these owls apparently hunt and can be seen around sunrise/sunset).
We arrived just a bit after sunrise and hiked directly to the GPS location. We didn’t see the owl until we got within like 30 feet of the owl because of its natural camouflage. We took in the owl for a while, then we headed off to the second location.
On the way to the second location, we literally ran into a crowd of people running a 5k event that apparently takes place every Saturday. Because the trail was so wide, it wasn’t so bad that there was a race happening all around us.
At the second location, we didn’t spot an owl, and instead saw some large hares near by. By this time, Anna was getting quite hungry, so we headed back to the car... even though we didn’t see a second owl, we had a great time at the park.