{"id":4066,"date":"2023-04-27T17:48:43","date_gmt":"2023-04-27T17:48:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/explorer1.com\/santacruz\/?p=4066"},"modified":"2023-04-27T19:05:51","modified_gmt":"2023-04-27T19:05:51","slug":"birdwatching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/explorer1.com\/santacruz\/birdwatching\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Santa Cruz Birdwatching Locations"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Santa Cruz offers many opportunities for birdwatching.<\/h2>\n<h2>Here are some top birdwatching locations in Santa Cruz:<\/h2>\n<ol>\n<li>Natural Bridges State Beach: This beach is a great spot for bird watching and is home to a variety of seabirds, including the western gull, black oystercatcher, and brown pelican.<\/li>\n<li>Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve: This reserve is a great spot for bird watching and is home to over 340 species of birds, including the endangered snowy plover and the California clapper rail.<\/li>\n<li>Wilder Ranch State Park: This park is a great spot for bird watching and is home to a variety of species such as the Anna&#8217;s hummingbird, the acorn woodpecker, and the California towhee.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2><strong>Birdwatching Groups<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3><strong><a role=\"link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.elkhornslough.org\/\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Elkhorn Slough Foundation<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Box 267, Moss Landing, CA 95039\u00a0 (831) 728-5939<\/p>\n<p>Elkhorn Slough harbors the largest tract of tidal salt marsh in California outside of San Francisco Bay. This ecological treasure at the center of the Monterey Bay coastline provides much-needed habitat for hundreds of species of plants and animals, including more than 340 species of birds.<\/p>\n<p>Docent-led tours of the Reserve are held every Saturday and Sunday at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. There is also an early birding walk the first Saturday of every month at 8:30 a.m.<\/p>\n<h3><strong><a role=\"link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.santacruzbirdclub.org\/\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Santa Cruz Bird Club<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The Club sponsors birding walks in and around Santa Cruz County.\u00a0 For a very detailed list of the best birding locations, please review the Club\u2019s\u00a0<a role=\"link\" href=\"http:\/\/scbirdingguide.org\/\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Guide to Birding in Santa Cruz County, California<\/a>.<br \/>\n<strong>Organizations and Articles of Interest:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>|| \u00a0\u00a0<a role=\"link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.parks.ca.gov\/?page_id=22542\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Protecting the Snowy Plover<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 New Rules and Regulations<\/p>\n<p>|| \u00a0\u00a0<a role=\"link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sequoia-audubon.org\/\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sequoia Audubon Society<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 Environmental Education and Conservation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Santa Cruz offers many opportunities for birdwatching. Here are some top birdwatching locations in Santa Cruz: Natural Bridges State Beach: This beach is a great spot for bird watching and is home to a variety of seabirds, including the western gull, black oystercatcher, and brown pelican. Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve: This reserve is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4067,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[31,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-birdwatching","category-recreational-activities","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/explorer1.com\/santacruz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/explorer1.com\/santacruz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/explorer1.com\/santacruz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explorer1.com\/santacruz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explorer1.com\/santacruz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4066"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/explorer1.com\/santacruz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4069,"href":"https:\/\/explorer1.com\/santacruz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4066\/revisions\/4069"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explorer1.com\/santacruz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/explorer1.com\/santacruz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explorer1.com\/santacruz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explorer1.com\/santacruz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}