This guide is dedicated to the memory of our friend Bob Merrill. He loved birding in Santa Cruz County.
Editor: David Suddjian
Contributors:
| Steve Gerow | The Mid-County Coast |
| Leda Beth Gray | The Mountains |
| Bob Merrill | The North Coast, The Mountains |
| Ken Kellman | Monterey Bay |
| Clay Kempf | The Pajaro Valley |
| David Suddjian | All Regions |
Santa Cruz County is the second smallest of California’s 58 counties. It lies amidst the very active bird watching community of central California, but it has remained rather poorly known by birders from out of the area. Even local birders have sometimes found themselves wondering which places they should visit. Dark rumors once held that a mysterious inner circle kept the county’s birding hot spots secret. Fortunately, this myth has died, and an active local club and a popular local birding email list server have helped to alert everyone to the many birding opportunities in the county. This guide adds to those resources.
Santa Cruz County lacks the famous birding destinations that attract many visitors elsewhere on the central coast. But the county does have large, bird-rich parklands, outstanding coastline, and accessible open spaces, with fine birding opportunities from ocean to mountaintop, and seasonal wetland to old growth forest. Through its field trips, monthly meetings, newsletter, and website, the Santa Cruz Bird Club has for over half a century shared the county’s birding riches with birdwatchers from near and far, and welcomed and helped all who seek birds here. Now we are pleased to offer this first comprehensive guide to the birding riches of Santa Cruz County.
Many local birders have helped to develop our collective knowledge of birding spots in Santa Cruz County. While the contributors of this guide each pioneered birding at places described in this guide, other members of the Santa Cruz Bird Club have helped to build our knowledge of birding opportunities here over the past 50 years. Some of the most influential local birders in this regard were Randy Morgan, Bruce LaBar, and Doug George. Todd Newberry’s gentle but persistent prodding and thorough editing of drafts of the text helped bring this guide to completion. I am also grateful to William Bousman, Les Chibana, Jeff Davis, Scott Edwards, Ed Frost, Steve Gerow, Leda Beth Gray, Lois and Wally Goldfrank, Laird Henkel, Amber Hensley, Clay Kempf, Peter Metropulos, Randy Morgan, Steve Rovell, Michelle Scott, and Roger Wolfe for reviewing and providing helpful comments on drafts of this guide.
Preparation and presentation of this guide was made possible by generous contributions to a fund established in memory of Bob Merrill. Before he died in 1996, Bob contributed several site descriptions for an initial draft of this guide.