This coastal portion of Big Basin Redwoods SP includes Waddell Beach, a freshwater marsh, bottomland meadows, coastal scrub, Monterey pine forest, and an extensive, varied riparian corridor along Waddell Creek. (For the interior portions of the park that are most easily reached via Hwy 9 & Hwy 236, see this book’s account of the county’s mountains.) Facilities include a walk-in campground along the creek and a horse trail camp. The Rancho del Oso History and Nature Center, open weekends, has a marked driveway off Hwy 1 just south of the Waddell Creek bridge.
Beginning with records kept by Theodore J. Hoover soon after he and his family purchased Rancho del Oso in 1914, over 250 species, including a substantial number of vagrants, have been identified here. Every season offers rewards. A recent checklist of birds is available at the park office (0.3 mile in from Hwy 1) or at the Nature Center.
Directions. Use the dirt parking areas at Waddell Beach on Hwy 1, 16.4 miles north of Western Dr (Santa Cruz). Birding is most productive in the morning, when conditions are less windy and many people have not yet disturbed the area.
Birds. The waters off the beach have loons, grebes, Red-breasted Merganser, and scoters in season. This is a key ocean area for Marbled Murrelet, expected here year round, but easiest to view when the surf is low and wind chop is minimal. At dawn they can even be spotted as they fly overhead, passing in and out of the Waddell Creek canyon. The beach itself has Black-bellied Plover, Marbled Godwit, Willet, Sanderling, Whimbrel, Snowy Plover (most regular in winter), and a varied assemblage of gulls. Glaucous Gull has been found, and so has Black-legged Kittiwake in winter and spring. The lagoon at the creek mouth may have Semipalmated Plover, both yellowlegs, “peeps,” and Baird’s and Pectoral sandpipers in migration. Common Merganser and Northern Rough-winged Swallow are expected species in spring and summer. Intertidal shelves just north of the beach attract the usual rocky-shore birds. Scan the adjacent bluffs for Peregrine Falcon, Common Raven, and White-throated Swift.
Walk carefully along Hwy 1 to the bridge to look upstream along Waddell Creek for Belted Kingfisher, Common Merganser, Wood Duck, and occasionally others in winter such as Hooded Merganser, Common Goldeneye and Bufflehead. The “sea” end of the Skyline To The Sea Trail begins across the highway from the dirt parking lot, passing through Big Basin, with the “skyline” end 30 miles away atop the mountains at Saratoga Gap. Walking this trail (here a road) soon after the sun clears the ridge to the east is immediately satisfying. Virginia Rail, Common Yellowthroat, and White-crowned and Song sparrows reside in the marsh near the creek mouth. The slopes with coastal scrub dotted with pines and firs have Wrentit, Bewick’s Wren and towhees all year, nesting MacGillivray’s, Orange-crowned, and Wilson’s warblers in spring and summer, and a variety of sparrows in fall and winter. Overhead in spring and summer might be any of the swifts or several species of swallows, Band-tailed Pigeon, and raptors.
From the park office (open weekends) the birder has several options. First, however, check the area near the office itself and the nearby horse camp for nesting Allen’s Hummingbird, California Quail, woodpeckers, Purple Finch, and Pine Siskin, as well as wintering accipiters and sapsuckers. Scan blackbird flocks for Tricolored Blackbird. Red Crossbill might be found at any season, and has nested in the pine forests here on occasion.
The 0.7-mile long Marsh Trail starts near the park office, crosses Waddell Creek and through riparian forest, and arrives at the Nature Center (the trail’s bridge over the creek is removed in the winter). This trail is reliable in spring and summer for Swainson’s Thrush, Wilson’s Warbler, Black-headed Grosbeak, Winter Wren, and several woodpeckers, and it is a good place to look for vagrant landbirds in spring and fall. Wood Duck and Common Merganser may be seen from the creek crossing. The 0.4-mile driveway from the Nature Center to Hwy 1 may have many of the same species and it crosses another area of marsh (“Turtle Pond”) with resident Virginia Rail and wintering Sora. A nature loop trail begins just south of the nature center and passes through native Monterey pine forest. Highlights here include nesting MacGillivray’s (often in a large shrubby clearing near the shed at the beginning of the trail) and Wilson’s warblers, resident Northern Pygmy-Owl, Pygmy and Red-breasted nuthatches, Pine Siskin, and Hairy Woodpecker, and wintering Townsend’s and Hermit warblers, and Golden-crowned Kinglet. Listen for Red Crossbills.
Return to the park office and horse camp, where a prominent gate marks the Skyline To The Sea Trail. An easy walk takes the birder up the valley beyond. Beyond this gate, the road first passes along a row of aging walnut trees dubbed, for good reason, “Sapsucker Alley,” while a foot trail climbs up to the left through the pine forest and roughly parallels the road for about 0.75 mile. Sapsucker Alley has had Red-breasted, Red-naped, and Yellow-bellied sapsuckers in fall and winter. Other woodpeckers, accipiters, Northern Pygmy-Owl, migrant flycatchers and warblers, and wintering kinglets also add to the interest of this area. The trail upslope provides canopy-level views into the pines and can be good for mixed flocks and Red-breasted Nuthatch. After another 0.25 mile the road enters a mixed forest of live oak and conifer and draws close to Waddell Creek at “Swing Hill.” Check mixed flocks in this area for unusual warblers, and wintering Hermit Warbler. Northern Parula has been found here several times in late spring. Pileated Woodpecker is regularly heard calling upslope.
The road then passes through some birdy agricultural fields (look for blackbirds, goldfinches, sparrows, Common Yellowthroat, and raptors), and then follows the riparian corridor of Waddell Creek for several miles up the canyon. Nesting Red-breasted Sapsucker has recently colonized this area, and nesting Hairy Woodpeckers favor the alder snags. Swainson’s Thrush and Black-headed Grosbeak are common nesters. Listen for Golden-crowned Kinglet in the Douglas-firs and MacGillivray’s Warbler along the creek, and keep an eye out for Common Merganser and Wood Duck. Bird activity slows down after the trail passes Twin Redwoods Camp, as the second growth redwood forest closes in around the creek, and Winter Wren, Brown Creeper, and Pacific-slope Flycatcher become more common. American Dippers range up and down the creek. After three miles the trail crosses the East Fork of Waddell Creek. Look especially in this area for nesting Pileated Woodpecker, Varied Thrush and American Dipper. The trail eventually reaches lovely Berry Creek Falls, about 6.5 miles in from Hwy 1, where American Dipper and Black Swift have nested (although the swift has now been missing there since the mid-1990s).