Doug McConnell
Wow! I didn’t expect this to become a three-part mini-series, but a hike I took recently in the hills of the Bay Area has turned into one. The hike led to a blog about hanging out with my dogs and one about the unique neighborhoods that distinguish San Francisco. This one focuses on nature, wildlife and parks. One walk, many topics.
The great thing, as I pointed out in one of the earlier blogs, is that cities and nature rub shoulders in the Bay Area. In North America, the only large urban area with a somewhat similar character is Vancouver, British Columbia. In Vancouver and in the San Francisco region, you half expect to see bears or mountain lions stopping by Starbucks for a latte.
Well, you aren’t likely to spot bears in the Bay Area where the last Grizzly was killed long ago and black bears are few and far between. But a couple of years back, we did have a black bear sighting near where I live in Marin County. It was very exciting and the first in many decades. Mountain lions, however, are another story.
While I was on my three-blog walk, I ran into some friends and the conversation turned to mountain lion sightings. Sadly for me, I’ve never seen one in the wild, though I know I’ve been very close. But one of us on the trail had seen a mother and two cubs in the exact spot where we were talking about two years earlier in the evening. It’s very comforting to know that we live in a place where big cats have the freedom to move and thrive and where we humans need to be aware of their presence.
Speaking of wildlife, we have quite a few stories about seeing critters up close in the wildlife category just to the right of this blog. And thinking of Vancouver, we’ll soon post a bald eagle watching extravaganza near the city. Please send us your favorite places to view wildlife in the West. We’d love to know about them.
