Redwinged black bird. Just one of the more than 340 species of bird to be found in Elkhorn Slough.

The Elkhorn Slough is home to hundreds of species of birds, so our birding hikes provide quite the eyeful. Join Expert Birder Rick Fournier as he leads you through the best places to see birds of every stripe and feather.

This year there will be a bird walk on May 6th and another October 20th. You can reserve a spot on these special hikes online or by calling the Foundation. These events are free for ESF members, and a wonderful way to see the watershed and its beautiful inhabitants.

A new addition to the Research webpage summarizes the most recent work done to understand our salt marshes. The summary is a bit technical, so here are the highlights:

Wetlands require a very specific slope and elevation to exist, these habitats are rare. Even small changes in the amount of sediment deposited on them, or to the rate of sea level rise, can have dramatic impacts on marshes in Elkhorn Slough and elsewhere.

More than 150 years ago, the coverage of marsh habitat in the Elkhorn Slough watershed actually changed frequently, with periods of expansion and contraction. Within the past 150 years a significant amount of marsh has been lost, and those losses are attributable to artificial restriction of the natural ebb and flow of the tides, which caused marshes to shrink down like a dried sponge - a process called subsidence. Diking and draining the wetlands caused much of these losses, as did moving the harbor mouth in Moss Landing, and possibly other factors did as well.

Modeling done by Reserve researchers predicts that sea level rise will make marsh restoration very challenging, and targeted restoration projects will be the most successful.

If you want to know more about this recent research work, you can find the details on our Research webpage.

Photo courtesy of Ian Stickland

For thirty years the Elkhorn Slough Foundation has shared stories of the way we see the watershed with you. This year, we've asked you to share some of your favorite slough stories with us. Jo-Anne Dao had a great tale to share--here it is in her own words:

One day about 7 years ago we were kayaking in the slough with friends and family. It was a gorgeous day and we brought our picnic lunch. We all pulled over to that beach on the right where it is ok to do so and as we were sitting there enjoying the sights, sounds, and delicious meal, a man in a striking wooden kayak came ashore. He said he needed help and without asking what for, we jumped and said, "sure, what do ya need?"

It turned out that he just happened upon a little squirrel in the middle of the slough, struggling to stay afloat. He basically scooped up the little fellow, put him in his kayak and came ashore. The squirrel was at the bottom of the kayak and too scared to come out. We all sat there for what seemed hours before the squirrel finally made his way to the opening and cautiously peeked out and then ran to the bushes for cover.

To this day we wonder why he ended up in the middle of the slough....was he being carried away to be someone's lunch and got dropped??? We'll never know but still think about him.

Thank you Jo-Anne, for sharing this amazing story! If you'd like to share your story too, send it to stories@elkhornslough.org. If we share it, we'll send you a $10 gift certificate to the Visitor Center bookstore.

Every month we invite submissions for our best shot contest. This month, the winning shot of a Great Blue Heron was taken by Geoff Oddie. "Whilst walking along the waterfront at Moss Landing taking photos of an otter, I turned to see this blue heron, nicely lit by the early morning sunlight and sitting on the rock wall."

You can see more of our Best Shots in the archive, or submit one of your own!

Last month we told you that if we could get 30 new Facebook likes in 30 days (in honor of our 30th anniversary his year) we'd do a special Facebook post raffling off free Reserve day passes. We got a great response and blew right past the 1,000 friend mark. If you are a Facebook fan of ours, check in today to see if you won a free day pass to the Reserve!

We also passed our 100 follower mark for Twitter this month--thanks for the support! You can follow us on twitter to hear the latest news in the watershed, including local events and interesting stories.