Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco – shrouded in mist. Inset, Alcatraz, iconic prison – 1934 to 1963 

We spent the morning visiting three coastal reserves between Monterey and San Francisco – Salinas River National Wildlife Refuge, Moss Landing and Año Nuevo State Park. In the afternoon, after checking in to our rather up-market hotel in Petaluma, we visited the local town wetland – Shollenberger Park. Although the weather was cool and overcast, we avoided actually getting wet. Surprisingly, we racked-up probably our biggest day list of the trip, including several America ticks. The National Route 1 / State Route 101, fortuitously, takes you right over the Golden Gate Bridge. We stopped-off and did the tourist thing, though it would be nice to see it again in that famous California sunshine! The iconic Alcatraz Island –  home to the abandoned prison, the site of the oldest operating lighthouse on the west coast of America, early military fortifications, and a colony of nesting seabirds (mostly Western Gull and cormorants ), was barely visible in the mist.

Snowy Plover –  there are thought to be around two thousand breeding pairs along the  California coast

Adding a little colour to an otherwise drab day – American Goldfinch. A GABRAT tick