CLEAR LAKE — As of Wednesday, Redbud Audubon’s popular annual Heron Days still had tickets available for the April 27-28 birding boat tours.
The tours leave from Lakeside County Park in Kelseyville to follow along the nearby shoreline. All tours have an expert Audubon guide on board. Guests view springtime nesting herons, egrets, cormorants, and grebes, as well as other wildlife on Clear Lake.
The Redbud Audubon Society has held the Heron Days event for over 20 years. The event includes taking visitors on pontoon boats to different sites on Clear Lake to see nesting Great Blue Herons, Egrets, and Double-crested Cormorants. Often seen on the boat rides are numerous other wildfowl, most notably the Western and Clarkes Grebes that often put on grand displays of “dancing” across the water as part of their courtship ritual. Grebes too are often on their nests that are formed on tules along the shoreline in certain areas of the lake. Boats are careful not to disturb wildlife and visitors are often treated to unexpected sightings such as otters, muskrats, and even Bald Eagles.
Tours from Lakeside County Park follow the shoreline where numerous grebes, cormorants and other wildlife can be viewed as well as an active Great-blue Heron rookery, or nesting site. The trip from Clear Lake Campground travels into Anderson Marsh and along Cache Creek, which is the location of another heron rookery and may be hosting nesting and mating Western and Clarks Grebes.
Tours are offered every half-hour between 8-11 am. The 90-minute tours cost $30.
To purchase tickets, visit www.redbudaudubon.org to see which tour times are still available. Sunday, April 28 has the most tickets still available. April 27 and May 5 have some seats left, and May 4 is sold out.
