Birding Maps
Hayward Regional Shoreline. The bane of my existence. At least, in terms of nicknames.
Rare bird alert descriptions would note places like “Mt. Trashmore” and “Frank’s Dump,” but I quickly realized these were local names for areas in the regional park not included on any official trail maps. Google searches came up dry. Searches on various Facebook birding groups yielded nothing. I spent many trips wandering around this vast space never understanding exactly where these places were located.
Inspiration hit me the other day – why not create a public map for birders? I threw together a Google Map and posted in on the Fremont Birding Circle Facebook Group asking members to fill out nicknames. I got that and more – landmarks and important birding areas were also highlighted. Most of the edits came from Jerry Ting (thank you!) and we now have a crowdsourced map to help us name-newbies better understand the shoreline.
This is the first of what I hope becomes several maps, some crowdsourced and some of my own. A new webpage, “Birding Maps,” is available in the top menu bar.