It really doesn’t look like much. From Wikipedia: “Aquatic Park is a public park in Berkeley, located just east of the Eastshore Freeway (Interstate 80) between Ashby and University Avenues. The Works Progress Administration created the park in the 1930s simultaneously with the nearby Berkeley Yacht Harbor.[1] Its centerpiece is an artificial mile-long lagoon that was cut off from San Francisco Bay by the creation of a causeway for the Eastshore Highway, during the construction of the approaches to the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, also in the 1930s. The east shoreline of the lagoon used to be the original shoreline of San Francisco Bay.”
Aquatic Park. Looking north
I’ve spent many hours there, walking from the Animal Shelter at the north end, then continuing counter-clockwise to the south, then east, then north again along a paved bike and pedestrian trail, through a frisbee golf course, a number of cyclists, and people out enjoying a modest walk around the lagoon.
I spent a little more than an hour there today, meeting friends, some familiar, some new. I never know what to expect. The following ten images were taken in about an hour in a smaller unnamed lagoon, adjacent to Aquatic Park, no more than fifty feet away. And yesterday, that was where the action was.
The whole family came out to watch Junior’s first flight:
His landing, safe, but a bit awkward.
More friends.
Cormorants are the Ferraris of Aquatic Park.
The drama queens like to show off, wings raised and spread, heading into the shadows.
I have enough trouble understanding people who speak English as a second language, but listening to herons is a real challenge. I just usually nod and smile. And after a while they just fly away.
Cormorants are faster, but a low altitude pelican is a sight, too. Their wingtips never touch the water.
Four in the air, six taxiing.
This is a friend. She came by just to see what I was doing.
They’re used to me…
Other images from other days…
The road between the lagoon and I-80.
I watched the heron wandering around the weeds. Until he made a quick dive into the grasses did I realize that he was looking for lunch.
A tern for the better.
The end.