Big Sur Land Trust 'Birds and Blooms' walk at Marks Ranch

Marks Ranch was once a major egg production ranch, and home of  Benjamin and Nisene Marks, who settled there in 1890. Big Sur Land Trust  purchased the ranch in 2007, protecting important wildlife corridors.  Big Sur Land Trust continues to care for its beautiful rolling hills,  woodlands, meadows, grazing lands and 90 species of wildflowers.

This  April, Big Sur Land Trust will be celebrating Earth Day all month long,  with guided hikes throughout our preserves and on lands throughout  Monterey County that are part of our 45-year and over 45,000 acre legacy  of land conservation.

For this hike, we wil be joined by our  birding expert friends at Monterey Audubon Society as well as a  wildflower nauturalist to learn about the wildflowers and birds of this  unique property.

Likely birds are those typical of the oak  savannah, and include Acorn Woodpecker, California Scrub-jay, Hutton’s  Vireo, California Quail and Oak Titmouse. Thanks to Big Sur Land Trust’s  partnership with Monterey Audubon Society, we use eBird to monitor the  bird populations on Big Sur Land Trust preserves. This walk is an  opportunity to contribute to this growing effort and all participants  will have access to a list of birds seen during the day.

Marks  Ranch is famous for becoming a living bouquet in the springtime,  bursting with wildflowers. With the help of hundreds of citizen  scientists, Big Sur Land Trust uses iNaturalist to record the  biodiversity of Marks Ranch, including its wildflowers. Within Big Sur Land Trust's Marks Ranch iNaturalist project can be found a beautiful subset of over 300 wildflower observations. We encourage you to contribute to this effort on our walk together.

• Distance: 2.5 miles
• Elevation: ~180 ft
• Difficulty:  Easy. We’ll walk about 2.5 miles roundtrip on dirt roads and trails.  Participants should expect some areas of muddy/wet trail, narrow cattle  gates, and some areas of uneven terrain.
• Pace: Easy
• Participant limit: 12

Please note that each participant must be individually registered (including kids, who need to be accompanied by an adult) through Eventbrite.