Buena Vista Lagoon

The Nature Center, Buena Vista Audubon Society (P-nature center cover)

2202 South Coast Highway

Oceanside, CA 92054

Phone: 760-439-BIRD

(Throughout my pages, click the images for a bigger copy)

After exploring the San Elijo Ecological Reserve April 9, 1998, I walked north of Carlsbad, CA, to see if there were trails in the Buena Vista Lagoon. I was pleased, when I arrived on the north shore of the lagoon, to find a very nice nature center (p). It was after 4 p.m., and therefore closed, but made a mental note to return the next day after 10 a.m. when they opened. I continued past the nature center and along the short trails. The toles, cat tails and selge were so tall it was hard to see the water, but some trails ended on the water's edge so I could see across the lagoon. The most common birds I saw were mallards close to the shore and sea gulls, teals, and egrets farther out in the shallow lagoon. The next day, Friday, April 11, I returned and the Nature Center was open. I was the only visitor and the docent, Dorismarie Powers, was VERY helpful in explaining all the lagoons in San Diego County and the birds that use the lagoons during their migrations. I was luck to arrive during hier volunteer time since she only works at this Center on Friday mornings. She also volunteers at Scripps Aquarium in La Jolla...I see how some devoted nature lovers make it possible for the rest of us to enjoy nature.

Dorismarie told me that this lagoon was the only fresh water lagoon in this area. The opening to the ocean has not been mechanically opened like the other lagoons in the area, making them estuaries (p). The lagoon was filling with silt quickly, however, and needed to be dredged and the toles removed back to the original shore line. Wildlife could be easily viewed, she said, at the eastern edge of the lagoon where there was a parking lot and many people fed the birds. I went there, at the corner of Jefferson and Monore, and again saw mallards, and sea gulls, plus pigeons and Canadian Geese.

At Carlsbad Village Drive and Highland, just like Dorismarie had said, high in the Monterey Pines in front of a white house with white picket fence, were eleven blue heron nests. As I stepped out of the car, I could hear, from the highest reaches of the tree, their chatter before I spotted the tell-tale white spots on the asphalt. Then I looked up and there they were, constantly rearranging themselves in their nests...the herons. I took a few picures from my much-too-distant vantage point on the ground while dodging cars. I felt appreciative, on the other hand, that these trees were as tall as they were, and that they had been here for years providing a rookery for the herons who seemed unconcerned about the human being far below them and continued tending their eggs and young while cars passed below.

I was ready to find another lagoon which Dorismarie had mentioned, Batiquitos lagoon. I didn't have an internet connection at the time, or I would have visited the Buena Vista Audubon Society web page at: http://www.audubon.org/chapter/ca/buenavista. Instead, I had lunch then ventured down I-5 south of Carlsbad to Poinsettia lane then east to Batiquitos Dr. then right to a trailhead marked by the extravagant Aviara project which includes a huge Four Seasons Resort, many homes and timeshares. They evidently had to put some funds into preserving the lagoon in order to get permission to build all this project's structures..probably the results of the environmental impact study. Well, the trailhead was interesting and had about a dozen parking spots, as did the other 2 they had built. The fourth access point to the lagoon was simply the dead end of Arenal Drive off El Camino Real.

I donned my hat, picked up my stick, shouldered my camera and went for a round-trip walk from the 'Aviara Cove West Parking Lot' to the 'Visitor's Center' and back. This represents about 1/3 of the trails in the Batiquitos Lagoon.

Return to the San Elijo Ecological Reserve