I arrived at Coal Oil Point Reserve an hour before the sun went down on a warm, gusty day. The bluff-top cypress and sage scrub were painted pink as I made my way to the shore, pausing briefly to watch surfers skip over the white-capped ocean and a great egret tiptoe around the Devereux Slough. Tourists and joggers meandered near a gateway and gravestone left by a British colonel and his Chicago wife 100 years ago. A quick descent to the beach started my trip along a four-mile loop that runs through each of the 158-acre reserve’s habitats, all of them crowded with a treasure trove of plants and animals.
First were snowy plovers. The tiny endangered birds kicked up puffs of sand as they sprinted from nearby dunes to feed on insects among the kelp. When they weren’t eating, they were hunkered down in shallow divots behind protective fencing, their brown, white, and black bodies well camouflaged between rocks and driftwood. A management program has boosted their numbers in recent years, and 45 chicks fledged this season, 15 more than average. Flutters of feet and wings seemed to always catch the corner of my eye.
A little farther down the beach, I headed back toward the slough and the trail that skirts its edge. Kneeling down in the dunes, I spied labyrinths of narrow tracks in the sand left by global dune beetles. A little farther on, the mingling sounds of wind and surf gave way to a gentle swaying of grass and leaves as I approached the heart of the estuary. Dusk settled in.