In mid-autumn, very large grassy fields around the Bay Area can attract migrating grassland birds, like pipits, meadowlarks, and most exciting of all, longspurs. At Hayward Shoreline, the tiny hill known to birders as “Mount Trashmore” is one of the best places to see these birds.

We’ll meet at 8:30 and walk out to Hayward Landing first to scope through the shorebirds there. Marbled Godwits and Willets should be numerous, and we may even see something more unusual, like a Surfbird or Ruddy Turnstone. After that, we’ll walk the grass of Mount Trashmore, listening and looking for Lapland Longspurs, or maybe even a rarer longspur or a Snow Bunting, if we’re extremely lucky.