Nearby: Sweet Springs Habitat Walk with Morro Coast Audubon Society

Audubon walks the habitats of Sweet Springs at low tide

In Los Osos, across the back bay. Morro Coast Audubon Society leads a habitat walk through Sweet Springs Nature Preserve on Saturday, August 15 from 9 to 11 AM, with Faylla Chapman covering the preserve’s history and the plant communities that hold its bird habitat together. The route ends at the viewing platform over the back bay, timed for low tide, when the mudflats fill with feeding shorebirds and the platform becomes the best seat on the estuary.

Sweet Springs is the back bay’s pocket jewel, freshwater ponds under Monterey pines opening onto the tidal flats, and a walk that explains how the pieces fit (the springs, the plants, the tides, the birds) turns a pretty stroll into a working understanding of why this small preserve punches so far above its size. Chapman’s history-plus-habitat framing is exactly the right lens for it.

The walk is free but you must request to register through the event link; registration questions go to fieldtrips@morrocoastaudubon.org, and Audubon’s summer trips have been filling fast, so reaching out early is wise. Flat, easy walking throughout, with layers advised for the marine-layer morning and binoculars welcome but not required. Street parking on Ramona Avenue serves the preserve entrance directly.

For more guided walks and Nearby Happenings around the estuary, see what is coming up on the event calendar.