WATSONVILLE—Thanks to a partnership between the Watsonville Senior Center and the Watsonville Nature Center, 22 older adults got a close-up view of Struve Slough, and its birds and plants Monday during the Senior Nature Walk, a program that launched in November.
Led up by Nancy Porto, a bilingual conservation outreach coordinator for the city of Watsonville, the roughly 90-minute walking tour not only brought into focus bird and plant life, but it also gave the group a breath of fresh air exercise as they strolled the popular slough trail near Ohlone Parkway and Harkins Slough Road.
“As soon as I saw the notice for this walk for seniors, I knew it was for me,” said Leah Berman. “I mean, what a great opportunity to get exercise and learn more about nature.”
Porto was joined by Jessica Correa from the Bird School Project of Soquel. Correa provided large color photos of herons, hawks, a double-crested cormorant and other birds to help the crowd identify birds along the walk.
“The wetlands are a true treasure for Watsonville,” Porto said in English and then in Spanish. “The wetlands are important because they are in the middle of the migratory flyway. Here, we can see birds that travel between Canada and South America.”
Red-tailed and red-shouldered hawks, osprey, northern shovelers, snowy egrets, cinnamon teal, mallards and great blue herons are just a sampling of birds often spotted at area sloughs.
The group worked its way along Struve Slough beside Westridge Business Park and took a water break at a trailhead behind the former West Marine. There, Katie Nunez, older adult services supervisor at the Senior Center, coordinated transportation for some of the group in a large van. The van gave them the choice to return early, about midway through the walk.
“These tours are a great way to show people the different settings on our six sloughs and six and a half miles of trails that connect them,” Porto said.
The Senior Nature Walk meets the last Monday of each month at 1:30pm. For information, visit cityofwatsonville.org.
