If you haven’t been to Shollengerber Park lately, you must go—and soon. While the ducklings paddle behind their mums. While Canadian geese honk and preen. While swans guard their cignets, barely visible through the reeds, and red-winged blackbirds burst into the sky like thoroughbreds out of the gate. You must go. Other season have their own beauty, when the sky is brooding and bleak or the land is parched and brown. But nothing compares to the birdsong and bustle of springtime with so many species carrying on as they’ve done for centuries. Even the beetles in the grass cavort like clowns. To walk through it, to listen and watch as the sun shines and the water ripples gently in the breeze is one of the great delights of the North Bay. And it’s free. You must go.
The entrance to the park is at Cader Lane just off of South McDowell in Petaluma. For more information about the park, see an article I wrote for examiner.com, Shollenberger Park, a haven for wildlife and people.
