The Sunnyvale Landfill, located at the northern end of Sunnyvale near the intersection of Borregas Avenue and Caribbean Drive, is a great place to enjoy the outdoors. The landfill is open to the public for a variety of recreational activities such as walking, jogging, bicycling, photographing wildlife and on-leash dog walking.
Birding Tours
In collaboration with Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society, the City offers one-hour, bird-watching tours in the area of the closed Sunnyvale Landfill on the first Wednesday* of the month from noon until 1 p.m. at no charge. Reservations are not required. From Borregas Avenue follow the Bay Trail signs and then go west to the public parking lot at the end of the road. Tours are cancelled in case of rain.
Previous sightings include great blue herons, red-tailed hawks, great egrets, mallards, pelicans and red-winged black birds. Burrowing owls, currently a Federal Species of Special Concern, occasionally nest on the City's closed landfill.
The City of Sunnyvale requests that visitors to the facility help ensure wildlife protection and avoid damage to the landfill's engineered clay cover by observing basic outdoor recreation etiquette:
- Stay on designated roads as trailblazing
- causes erosion to the landfill cover
- is harmful to nesting wildlife
- is an unsafe practice
- Smoking poses a fire hazard and potential for an explosion if landfill gas emissions are present
- Be courteous to others - keep your dog on a leash
*Due to the holiday, there will not be a bird-watching tour in July