Codornices Creek
| Codornices Creek | |
| stream | |
 Codornices Creek at Live Oak Park in Berkeley, California
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| Name origin: codornices, Spanish for quails | |
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| State | California |
| Region | Alameda County |
| Cities | Albany, Berkeley |
| Source | Berkeley Hills |
| Mouth | San Francisco Bay |
| - location | Golden Gate Fields |
| - elevation | 0 ft (0 m) |
| - coordinates | 37°53′17″N 122°18′35″W / 37.88806°N 122.30972°WCoordinates: 37°53′17″N 122°18′35″W / 37.88806°N 122.30972°W |
Codornices Creek (sometimes spelled and/or pronounced "Cordonices"), 2.0 miles (3.2 km) long, is one of the principal creeks which runs out of the Berkeley Hills in the East Bay area of the San Francisco Bay Area in California. In its upper stretch, it passes entirely within the city limits of Berkeley, and marks the city limit with the adjacent city of Albany in its lower section. Before European settlement, Codornices probably had no direct, permanent connection to San Francisco Bay. Like many other small creeks, it filtered through what early maps show as grassland to a large, northward-running salt marsh and slough that also carried waters from Marin Creek and Schoolhouse Creek. A channel was cut through in the 19th Century, and Codornices flows directly to San Francisco Bay by way of a narrow remnant slough adjacent to Golden Gate Fields racetrack.
The name derives from the Spanish word "codornices", meaning "quails". California valley quail were once common in the area. The name was given by one of the Peraltas, owners of the vast Rancho San Antonio. Luis Maria Peralta, military governor at San Jose, divided the land grant among his sons, giving the area that now is Berkeley and Albany to Domingo, who built his home on the banks of Codornices Creek.
The first of his dwellings was an adobe which was destroyed in the 1868 Hayward earthquake on October 21, 1868. He replaced it with a wooden structure which was razed in the 1930s for an apartment building. Both were located on the high banks of Codornices Creek across from the site of what today is St. Mary's College High School (Roman Catholic) near the Westbrae district of Berkeley.
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