In the recent months of the pandemic, we’ve mainly stayed close to home to do our part to curb holiday spread and then because of the regional stay-at-home order during December and January (now recently lifted). This has meant foregoing our normally frequent visits to the bird-haven that is Bodega Bay.
Yesterday, at long last, we headed to the harbor for the first time in four months. A lovely winter day greeted us – sunny and mild, with barely any wind.
In Doran Regional Park, a Peregrine Falcon sat atop a cypress tree. The bird’s overall brown and cream coloration, lack of barring on the belly, and lack of yellow facial skin indicates it’s a juvenile.
Did something catch its eye? We wonder what was it scoping out???
Perhaps the Peregrine was sizing up one of the numerous Brewer’s Blackbirds in the nearby parking lot.
Or, was it checking out one of these European Starlings balanced on top of a signpost?
Or, maybe the Peregrine was simply resting since it stayed put on the cypress the entire time we observed it.
Back on the other side of the harbor, a cavalcade of Brant streamed by in the same direction.
As the afternoon grew long, we stopped to relish the sideways sun reflecting off this Snowy Egret’s breast.
We completed Grebe Bingo by spotting all six expected grebes around Bodega Harbor (Horned, Eared, Western, Clark’s, Red-necked, and Pied-billed). This Eared Grebe swam wonderfully close to us at dusk, giving us a great look at its striking red eye.
As we admired the grebe, we looked up to discover a glowing orange cloud shape-shifting across the harbor – a massive flock of Marbled Godwits. Though this isn’t the clearest of photographs, hopefully it does justice in showing the impressively large number of birds. After carefully counting a portion of the tiny specks in the photo and extrapolating, we estimate around 600-700 birds – wow!
To cap off our day, a pair of Spotted Sandpipers flew in and proceeded to bob their way along the rocky shoreline in front of us.
As the sky faded to a lovely pastel pink, the birds became silhouettes and we reveled in the stillness – a fine ending to a fantastic day of birding!
Miles and Teresa This sounds like a perfect day at Bodega. I have not been out for ages…maybe soon. I don’t think I have ever seen a Spotty out at Bodega…and such a nice photo. Ah and wondrous Marbled Godwits! Thank you for sharing!
Hi Kathleen, thanks – it’s nice to hear from you! It really was a perfect day, just what we needed. We lucked out with the Spotties right there on the rocks at Porto Bodega 🙂
Thank you so much for the mild weather and beautiful sightings. I wondered why this time there was no sound recordings. Cheers from South-East Québec. André
Hello André – I know, we regrettably didn’t capture any audio this trip, but we’re working on an audio post from 2020 next. Cheers back at you! 🙂
That orange cloud is impressive.
It really was, JJ. The way the sun caught their wings as they murmurated was so much fun to watch.
You two a great resource. As for the peregrine falcon, I watched it yesterday as it sat on a rock, not far from the trail–it seemed quite comfortable being close to people. Henri
Thanks so much, Henri. Glad you got to spend some quality time with the Peregrine yesterday, too! Such a magnificent bird! 🙂
I can’t thank you enough for including photo’s of all the birds you are discussing and sharing with us! I have learned so much from both of you! Thank you, Thank you both!
Thanks, Rowena! We learn a lot putting the posts together as well and it makes us so happy to share! 🙂