Category: Northern California

At Doran Regional Park

Although Spring Lake has been my go-to place in Santa Rosa as long as I can remember, I always try to visit Bodega Bay at least once on our visit.  On this trip, we actually managed to get to parts of the beach three different times. 

On our first trip, Leslie and I visited Doran Regional Park and the weather was beautiful – pure sunshine. Plus, we were greeted by several large shorebirds (Willets, Godwits, and Whimbrels) that we haven’t seen in the Pacific Northwest for a while.  

We were greeted by a small flock of Willets

feeding along the shoreline. They generally ignored us as they fed, but occasionally flew up the beach, revealing beautiful wing patterns hidden from sight most of the time.

There were also a small number of Marbled Godwits mixed in with the Willets foraging in the surf.  

Apparently, Willets and Godwits eat similar foods, but it seems that the Godwit’s longer beak would certainly give it an advantage in deeper water.

Since I’ve seen Whimbrels in the past when I’ve seen Willets and Godwits, I kept my eyes open for one — and that’s how many I saw.  Just one.  Luckily, it totally ignored me 

and went about its business of finding a sand crab.

Walking the beach on a sunny morning is always a treat, but it’s even better when you’re accompanied by magnificent birds like this.

Back to Doran State Park

Jeff and Debbie hadn’t arrived from Fresno when we first drove down to Bodega Bay, but we discovered they wanted to visit while there.  Leslie and I are always up to a visit to Bodega Bay when we’re in Santa Rosa so we headed back to Doran Beach State Park.  

I wondered if the Snowy Plover we had seen two days before would still be there.  Instead, we were greeted by a flock of what appeared to be Dunlin in non-breeding plumage.

They certainly all looked the same as they flew up and down the beach when people got too close.

I’ll have to admit, though, that I didn’t immediately identify them as Dunlin

because I’m used to seeing them in breeding colors when their striking black chest makes them easy to identify.

As it soon became clear, the flock was made up of several different species, but especially Sanderlings.

I’ll have to admit that I’ve always thought a Dunlin was bigger than a Sanderling, but this shot —and a little reading — revealed otherwise.

Although I didn’t see a single Snowy Plover on our trip down to the point,  I finally spotted one just outside the larger flock of Dunlin and Sanderling on our return trip.  

I wonder if the Snowy Plovers will join the other shorebirds to migrate or if they will actually nest nearby.  They certainly seemed to separate themselves from the flock that we hadn’t seen on our visit a few days ago.  

It’s amazing how much I don’t know about these birds that I’ve been photographing for several years now.   

Transformation

On first appearance, there doesn’t seem to be anything striking about a Willet other than the fact that it’s almost twice as tall as the plovers and sandpipers it often migrates with.  

It’s certainly not as spectacular as the nearly same-sized Marbled Godwit, but when it opens its wings a remarkable transformation takes place.

For me, the hardest part of photographing Willets is resisting the temptation to encourage them to fly away in hopes of getting a better shot.  

I Prefer Cooperation

Returning from Bodega Head, I noticed a small flock of White Pelicans fishing in a small pool along the shore.  Unlike Brown Pelicans who dive for food, White Pelicans fish in shallower water and work together to herd fish into the center of the flock.

More often than not, the result seems to be that most of the pelicans end up catching a fish. 

After all, pelicans have been around a long, long time and it seems unlikely they would have survived that long if socialistic strategies like this didn’t benefit the whole flock.

While I was photographing the pelicans I heard a ruckus behind them and looked up to see several gulls chasing a gull that had found a small crab.

Considering how small the crab was, I was amazed that this went on for several minutes

Apparently competition, rather than cooperation, is predominant in gull society.  As a survival technique for a species it must be as effective as cooperation since there are even more gulls than pelicans — at least here in the Pacific Northwest — but I’ll have to admit that it somehow seems less appealing to me.