Birds I'm Watching: Bodega Bay (May 24, 2010)

I spent much of the day today out at Bodega Bay looking for birds and good clam chowder. I found both.

I didn't see anything new or unusual, but got good views of several red-throated loons (photo), mostly in winter plumage but starting to molt into breeding plumage (the throat is red only in full breeding plumage). These birds can be identified fairly readily by their relatively thin, pointed bills and the way they habitually hold them pointed up in the air slightly.

Other highlights included nesting great blue herons, nesting Western gulls, and nesting pelagic cormorants. The heron nests are in the high trees behind the Spud Point Crab Company, which really does have the best chowder in Bodega Bay---as their sign claims. The gulls and cormorants were nesting on the rocks just below Bodega Head. The cormorants were showing their white "saddlebags" and red at the base of the bill--both traits visible only when in breeding plumage. The white patches are beautiful against the sleek black-green-blue-violet of the birds.