CA Coastline

Elegant Tern

Western Gull

Just love the CA coastline

And good-bye to CA and hello to OR

Happy Mother's Day

Here's a collection of some of my favorite birds and their checks pictures.  Enjoy...

American Oystercatcher with days old chicks ~ South Cape Meadows, NJ

Piping Plover parent watching out for chick ~ South Cape Meadows, NJ

Piping Plover chick learning to feed at the water's edge ~ South Cape Meadows, NJ

Elegant Tern chick wanting to be feed ~ Potter's Marsh outside of Anchorage, Alaska

Clapper Rails learning to cross the water ~ Benny's landing Rd, NJ

Horned Grebe chicks take a ride on Mom's back ~ Potter's Marsh outside Anchorage, Alaska

Moss Landing & Elkhorn Slough

Today's adventures had us returning to the Watsonville area. We, again, drove Hwy 1 stopping at several places that we hadn't stppped at on our way to SF. These included Pescadero Marsh Nature Preserve State Park where you could go down onto the rocky shores and view the tidial pools. There on larger rocks in the water were roosting Black Turnstones and Sandpipers. Plus there were also groups of seals sunning on some of the rocks. We stopped further down the road at Big Basin's State Park, ate lunch and walked across the street where we saw more California Quail.

Next stop was Moss Landing where the Sea Lions was napping on the town pier.  I also saw some of the jelly fish we had seen in the aquarime floating by in the water and Pelagic Cormorants fishing successfully for crabs  Jetty's Landing Rd where we viewed sea otters frolicking in the water; shorebirds foraging in the shallow waters.

Then it was off to the Elkhorn Slough to walk the trails. As it was about 2pm when we arrived we decided to walk the longest trail of 2+ miles that took you through the most different habitats giving us the best opportunity to see a variety of birds. The highlights were Brown Pelicans, Elegant Terns, Townsend's Warbler plus there were Acorn Woodpeckers and shorebirds out on the slough.