Birding Festival - part 2

This is MoonGlow Dairy. Click on the link to read more about it. They are situated on the south side of Elkhorn Slough, just off of State Highway 1, near Moss Landing. This is my concept of what met us at the end of the road -- these cows are eating artichokes. I couldn't pass up this photo op with the tree and part of Elkhorn Slough in the background.

[Don't forget to click on the photos to see larger images.]

Another first that I saw was this nest. Any guesses what bird made this nest? I haven't a clue, but it was quite large, so my guess would be a raptor of sorts.
As we walked down the trail we saw several birds in the pond. They all looked like the bird in the photo below. This was the best shot I could get. I recommend going to Red's blog to see better photos. Anyway, Red has informed me that this is a red-necked phalarope. And there were at least 30 of these birds in the pond. This is apparently their winter plumage and definitely a lifer. Now I wonder if I would recognize these same birds in their breeding plumage.

A little farther down the trail we came to a clearing where we could see quite a bit of Elkhorn Slough. We saw some folks enjoying themselves kayaking. I sure hope I get to do it one of these days. It looks like a lot of fun, and you can certainly see a lot more wildlife up close and personal.

Great egrets abound, and so do brown pelicans. Here is a shot of a great egret that seemed to pose for me. In the background you can see pelicans (well actually they are too far away) about midway (horizontally) in the photo.

The grebe in the center of this photo is a Western grebe. The other two I couldn't ID. But we were told that both Clark's and Westerns are all around in Elkhorn Slough.

These two are pie-billed grebes -- more common birds found in the area. Nonetheless, I think they are cute.

And here is my shot of brown pelicans flying low over the slough. Red has better shots of the pelicans.

Here's another shot of more pelicans flying over the slough. It was funny to watch these birds because they chose to fly only over the slough. They would not necessarily fly over the land, only the water.

Here is another shot of grebes. This one I could better identify them. The farthest left and the farthest right are Westerns. The second grebe on the right is a Clark's. As you will note from a field guide the Western grebe's black cap extends over the eye and has a greenish-yellow bill. The Clark's grebe has a black cap that stops just above the eye and has an orangey-yellow bill. Now just to let you know, if you look closely at the grebe on the far left it has the cap that says "Western." But if you look at the color of the bill it's the color of a "Clark's." Could it be a hybrid? I've heard that it does happen.

Farther down the trail there were fewer birds, but different species we didn't see earlier on the trail. This bird is a long-billed curlew, another lifer.

Another solitary bird -- this is a marbled godwit. I think it's funny this bird was being a loner because I have seen marbled godwits before (at Palo Alto Baylands) and they are found in large flocks. According to Stokes Field Guide these birds are found among moist grasslands in the summer and they winter along the coast. They certainly have an interesting diet -- worms, mollusks, crustaceans, grasshoppers, and pondweed and sedge seeds and tubers.

Now this photo you'll have to take my word for it -- there are many Western Sandpipers in that sandy area. Apparently they have a similar diet to the marbled godwit. But I thought it was strange they were just laying around on the ground. Maybe they decided to sun themselves. They didn't look like they were searching for food. Any other thoughts to why they were on "land" rather than on a watery mudflat?

The smaller birds at the Coast Guard station

To see the Brandt's Cormorants and brown pelicans in Monterey was plenty exciting. I can't believe I was so close to the brown pelicans, close enough to zoom in on my little point and shoot camera and get good shots. My other experience has been seeing pelicans way out in the bay or ocean -- so far that the zoom on my point and shoot still couldn't bring the birds close enough to get a decent shot. Anyway, seeing these two species was so cool it was worth the trip. But I also got shots of other birds, and some I could not get. When we first walked on the pier I saw a black-crowned night heron perched on a piling. And by the time I got my camera out he flew off. That was another incident where the bird was closer than I have ever been to a BCNH. Another bird we saw, but was moving too fast for me to get any decent pictures was a swallow. What kind of swallow? Well, I'm not sure. But by process of elimination we think it was a northern rough-winged swallow. But because I'm not positive I won't count it on my life list. The other birds we saw but didn't bother to get pictures of were Canada geese. The geese were located between the parking lot and one of the historical buildings adjacent to the trail and Fisherman's Wharf.

Be sure to click on the photos to see larger images.

Now here are a couple of shots of a dark colored bird about the size of a mourning dove. Red and I have been trying to figure out if these were ruddy or black turnstones. But my Stokes guide says black turnstones have a white spot between their eyes and bill. The other marking that was noticed was the color of their legs/feet. Ruddies have yellowish feet, and black turnstones have dark colored legs/feet.
So now I can add another lifer - black turnstone. And just look at the photo below. This one took off as I was snapping the picture. Look at that beautiful pattern of black/brown and white. Now the crazy thing about this shot is that this bird's feet look more on the yellow side than dark brown/black. So now you can see how we have been confused as to which turnstone. But for now I'll still say they were all black turnstones.

Now here is another bird who was hanging around in the same location as the turnstones. And at first I didn't even realize it was a different species. But this one's head looked different. Its back looked so similar to a turnstone, but this bird had very yellow feet.
And this shot shows how speckled its head and breast are. So here is another lifer - a surfbird. I think both turnstones and surfbirds are really very pretty, especially when they are in flight.

While watching the pelicans in flight over the bay we also saw a few kayakers enjoying their time kayaking around the bay. And while we were watching the pelicans and kayakers we saw periodically something jumping out of the water. Eventually we realized it was a couple of dolphins putting on a show for the kayakers. Can you imagine the experience? Oh, if only I could have been out there on the bay in a kayak.