Monterey Bay Birding Festival 2010

Last weekend was the 6th annual Monterey Bay Birding Festival. Here are some photos I took while on one of the events, Elkhorn Slough Safari. This was done on a 27-foot pontoon boat, and the Captain was Yohn Gideon, owner and operator. The weather was great and my husband and I wish we could have gone for at least another 2 hours.

Sea lions hanging around the pier.

Cormorants - double-crested, pelagic, and Brandt's, hanging around the pier.

Notice the upper center cormorant with his beautiful blue throat-patch - a Brandt's cormorant.

Heermann's gull perched near the pier. He was hanging around with other gulls and cormorants.

A group of sea otters in the slough.

Close-up of some of the sea otters. The otter in the foreground with the whitish face is apparently the "grandfather" of the group. Actually, we were told that the older the otter gets the "whiter" or grayer their faces get.

Close-up of an otter eating a clam.

Harbor seals. Notice they are smaller than the sea lions, and they lack the "ears" that sea lions have.

Close-up view of a few harbor seals.

Brown pelicans along the edge of the shore.

Close-up view of a few brown pelicans.

A white pelican taking a snooze, and a couple of gulls standing guard.

Landscape of the Elkhorn Slough area. Notice the farming area in the background. This is a well-known agricultural area, especially known for artichokes, lettuce, cabbage, etc.

Brown pelicans watching the humans on the boat.

A brown pelican hanging around all those cormorants.

Captain Yohn took everyone's picture, or at least those folks who were sporting a camera. This Safari is highly recommended, and is available for various events/outings. There's also a special Photo Safari scheduled for Oct 23rd on a Saturday afternoon. I sure wouldn't mind going again.

Brandt's Cormorants

As mentioned in my previous post Red and I drove to Monterey yesterday to spend a few hours near Fisherman's Wharf to look for Brandt's Cormorants. The photo below is the jetty where the Coast Guard station is located. It was less than 1/2 mile from the parking lot. And this is what greeted us when we arrived. Brandt's Cormorants as far as the eye could see - so to speak. As you can see this jetty is full of these birds and their offspring. If you click on the photo you will also see sea lions along the edge. Most of the sea lions were heard but not seen. It sounded like they were all under the wooden pier off to the right and behind us. This photo also shows how the marine layer was keeping the sun from coming through.

This little chick is waiting for food from mama.
And here is mama to the rescue.
This photo is a close-up of a couple of nests with the little ones still in the nest. These babes must be younger; they seem to have more white spots and haven't left the nest yet.

Mama loving her offspring.

Here's another shot of some of mama's love. Be sure to click on the photos to see a larger view. One of these photos, and I think it's this one below, you can see the blue throat on the adult. The blue on the adults' throats is fading now since breeding season is over.