BODEGA BAY, CALIFORNIA

Bodega Bay, mid-October

We're alive and well and enjoying real life in Florida.   But still living in the past here in Blogland.    These pictures are all from a roadtrip we took back in mid-October.  

 

 

Our destination was a new-to-us coastal area — Bodega Bay in Sonoma County, California.    We traveled from our Oregon home in our RoadTrek RV (camper van).     We'd only been back home for a few days when that part of Northern California was devastated by wildfires  and power outages.    I've not been able to find much on-line about what happened in the coastal town of Bodega Bay, but we hope that it was not severely damaged.  

 

 

  I hope the birds in the picture above are (mostly) Marbled Godwits.  But I could be wrong (and any corrections are more than welcome)  …. in any case it was great happening upon an evening feeding frenzy of these busy shorebirds as we headed back to our RV Park after a day exploring  Bodega Head.

 

 

Same general area, but all by itself — this little guy was able to find a quiet dining spot away from the company of bigger birds.

 

 

Some color on the hillsides above the Bay.  There were so many great viewpoints.    I'm always thankful to spend time exploring nature and this really was a beautiful spot.    

 

 

 

One of the above is not like the others.

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Bodega Head

On the other hand, each of these is pretty much exactly like all the others.

 

Another person watching the activity on this offshore rookery told me these were Brandt's Cormorants.  As always, I depend upon the kindness of strangers (and blog friends) for birding help.  Cormorants are not my favorite bird and they're not very photogenic, but a rookery is always interesting.  (The inset is highly cropped –   I used it to compare with my bird book description — Brandt's looks right to me, but again …. ) 

 

This could be any seaside town in Florida, but it really was taken in Bodega Bay California.

  Can't go to the Coast without enjoying the Pelicans (and it doesn't matter which coast we're on).  

 

This was a great roadtrip — we learned a lot about the area and I do have other pictures and information for a later post.  But since our posts have been a bit lacking in birds this whole past summer and fall, I'm making up for that shortage this week.   

 

 

 

We drove a lot of interesting roads on this trip.  

This picture also shows the dry conditions that prevailed prior to those terrible fires   – California needs rain.  

 

Thankful to the hosts of the following sharing opportunities (and to everyone who visits and especially those who comment):

MOSAIC MONDAY;   ALL SEASONS;  THROUGH MY LENS;   OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY;  TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; SAY CHEESE; WILD BIRD Wednesday     MY CORNER OF THE WORLD;  SIGNS SIGNS;  THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY;  FRIDAY  BLISS;   SATURDAY CRITTERS;  and RATHER B' BIRDING