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ENVIRONMENT - WILDLIFE SIGHTINGS IN HALF MOON BAY, CA
Half Moon Bay, CA: Wildlife All photographs are copyrighted.
PILLAR POINT HARBOR AND MARSH (August 17, 2003) I mostly saw bird life here, except for a lone seal or sea lion (not sure which). 1. Caspian Tern There were small groups of 3-4 Caspian Terns in two different spots. They were calling frequently (there were two types of calls - one a shrill veeveeyuh and another a hoarse kekaeyeh - both are crude approximations to what I heard) and in repeatedly flying over the same region looking for fish. Occasionally one of them would dive and capture a fish. On one such occasion another term made aggressive moves causing what looked like a in-air tussle of sorts. I had a Canon EOS Rebel Ti SLR camera with a 300 mm zoom lens and tried my best to get some snaps of the terns. They were flying too fast when near, and were otherwise a bit far, to get close up shots. All pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them.
2. Western Gull Western Gulls were very common here. They were identifiable not just by their dark backs but their prominent pink legs.
Another very common species. What was most fascinating was their spectacular diving for fish. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a successful shot of them diving!
There were about 15-20 in a "pond" at the edge of the marsh. They were in non-breeding plumage and too far to get good pictures of. I saw three white-crowned sparrows in the marsh parking lot. There was a small flock feeding on the rocks at the edge of the coast/beach in the vicinity of shore birds like black turnstones.
Not too glossy on the back, there were a few in the vicinity of the starlings. There were plentiful, especially on the rocks.
9. Barn swallow There were a few barn swallows near the water's edge. There was a lone plover which had a brownish crown and black undersides which terminated around the region of the legs (see third bird from the right in the picture below). These characteristics lead me to conclude it was a Pacific Golden Plover. 11. Whimbrel There were a few Whimbrels as well (seen on the left of the plover in the picture below). The underparts were browner compared to what one might expect in a Bristle-thighed Curlew. Also, the rump during flight did not seem particularly light compared to the rest of the body.
12. Marbled Godwit There were a few marbled godwits, a couple of them visible in the right side of the picture above. Other pictures are shown below.
13. Sanderling I do have a slight doubt about their identification. In part, I concluded they were sanderlings because I eliminated the possibility that they could be any other species. They were very common, appearing near the other shorebirds. They had a dark beak, dark legs, whitish below, with some prominent black in their eyes (could have been a marking), and mottled gray above. I suspect many were juveniles. One picture is shown below.
14. Surfbird I initially mistook these non-breeding birds for Black Turnstones, because in dull light I found they were not easy to tell apart casually from a body color standpoint (the dark gray of the surfbird tends to look dark like the turnstone's color). The giveaway was the yellow legs of the surfbirds. For example, in the picture below, you can see the yellow-legged Surfbird in the foreground (in front of the Marbled Godwit). Compare it with the Black Turnstone on the left (dark legs).
15. Willet There were one or two of these, and they were somewhat unremarkable from a color standpoint. Overall grayish in color with light underparts, they had a white spot in the region between the eye and the beak (and above the beak), longish beak and dull colored legs. 16. Great Blue Heron There was a lone Great Blue Heron in the harbor area, near a cornucopia of gulls.
Unidentified Birds There were a large number of cormorants (50-100) on a rock that was perhaps a couple of hundred meters from the beach. With the darkening sky, it was hard to identify them. There were three loons which looked like adult non-breeding Pacific Loons but their heads were pretty dark - not gray - almost like Arctic Loons, whereas their flanks were dark like Pacific Loons. Chances are they were Pacific Loons - for now I am calling them unidentified. There were also many shorebirds which I could not identify due to insufficient light.
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