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Thank You

Mayacamas Campout: May1-2

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Conservation Groups Rally to Audubon's Support

Birding Bodega Bay: Spring and Summer

Backyard Birding: Birdbaths

Welcome New Members

SCCC Recognizes Nature Educators

Birding Bodega Bay:
Spring and Summer

by Betty Burridge

Betty Burridge's guide to birding Bodega Bay can be found in full at Madrone Audubon's Web site: audubon.sonoma.net. An abstract of the guide covering the fall and winter months began in the November, 1997, Leaves. If you missed it, copies of that article, including a map of hot birding spots around the Bay, will be available at the monthly membership meeting.

The waterfowl that were abundant at Bodega Bay in the winter months begin to leave by February, but many shorebirds remain on the mudflats in the harbor until March. Then, migration patterns carry the shorebirds northward and bring back our locally breeding neo-tropical migrants.

Swallows are about the first of the species to return. By March, some Great Blue Herons and Great Egrets may also begin nesting at their heronry on the hill above McCaugheys Store, on the west side of the harbor.

April is quiet on the mudflats, but many breeding land birds can be found by the attentive birder among the willows, at Bodega Dunes Campground, and in other stable vegetation around the Bay. These birds tend to be secretive and difficult to see in the act of nesting, but we know the Song Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, the hummers and others are busy.

From March through June, many seabirds can be found colonizing the cliffs south of the main Bodega Head parking lot overlooking the Pacific. It is well worth walking a half-mile or so to the left from the parking lot to see the precarious cliffside nesting and courtship rituals of Pigeon Guillemots and Pelagic Cormorants. The Pelagic Cormorants will be easily recognizable by their white flank patches, which appear only during the nesting season. Western Gulls and Black Oystercatchers can also be seen, nesting closer to the water, sometimes on the sea stack off the highest viewpoint of the headlands parking lot.

At the "Hole-In-The-Head" pond, Black-crowned Night-herons also will be nesting. And Owl Canyon can produce a surprise vagrant at any time of year.

In July, look for a few non-breeding loons, Willets, Marbled Godwits, and occasional early migrating phalaropes on open water or on the mudflats in the harbor. The Owl Canyon has also produced some accidental Eastern migrants---warblers and vireos---on the July 4 weekend.

At Bodega Head, by July the Pigeon Guillemots and Pelagic Cormorants are nearly done nesting. Both Western Gulls and Black Oystercatchers fledge young early in July, from nests on the largest sea stack at the parking lot. A walk on the trail around the headlands (allow at least an hour for the whole loop) will uncover our local coastal breeding race of the White-crowned Sparrow, as well as Savannah Sparrows. Early southward-migrating shorebirds---possibly Semipalmated Plovers, some other 'peep', and Black and Ruddy Turnstones---will be seen in late July on the mudflats of the harbor. Look for both pelicans, especially White Pelicans, on the mudflats off the U. C. (Bodega) Marine Lab.

Young Black-crowned Night-herons may still be hiding in the bushes facing the viewing platform at the end of the wooden boardwalk at the "Hole-In-The-Head."

August sees the real start of the return of the migrating shorebirds. If you are looking for rarities, keep your eyes open for Baird Sandpipers and Buff-breasted Sandpipers. Many other sandpiper species will gradually fill in the mudflats on the harbor. Land birds are scarce now, with many of our breeding birds heading south already. Elegant Terns may be seen flying or loafing within the harbor, and both Forster's and Caspian Terns as well.