Saturday, December 7, 2013

Blustery

Just a brief note to record the blustery and cold conditions...and a large number of Red Phalaropes (Phalaropus fulicarius) visible from Bodega Head today.  

I took a quick look offshore this morning and there were small groups of phalaropes everywhere I looked.  As a sample, in one 20-minute period I counted 83 individuals.

Most of the phalaropes were too distant for good photographs, but a few flocks ventured close enough to shore for documentation:


Remarkably, I took some nicer photographs of this species at Doran Beach on exactly this date last year.  You can see those photographs and learn a little more about Red Phalaropes in this post from 7 December 2012.

Late in the day I went out again.  I had to brace myself against the wind, but it was worth it to see the ocean like this:


(That's a northwest wind blowing at about 20 mph, with gusts above 30 mph.)

No comments:

Post a Comment