Fall fashion

  

 24 October 2026

On the move

  

  California Sea Lions (Zalophus californianus) on the move off Bodega Head, 24 October 2026 

Lucky day?

  

I'm guessing you can tell that one of the birds in the photo above is not like the others.  Most of the birds are cormorants, but the rightmost bird is a Marbled Godwit.

It's not every day that you see a Marbled Godwit swimming in the ocean.  The next photo shows why the godwit was in this position:

 

 

On the right side of the image there's a Peregrine Falcon at the bottom of a stoop as it approaches the godwit.  A few minutes before this scene, we saw the falcon flush the godwit off the beach.  We watched the falcon pursuing the godwit in flight and wondered if it would be successful in catching its prey, but the godwit suddenly dropped down into the ocean.

 

I think the falcon tried at least two dozen times (!) to catch the godwit while it was sitting on the water.  Here's one example, with the godwit diving below the surface to avoid the falcon:

 

 

 

Eventually the falcon gave up.  And then the godwit was swimming in the open ocean offshore.  Below, it's on the left side of the photo:

 

 

 

I wondered what would happen and whether the godwit could fly away.  I saw it try to fly at least twice, but perhaps its feathers were too wet to take off. 

 

And then I noticed that the godwit was getting closer to shore.  It was actively swimming towards the rocks!  Note the wake behind the godwit in the next photo:

 

 

 

Soon the godwit was very close to shore:  

 

At least twice we saw it get swamped by crashing waves.  But I wondered whether a large enough wave could wash the godwit up onto the higher rocks?

Then I saw a larger wave approaching.  It crashed over the godwit and I thought perhaps the godwit wouldn't be able to make it out of that circumstance.  But then I scanned the rocks and noticed the godwit much higher on the rocks, beyond the reach of most of the waves, flapping its wings.  The wave had tossed the godwit up onto a rock ledge!

 

 

I had to go to a meeting, so I didn't see what happened immediately after this, but I went back to check the site later and the godwit was gone.  I'm guessing it just needed to dry off before it could fly away.

 

Amazing!  

October view

 

 

We've been on the East Coast helping family with fall chores -- what a beautiful fall week in New England!  Late this afternoon we went for a walk on the beach, so here's a quick view from Humarock, Massachusetts.