Pearl gray

 

I'm so thankful to Dea for alerting me to the presence of some Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels (Oceanodroma furcata) at the entrance to Bodega Harbor yesterday (10 May 2017).  Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels are small (~8.5 inches long) and fast, and therefore hard to photograph, but I'm excited to share a few photos for the record.  [Click on the images for slightly larger and sharper versions.]

 

Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels are usually found farther offshore, so watching them from land was a real treat.  The storm-petrels were feeding very close to shore — sometimes flying right along the edge of the jetty.

I was standing on the North Jetty (at the end of Doran Beach).  The next image shows a storm-petrel flying over the South Jetty with Bodega Head in the background:

 

Sometimes the storm-petrels would fly low to the water and start foot-pattering on the surface:

 

And sometimes they'd land on the water and reach for prey:

 

On several occasions they appeared to catch small fish:

 

The storm-petrels were so close, it was a great opportunity to study their feathers:

 

I didn't get many photos that show their forked tails very well, but here's one as this storm-petrel flew along the South Jetty:

 

 

I heard that a few storm-petrels were still around today near the entrance to the harbor.  If you're interested in looking for them, they also might be visible from the southern end of Bodega Head.

P.S.  Thanks again to Dea for letting me know the storm-petrels had appeared.  I never thought I'd be "buzzed" by a Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel while standing on the jetty!

 

1939

After seeing last night's post, Janet wrote to ask about the history of Bodega Harbor and the jetties at the harbor entrance.  There are many stories to tell there (too many for one night!), but her questions spurred me to include this picture of the entrance to Bodega Harbor in 1939.

Many people haven't seen what the entrance to Bodega Harbor looked like before the North and South jetties were built in 1942.  Note that the tip of Doran Beach was recurved inward towards the inner portion of the harbor (on the inside of Campbell Cove) — creating a very narrow entrance to Bodega Harbor (sometimes referred to as Bodega Lagoon at that time).  It now curves outward, but the current shape is artificial and is dependent on the jetties and bulkhead (on the inside of the spit).

This U.S. Army Corps image also shows the natural shoreline before Westshore Road was constructed and before PG&E began development of the site for a nuclear power plant (never completed) at Campbell Cove.  

It also illustrates Gaffney Point (the sandy point at the top of the image) in a nascent stage without much vegetation (dune or salt marsh)...and the Gaffney Ranch site just to the right of Gaffney Point.

Thanks, Janet, for inspiring me to share this historical image!