Why so rusty?

 

 

Just a quick photo and a question.  As I was leaving work today, I noticed quite a few of the white pelicans roosting on the tidal flats in Bodega Harbor with rust-colored feathers on their breasts and sometimes their necks.  I hadn't noticed such dark coloration before, so I'm just curious.  Were their feathers stained by iron in the water at the breeding site?  Or is there something local (an abundance of diatoms)?  If you know more about this, I'd be interested in learning!

Storm-driven

  

The buoy offshore of Point Reyes reported wave heights between 20-30 feet for most of the last 24 hours.  These photos were taken from Bodega Head this morning (25 October 2021).

As always, it's hard to judge the wave heights in photos without anything for scale.  Below, the Brown Pelicans help provide some perspective.  [Brown Pelicans have a wingspan of ~6.5 feet.]

 

 

 

Sometimes it's nice to see the backs of the waves as they roll by:

 

 

 

Orange mystery fish

  

A couple of days ago I noticed a large group of cormorants, gulls, and pelicans just offshore from Salmon Creek Beach.  It appeared to be a feeding flock (lots of diving and splashing), but I couldn't tell what they were catching at first.  Then I started noticing some birds with fairly good-sized orange-colored fish.  

I've been having some trouble with my camera lens not focusing properly, and this flock was distant, but I'm hoping the photos might still be good enough to identify the fish they were eating.

Other times when I've seen flocks like this, they've been eating smaller silvery bait fish, so I'm not used to seeing them catch a larger orange fish.  Although they caught a lot of these fish, they seemed to have trouble swallowing them.

I'm not sure about the identification of this fish, but my first guess is Striped Surfperch (Embiotoca lateralis).  If you can help with the i.d., I'd appreciate it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still dressed up

  

I present to you — Pelecanus erythrorhynchos!  "Erythro" meaning red and "rhynchos" referring to the bill.  In breeding plumage, you can see where this name comes from.  A small group of about ten American White Pelicans were in Bodega Harbor today (28 April 2021).  They nest at inland lakes and then return to the coast, so these are the first local arrivals after the breeding season (although this is early).  Welcome back!

The long and short of it

  

 
American White Pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhyncos) in Bodega Harbor, 13 October 2020

 

Fishing line

  

Brown Pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis) and a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) fishing along the Bodega Harbor shoreline on 23 September 2020.

 

 

In on the fun

During the last few days, there have been large schools of bait fish near shore.  The last time this happened, it turned out to be Night Smelt (Spirinchus starksi), e.g., see these posts from August 2018 — "Getting into a good school?" and "Fish, fish, fish!".  I haven't been able to identify the fish yet this time, but I started reviewing my photos from 1 August 2020 and there were some fun ones:

 

 

 

 

 

In order of appearance: Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) and Caspian Terns (Hydroprogne caspia) with fish...then Heermann's Gulls (Larus heermanni) chasing a tern (trying to make the tern drop the fish) and finally a Heermann's Gull trying to pull a fish out of a pelican's pouch.  More photos to come!

 

Flyby

 

Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis)

 

Diving in

 

We were out sailing in Tomales Bay yesterday (15 September 2019).  Nice views of a few feeding frenzies — pelicans, gulls, cormorants, terns (including a flock of 11 Elegant Terns), seals...

Along with beautiful shoreline reflections...

 

And elk bugling and fog coming in over Tomales Point:

 

Teamwork

When we left work tonight (11 September 2018), there was nice light on the American White Pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) feeding at the north end of Bodega Harbor:

 

 

 

 

 

I kept scanning to try to see what the pelicans were catching.  What do you think — does this pelican have a stickleback at the tip of its bill?  [Click on the photo for a larger version.]

 

Breakfast with a pelican

Eric and I were doing some surveys early this morning when we surprised by a Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) landing nearby:

 

The tide was coming in, so we kept surveying, but I took one quick photo of "Spike" for the record (note the spiky feathers on the back of the pelican's head):