For the count

  

Whew, I spent the day helping with the Western Sonoma County Christmas Bird Count today, but here's a quick shot of an American Pipit (Anthus rubescens).

Pipit and plantains

 

 

 

American Pipit (Anthus rubescens) showing some breeding colors — a nice blue-gray above and buffy below.

 

The pipit was foraging among clusters of Seaside Plantain (Plantago maritima) along the bluffs:

 

 

 

Shades of brown

 

American Pipit (Anthus rubescens) on driftwood, 2 November 2019

 

Down on the rocks

 

American Pipits (Anthus rubescens) are often seen on sandy beaches in Bodega Bay, but sometimes we encounter them along the rocky outer coast.  Here's one on lichen-covered rocks just above the intertidal zone on 12 January 2019.

Golden light

 

American Pipit (Anthus rubescens) in the golden light of fall.  Photographed on 2 November 2018.

P.S.  The pipit was walking among the seaweeds in the wrack line.  The whitish algae to the right of the pipit is a piece of coralline algae that's been bleached by the sun (it's normally pink).

Along the shoreline

A few more photos from Abbotts Lagoon on 24 November 2017:

 

Mixed flock of shorebirds (including Sanderling, Dunlin, Least Sandpiper, Western Sandpiper, and Long-billed Dowitcher)

 

Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis) blending in with the Jaumea (Jaumea carnosa) and Spike Grass (Distichlis spicata)

 

American Pipit (Anthus rubescens)

 

Something new in the salt marsh

 

I've become quite enamored with pipits since moving to the West Coast.  This one was taking advantage of the high tide in the salt marsh in Bodega Harbor today, searching for insects among the vegetation along the water's edge.

 

I was having fun just observing the pipit in its habitat, watching it feeding, wondering about what it was finding...

 

...when I noticed something I hadn't seen before:

 

Sometimes the feathers above the pipit's eyes flared into little tufts!

I'm not sure what was going on, as I don't recall noticing this in pipits before, or seeing it mentioned when reading about them.  But it was definitely there on several occasions.  Have I just been missing it?  Have you seen this before?  Do you know what it's about?  I'd be interested in your observations and thoughts.

 

Settling in for the night

This is going to be an identification challenge, but I figure it's more fun for you to try first than to be told outright.  To set the scene, I took this photo around 5 p.m. on 18 January 2014.  These birds were flying over the salt marsh between the Bodega Bay Post Office (or Bodega Harbour Yacht Club) and Doran Beach, adjacent to what's now called the Bird Walk Coastal Access Trail.

 

I liked all of the different positions of the birds in the picture above.  And I hope you sensed that they were flying quickly and somewhat erratically.

A few minutes before, when the light was a little better, I did manage one picture of a couple of birds that might help you with the identification:

 

 

I won't be surprised if this is still difficult.  These aren't great pictures!  But it's a fun story, so I can't help showing them.

These are American Pipits (Anthus rubescens).  Some time ago during a bird survey, I accidentally flushed a large flock of pipits from this same salt marsh.  It made me wonder if they roosted there at night.  I meant to go back and check, but hadn't managed to do so.  Tonight I was in the area just before sunset and noticed a very large flock of songbirds descending towards the marsh.  Pipits!  It was true!  They do roost in the marsh!

There are a number of things that amaze me about this behavior and capture my curiosity:

I've been birding for a while and have been in areas where pipits spend the winter on beaches and where salt marshes occur nearby, but I don't recall hearing about very large flocks of pipits roosting in salt marshes.  Have I just missed it?  Does it occur elsewhere?  Or is there something special going on in Bodega Harbor?

When you see pipits feeding on local beaches in the Bodega Bay area, you might see 1 or 2 birds, or maybe half a dozen or so.  But the flock I saw coming into roost was much larger.  And it appeared that birds were coming in to join the flock from different directions, i.e., that this might be a communal roost.  (I'm not completely sure about that, but it would be worth pursuing.)

I didn't capture the entire flock on film, but here's the largest number of pipits in one photo (below).  If you care to play the counting game, remember that you can click on the image to enlarge it — and be sure that your computer monitor is clean!  (My count is below the image.)

 

On my first time through, I counted 91 birds in the photo above.  What did you get?

That's a large number of American Pipits.  Especially since the Birds of Sonoma County mentions that pipit numbers in the county have been much lower during the last 10-15 years.

Why do the pipits roost in this salt marsh?  How far away do they come from to roost here?  Do they roost here all winter, or is there a narrower window when they use this site?

I couldn't find very much about pipit roosting behavior.  There was one line in the Birds of North America that came from Burleigh's account of Georgia Birds: "A flock of about 1,000 birds that came to roost in a marshy field was restless and noisy, flying up in a loose, straggling group that circled overhead for several minutes before dropping to the ground again and settling in for the night."

I was interested in this description, as tonight the pipits would land in the marsh, then take off again and circle around, then settle and take off again and circle, then land, then take off, over and over for at least 10 minutes before they finally appeared to stay put for the night.

Here's one last picture of one of the flock's last dives towards the marsh:

 

It's always satisfying to learn something new and intriguing about a familiar species.  If you have stories about roosting pipits to share, please do!

P.S.  For a close-up of an American Pipit on Salmon Creek Beach, click here.

Full circle

Almost a year ago I was considering starting a blog about local natural history.  There were lots of reasons for doing so.  One of the strongest was to share the beauty and wonder of our local plants and animals and landscapes, and to provide an introduction to lesser known species.  I was also hopeful that the blog would encourage people to look more closely at the world around them and to connect with their surroundings (to develop a sense of place).

What came as a bit of a surprise (although it shouldn't have!) is that creating the Natural History of Bodega Head has also done these things for me!  Trying to post something every day has forced me to be more attentive, to always be on the lookout for interesting sightings.  And researching the species we've encountered has taught me more than I could have imagined.

 

Last December I was excited to introduce everyone to American Pipits (Anthus rubescens).  It was one of my first posts, and I couldn't wait to share photos of this often-overlooked songbird.  Today I photographed American Pipits on Salmon Creek Beach and was reminded that a year has past since I started the blog.  The pipits made me pause and think about the benefits of the blog, how I wished I had started it a long time ago, and how I'm looking forward to future discoveries.

 

American Pipits spend the winter from the Pacific Northwest to El Salvador.  At this time of year you can see them on beaches foraging among seaweeds and driftwood.

 

A fact I hadn't known until tonight: The hind claw of American Pipits is unusually long (see next photo).  The Birds of North America Account (Verbeek, Hendricks, and Pyle 2012) suggests that this feature may help in walking across snow — crampons for a ground-dwelling songbird that breeds on arctic and alpine tundra!

 

Looking back on this past year, I'm grateful to the local plants and animals for sharing their worlds, and to you for joining me on this natural history adventure!

Shorebirds and American Pipit on Salmon Creek Beach

Beautiful views of shorebirds on Salmon Creek Beach today.  At low tide they feed on the tidal flats in Bodega Harbor, but during the highest tides flocks of sandpipers and plovers can be seen roosting on the outer beach.

Black-bellied Plovers roosting among driftwood (they only have black bellies in breeding plumage during the spring/summer/fall).

Black-bellied Plover in front of a flock of Dunlin.

Black-bellied Plovers and Dunlin for size comparison.

Western Sandpiper

Flock of shorebirds against the waves.

American Pipit feeding on flies among piles of drift algae and eelgrass.  Pipits are one of the most common songbirds on the beach during the winter.