Although the first part of our evening visit to Bottle Beach didn’t go too well, photographically speaking, things got much better near the end of our visit. It probably wasn’t a whole hour, but it was definitely golden, and the photographs taken were spectacular — or at least they seemed that way to me.
None of the Marbled Godwits I saw not too long ago in Bodega Bay looked nearly as golden as this Godwit did.
Normally, I try to avoid extremely dark backgrounds, but here it seems to accentuate the gold colors in the Godwit, the Dowitchers,
and the Dunlin.
And the later it got, the more golden the moment became
until it was time to go back to the motel before returning to the beach at the next high tide, 7:00 AM the following morning.
When I went to Bottle Beach on May 5th, I knew that our timing was less than desirable because we would only see birds as high tide arrived, and high tide was after sunset. Of course, I also knew that this was the only time we could be there during the Spring Migration, so I was willing to take my chances with the light and the tide.
Bottle Beach is relatively flat, so the tide comes in quite slowly at first and then comes rushing in as it rises. As a result, most of the first shots were taken at a considerable distance with the sun behind the birds, which resulted in less than desirable results, as in this shot of a Whimbrel, one of the birds I had hoped to see on our visit.
I quickly realized I would have to lower the shutter speed if I wanted the best pictures possible. I did get better photos of shorebirds that were feeding, but it also meant that I ended up with blurry photos when birds took flight, as in this shot of a Dowitcher.
Before long, it was getting dark enough that most of the shots, especially those taken at a distance, were underexposed. Black-Bellied Plovers in breeding colors are one of my favorite shorebirds, and it’s special to get a shot of one that has just caught a giant worm, but I couldn’t correct the exposure on this shot to make it any better
and I had the same problem with this shot of a Red Knot, which was good enough that Merlin could identify it as a Red Knot, but wasn’t good enough that I’m going to save it after this.
Although I was disappointed with most of the pictures that I took that evening, that wasn’t true of all of them, particularly those taken when the tide was almost fully in and I could take shots of birds that were behind me, with the sunlight coming over my shoulder.
The light seemed particularly suited to Dowitchers in breeding color, playing up their already golden plumage.
I would have loved the experience if not a single picture had turned out. True, there weren’t as many birds as there had been in the previous two weeks, there wasn’t even the same number of birds I’ve seen on previous visits, but neither were there crowds of people.
Birding is a lot like fishing: you have good days and you have bad days, but even a bad day can be saved by a remarkable catch. That proved true on our visit to the Westbrook Marina when we didn’t see many Brown Pelicans, or other birds for that matter, until we had walked to the end of the jetty. I was checking out the pier across the entrance for Pelicans when Leslie called my attention to several nesting Brandt’s Cormorants.
I’ve taken so many pictures of Cormorants in these pierhead beacons that I barely looked at them as I snapped a photo, but Leslie demanded that I take a closer look, so I zoomed in and was surprised but what I saw.
I’ve seen this a few times in photos in magazines, but I’ve never personally seen a Brandt’s Cormorant in breeding plumage like this. Nor have I ever managed to get this close before.
I was even more surprised when a nearby cormorant elevated his head and exposed just how big that bright blue gular pouch really is.
As if I weren’t impressed enough, it struck an even more striking pose
before flying off and revealing the nesting bird behind it.
I was surprised to learn that the breeding plumage for both male and female Brandt’s Cormorants is basically the same except that males tend to be larger.
We saw hundreds of shorebirds later in the day at Bottle Beach, but this moment turned out to be the unexpected highlight of the day.
In Winter and early Spring, I go to Westport to see the Common Loons, preferably in breeding plumage, but in late Spring and Summer I go to see the Brown Pelicans. I was pleasantly surprised to see a Common Loon in breeding plumage on our visit, but I was disappointed at how few Pelicans I saw.
To make matters worse, I saw the most Pelicans as they flew directly overhead as we got out of the car and before I could get my camera out. As it turned out, I only saw one more Pelican fly by — and the sun was directly behind it.
I seldom see Brown Pelicans from above, so I wasn’t totally disappointed by the shots I got, but looking back at earlier blog entries I realized the shots weren’t as good as previous ones I’ve taken.
In past years, the piers have been crowded with resting Pelicans, but it was obvious that either there are fewer Pelicans this year or they were all out hunting for lunch.
Still, it was good to see Brown Pelicans again. I find them strangely attractive.
