Tag Archives: Mendocino Headlands

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Brandt's Cormorants are nesting along the Mendonoma Coast. Jon Shiu photographed this group at the Mendocino Headlands.

From the Cornell Lab of Ornithology: “The largest cormorant on the Pacific Coast, Brandt’s Cormorant is an expert diver that can swim deeper than 200 feet in pursuit of fish and shellfish. In addition to standard cormorant black, Brandt’s sports a vivid cobalt-blue throat patch and eyes during breeding season, along with wispy white feathers on the head. This species nests and forages in the California Current, an area of rich upwelling between British Columbia, Canada, and Baja California, Mexico.”

How great to see the blue throat patch in Jon’s photo!

Thanks to Jon for allowing me to share his photo.

It’s sunny with a gentle breeze…a beautiful day on the Mendonoma coast!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Near the Mendocino Headlands Ron LeValley spotted this leucistic Black Oystercatcher. This bird survived his or her lack of camouflage to grow from a chick to this young bird.

It's not the first time a nearly white Black Oystercatcher has been born up there. Last year Roger Adamson photographed a leucistic chick.

These anomalies appear in nature, but they always seem to catch us by surprise and bring a little wonder into our lives.

Thanks to Ron and Roger for allowing me to share their photos with you here. To see much more of Ron's nature photography, or to sign up for his daily nature blog post, here is his website: http://levalleyphoto.com/home/

Smoke from the fire in Geyserville flowed up over the coast this morning. Here's a photo I took from our deck in Anchor Bay around 8 am this morning. It kind of looks like fog, but it's smoke.

The smoke has dissipated somewhat this afternoon. I hope the fires can be brought under containment soon. It's so sad.

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Ron LeValley photographed the leucistic Black Oystercatcher. The bird fledged from the Mendocino Headlands, and Ron found it on a nearby mussel bed.

We've seen other instances of this. Last year,  Roger Adamson photographed this leusictic Black Oystercatcher chick.

And here's a leucistic American Robin, photographed some years ago by Susan Gonzales.

And a leusictic Dark-eyed Junco, photographed by Barbara Pratt.

It's always startling to see! Thanks to Ron, Susan, Roger and Barbara for allowing me to share their photos with you here. To see much more of Ron's nature photography, here is the link to his website: http://levalleyphoto.com/home/

Sunny, mild day on the Mendonoma coast. Might be a chance to see a green flash at sunset tonight!

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On the Mendocino Headlands, a white Black Oystercatcher chick was hard to miss. Normally the chicks are camouflaged in gray and black. This little chick is white. Roger Adamson located the chick with one of its parents and got several photos.

The chick isn't albino - note the orange beak and normal-colored eye. The term for this coloring is leucistic.

I am told this white chick has a normal-colored sibling. We hope this cute chick survives and is able to fledge. Then we will be watching as it most likely colors up.

I love their calls, a whistling "wheep." You can hear their calls at this link: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Black_Oystercatcher/sounds

Thanks to Roger for allowing me to share his photos with you here.