Towheeblog

A winter day along the edge of Bolinas Lagoon in Marin County, CA, provides an intensive test of your shorebirding and ducking skills. Thousands of waterfowl and shorebirds comb the shallow water and mudflats for food.  Throw in a few miles of Tomales Bay shoreline and you feel your webbed feet evolving.  This coastal edge of Northern California is part land, part sea.  Part rock and part seaweed.  Here land and water and mild winter temperatures provide rich pickings for birds who’ve come south from the polar region and Canadian interior.

Note the globs of mud being tossed about as the Avocet swipes his beak from side-to-side, feeding in the shallows. These birds actually breed in Marin.  The following birds are winter residents only.

One of hundreds of Marbled Godwits strolling across Bolinas Lagoon.

Common Loon at Marshall on Tomales Bay.  More pictures in next blog.