Are You Experienced? Part 1

Dear friends,

The sickly-sweet stench of failure was in the air this weekend, as the Brambling evaded our scrutiny (probably by being hundreds of miles away), as did several other birds we were chasing. But, at least we weren’t the only ones stinking up the joint; at least three others missed it, too, including birders from San Diego and the South Bay. Misery does love company.

As intrepid adventurers, however, we were undeterred. We glided over to the Humboldt Bay Jetty for a gander at sea birds.

At this point, you might be wondering what “going birding” is about. Allow me to describe to you what our morning was like, in the first of a presumably many-parted series, “Are You Experienced?”:

Ocean Birding Experienced
While the sun beat down like police batons at a protest march, we trudged half a mile through the powdery beach sand toward the distant jetty. The sand filled our boots, providing free pedicures.

Most of the wood beams were missing from the jetty, evidence of abuse by countless storms. The remaining concrete platforms were rutted and algae-covered, leaving them as slick as the snot on a sick kid’s nose.

For the next half mile, we hopped and slipped and trode lightly down the jetty, mostly avoiding puddles and the effects of gravity, out past the seals and surfers.

Our reward at the end of the jetty was standing for 90 minutes, squinting through our scope, searching for white or black dots on the ocean. Of course, both the dots and the ocean are moving up and down, left and right, at different speeds. So, a dot might come into view, then a half-second later be obscured by a wave. And, of course, while doing this, the scope is misting over, and the foghorn overhead is bleating every minute.

Doesn’t birding sound fun?!?! Are you experienced? Do you want to be experienced?

For our efforts, we picked up 3 new birds, the stern Rock Sandpiper, the dour Black-Legged Kittiwake, and the evasive Marbled Murrelet. The MM was an especially nice find, as their numbers are declining due to habitat loss; not realizing the folly of their ways, they evolved to nest in old-growth trees, something researchers didn't confirm until the ‘70s.

Sunday ended near Fort Bragg, camping in our trailer at MacKerricher State Park. Then, a quick run home the next day, in time to knock out some chores this afternoon (you probably saw me pruning the grapes).

If the above sounds slightly insane, just wait… our plans for the next few weeks include trips to Kansas, Texas, and Minnesota, as well as an ocean trip out of Bodega Bay and run down to the bizarre Salton Sea. But, more on all that later.

Intrepidly,
Me