Heermann's Gulls

A few friendly Heermann's Gulls were seen around Monterey harbour either side of our whale watching trip. Though we failed to see a full adult bird during the week, these immature birds (of varying ages) were still pretty nice. The final photo above was taken with my 10-22mm lens at a range of about two metres, illustrating just how tame they were.

Gray Whales in Monterey Bay

Winter whale-watching trips out of Monterey are synonymous with the Gray Whale. Our boat trip connected with a group of three individuals in the bay and, unfortunately for us, the boat then simply chased the same three whales about four two-and-a-half hours rather than go and look for more! We did score three Ancient Murrelets and, in the final photo you can see a couple of Guillemots (sorry, Murres) and a Rhinoceros Auklet zooming past the whale's fluke.

Rock Sandpiper

Turning up a week or so before our trip, a Rock Sandpiper at Bodega Head instantly became one of our primary trip targets - not only are they pretty difficult to catch up with in California, but it was a bird that both Rich and Lee 'needed'. We failed to find it on our first evening but, returning the following morning in better light, Rich located it low on the rocks off the headland in the company of Black Turnstones and Surfbirds.

Views were initially pretty poor (distant and looking down on the bird), so I made the decision to scramble down the cliff for closer views, which soon paid off. First the bird remained quite distant (click for larger versions):

...but soon showed to ten metres:

Bufflehead

I was quick to learn that Buffleheads are 'trash' birds in California - just about every waterbody (both fresh and salt water) had them. However, they rarely showed well and I spent a bit of time stalking a handful of birds close inshore at Bodega Bay on 18th. Decent light and a high shutter speed meant that I could also freeze the birds as they launched themselves in to a dive.