April 28

Part of our goal in going to the Arcata Godwit Days was the opportunity to see shore birds, many of them not seen in the valley. And, of course, the north coast is beautiful for any reason, and redwoods and rhododendrons and the elk at Prairie Creek Redwood State Park would be delightful, even if we weren’t in pursuit of bird species in numbers. And we did see sea and shore birds.

We saw the Cackling or Aleutian Goose. These are a sub-species of the Canada Goose; they have a white neck ring in addition to the distinctive chin strap. We told the story of the remarkable recovery of these birds from the brink of extinction earlier (see our 2/20 post), thanks to the removal of foxes from their breeding grounds in the Aleutians. And here we note that they really do cackle, and chuckle, and mutter to each other.

And we saw more and more ducks, of course. We saw Green-winged Teal, one of those dabbling ducks,; they are small, with a handsome chestnut and green head and a vertical white stripe on the side. We saw Northern Shovelers, with their distinctive shovel-shaped beaks, longer than their heads and, in the case of the male, white breast to set off brown sides and green head. It’s hard not to think of them as needing a nose job.

We saw some Greater Scaups, larger than the Lesser Scaups we saw earlier, and with rounder heads. To be honest, making this distinction is most helpful with a bird guide or, at least, more experienced birders in the neighborhood. In this case, we were travelling with bird guides with extensive knowledge of who lived where.

Among Sea Ducks we saw Surf Scoters, stocky, black diving ducks with a white patch on forehead and the nape of the neck (males). Often nearby we saw White-winged Scoters, stocky black diving ducks with a white patch on their wings and no nape patch. And we saw Red Breasted Mergansers, with their shaggy hair and, on the males, white collar and streaky brown breast. These ducks have long, narrow bills that are apparently serrated (although we couldn’t see this).

We saw more gulls. Like the Scaups, we honestly probably couldn’t tell these apart if it weren’t for knowledgeable guides. Gulls often change dramatically from year to year of their lives. But we saw Western Gulls. These look a lot like California Gulls, which we have seen in the Delta. Fully adult birds have white head, dark gray back and a large bill. And pink legs (unlike the gray-green of the California Gull). But honestly, who can ever see gull legs? We also saw Glaucous-winged Gulls, with pales backs and wings. However, the books saw that the Western and Glaucous-winged Gulls hybridize as well. Makes you want to throw up your hands, doesn’t it?

And we saw Caspian Terns, a sleeker bird than the gull with pointier wings. The Caspian has a large, orange bill. And perhaps above all, terns were described by one of our fellow birders: “Terns are just more dignified than gulls. You never see terns begging in the parking lot.”

Total to 4-28: 88