Elkhorn Slough

Back in June I went down south toward Monterey. I was dreaming that I'd perhaps spot a condor from Hwy 1 (there are sightings on ebird all along that area) but as it turns out during the summer, all the condors hang out inland. Even though I didn't find any condors, it was a nice drive along the rocky cliffs.

And there were plenty of other birds to spot. These black specks on the rocks turned out to be a bunch of murres and cormorants, nesting:

Murres are kind of like the penguins of the northern hemisphere. They're black and white, they swim after fish, they hold themselves upright... also, they can fly, so they'd probably win against penguins in a fight.
If you zoom in on the cormorants, you can just baaaaarely see that they have some purple and gold on their throats. That's how you know these are Brandt's cormorants and not your standard old double crested cormorants. Finally, a sea creature named after someone other than Steller!

Evidently these cormorants like to live near kelp beds... so seeing them around might mean that there's a good chance of seeing other kelp-loving things, such as floating logs:

Just kidding, those are totally sea otters.


While photographing them from some sand dunes near Elkhorn slough, we ran into a researcher who was collecting data on the otters' reactions to passing boats. Apparently there is a recommended approach distance (200 yards) but that number hasn't been actually been well-confirmed. So, whenever a boat passed, she had to record its distance from the otters (in otter-lengths) and the otters' reaction. Mostly their reaction was "continue being adorable."


We kayaked a bit and also spotted a pigeon guillemot. I didn't get a picture, but as one would expect from something with "pigeon" in the name, it had red feet and it was hanging out under a bridge that smelled like guano.

And, finally, here's a raven, familiar friend of cold, foggy lands.

Aaaaand, some rattlesnake grass.