Bodega Bay, June into July, 2024

I could say that we chose to go to Bodega Bay for a few days because we hadn't explored that part of the state yet (apart from stopping at The Birds cafe on the way home from Fort Bragg a couple of years ago) but the truth is that during a heatwave, it's cooler on the coast, not to mention that there was a rare Yellow-throated Loon hanging out at the north end of the bay. 

So yeah, relative coolness and relative rarity. It's a good thing Jeanine was happy with the destination too. We're both alike in that we take things as they come and always find a way to enjoy them. 

It only takes a couple of hours to get there, at least when the traffic gods cooperate. It was even cooler than expected when we arrived, not to mention windy There were plenty of loons in the water although, as far as I could tell, none of them were the specific bird I was hoping to see. We went to The Birds Cafe again and I managed to dump most of my coffee on Jeanine. Before that, we got some lunch at Diekman's Store for some deli-type lunches. Over the railing I noticed a bunch of Willets and a smaller bird that turned out to be a Ruddy Turnstone, which is apparently rare locally. 

Later, looking toward the ocean and literally holding on to our hats to prevent them from being blown over the bluff, we witnessed an accumulation of Common Murres living up to their name out on the rocks. During this brief trip, it felt like we saw all of the Common Murres in the world clinging to the offshore rocks like lichen. Good for them.

The next day was partially taken up by visiting a couple of odd sites we had discovered using the Atlas Obscura app. - the first one being the Children's Bell Tower, erected as a memorial to young Nicholas Green, killed in a botched robbery in Italy. His parents donated his organs and corneas afterwards, helping seven different Italian patients. Many of the various bells that make up the tower were sent from Italy by various schools, churches, mines, and ships. The haunting songs of Swainson's Thrushes resounded from nearby trees. 

The second stop was the mammoth rubbing stones up near Jenner. We'd missed them last time on our way south from Fort Bragg. They're a couple of jagged, upthrust bits of blueschist once visited by prehistoric megafauna and used as spot to scratch itches and otherwise aid in their grooming routines.

After a time, we drove back toward Bodega Bay and then inland. If we had an old school thermometer, we could have watched the mercury rise rapidly as we headed to Ragle Ranch Park to look for weasels. It was in the mid-nineties by the time we got there and the weasels, being smarter than us, stayed underground for the duration. I had gotten a brief glimpse of a weasel back near the mammoth rubbing stones after some agitated White-crowned Sparrows alerted us that something was amiss, but the wily little beast was feeling photo-sensitive, so no documentation was achieved. 

On the way back from our failed weasel search, we stopped at a small cemetery where Jeanine stumbled upon the final resting place of Nicholas Green. We meditated on death while a single Lazuli Bunting sang from some nearby Eucalyptus trees. 

After dinner, I tried once more for the Yellow-billed Loon. So far, I'd taken countless photos of loons, but I was pretty sure all of them had been Common Loons, a species that lived up to its name locally. This time I was successful. There was already another photographer there. He'd just filled up his SD card and was leaving, so I hunkered down by the shore and showed enough restraint that my own SD card still had room for possibilities when I was done. The first photo below shows the Yellow-billed Loon in the foreground with a Common Loon lurking behind.

The Common Loons, not used to being ignored, struck some fancy poses.

In the morning, there was a Bald Eagle visible from our deck. Our last stop before heading south on Highway One was the schoolhouse (now a private residence) featured in Hitchcock's The Birds. 

We stopped in a bookstore in Point Reyes Station, and then at Point Reyes before heading home.

We of course rewatched Hitchcock's The Birds upon arriving home, although unfortunately the only version available for free streaming was the colorized one, which means I'm going to be rewatching it again sometime soon.

Written to the tune of Beethoven's String Quartets Op. 59 Nos. 1 & 2.