Birding at Bodega Bay

For the grand finale of our days in Northern California, we headed to the beach.

More specifically, we headed to the Bird Walk Coastal Access Trail in Bodega Bay, a 1.19-mile multi-use path that loops along a saltwater marsh just north of Doran Regional Park which offers excellent bird-watching.

The trail circles two freshwater ponds along Bodega Harbor and overlooks marshland that provides year-round habitat for waterfowl, shorebirds and songbirds. What a treat to see this pair of bald eagles! Wow.

Others on the trail with us were stumped as to what kind of bird this was. Certainly the most numerous, we just had to know. Steve took a photo with his phone of a photo I had taken on my camera and we sent it to our bird expert Jenny (she's the one who taught us this trick). We felt very knowledgeable when we could tell everyone that they were marbled gotwit. So dang cool!