Bodega Head and Anja gets new shoes

We got lucky with weather Saturday and the rain never came. We went out to Bodega Head, a small peninsula and bay not too far from us. This is no longer the peak of the viewing season for the gray whale migration, but we did see 3 whales total, and a bunch of seals swimming. Or sea lions, I'm not sure how to tell the difference when they're swimming. We also saw a bunch of interesting birds, including several new ones for Jay. We saw oystercatchers, black turnstones, great egrets, cormorants, brown pelicans, brants, eared grebes, western grebes, and many I can't remember.


It was just beautiful here, sandy shores with great rock formations and areas that are only accessible during low tide. Also cliffs overlooking the beach areas.


There were lots of cormorants and other shore birds and big waves crashing over the rocks. It's amazing the cormorants and seals swim down there, but they do.




I love this bright orange sea star. If you look closely at the larger version of the picture on flickr, you can see there are actually a bunch of stars there, but most of them are purple, so they are harder to see.


And lots of anemones in the tidepools and some exposed on rocks during low tide.


Anja's favorite parts are the pebbles.


Sand is pretty cool too.


Here's a quick shot from the side of the road on the drive back home. Petaluma is over those hills in the distance. I'm still awed by the everyday beauty here. There are restrictions out here about building new homes in a lot of areas so there are a lot of centennial farms and small places with a lot of grazing land and gorgeous views, but no suburbs or sprawl. It's great.


Today we took Anja to get new shoes. She thought this white shoe felt funny.