Birds at Yaquina Head

Brandt’s Cormorant

Private Conversation

Two cormorants share a private conversation. There is a large colony of seabirds on the seastacks just offshore from the Head. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but it’s a shame they can’t convey the cacophony of sounds that come drifting off the ocean when hundreds or thousands of cormorants, gulls, and guillemots are gathered together.

Gulls

I'm not much good at identifying the different gull species so I won't try.

A gull grabs a crab from a tidepool at Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area

Opportunity

As the tide comes in and fills the tidepools with water, the little ecosystems come alive as animals come out to feed. Sometimes the larger world intrudes, however, and an opportunity for a crab to feed is also an opportunity for a gull to swoop in and snare a quick meal.

Tool User

Birds have evolved different strategies to solve the same problem. Oystercatchers have a long thin bill dedicated to cracking open shellfish and extracting the flesh inside. Gulls have a varied diet (to put it mildly) and so have more general purpose bills. That didn't deter this gull, however, from trying for a mussel meal. It would hold the shell in its mouth, fly up high, then drop the mussel onto the agate beach to get the shell to crack open. Mussels must have a pretty tough shell as the gull never managed to crack it despite several attempts.

A gull holds a mussel in its beak on an agate beach at Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area

A close-up view of the head of a gull at Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area

Black Oystercatcher

Approaching Darkness

The sky glows orange as it fights off the setting sun, but soon it will be as black as the oystercatcher and the rocks around it. The rocks at Yaquina Head are naturally black due to their volcanic history. The black oystercatcher of the west coast is aptly named as it lacks the partial white coloring of its cousin on the east coast, the American oystercatcher. Both oystercatchers share the almost comically bright bills and eyes, one of the endearing features of these coastal birds.

Brown Pelican

Soaring

An adult brown pelican soars above the Pacific Ocean. The pelicans layover at Yaquina Head for a few weeks in the fall. I took this in the middle of October 2005, a very simple picture but one I’m fond of. Our cat Scout was taken with it as well, she took a swing at the monitor while I was editing it but fortunately no damage was done.

Diagonal

This picture gives a better impression of how large the wingspan of the pelicans is compared to their bodies. The birds were soaring on the swirling winds near the lighthouse at Yaquina Head on the Oregon coast. When I think of soaring, I think of a bird slowly sailing along, but these birds were moving. You didn’t have much time to track them from the time they came into view and then disappeared again beyond the cliff.

Breaking Wave

An adult pelican flies undaunted past a wave breaking hard over the rocky shore of Yaquina Head.

A juvenile brown pelican flies above the Pacific Ocean at Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area

First Timer

This young bird is probably laying over at Yaquina Head for the first time but by now, like the many other juveniles in the flock, it was soaring with the best of them, its youth betrayed only by its coloration.

Surf Scoter

Surfer Boy

This male surf scoter is doing what surf scoters do best: riding the surf. Their bodies are unremarkable as far as ducks go save for their one outrageous feature, their colorfully patterned bills.

	Soaring An adult brown pelican soars above the Pacific Ocean. The pelicans layover at Yaquina Head for a few weeks in the fall. I took this in the middle of October 2005, a very simple picture but one I’m fond of. Our cat Scout was taken with it as well, she took a swing at the monitor while I was editing it but fortunately no damage was done.
	Diagonal This picture gives a better impression of how large the wingspan of the pelicans is compared to their bodies. The birds were soaring on the swirling winds near the lighthouse at Yaquina Head on the Oregon coast. When I think of soaring, I think of a bird slowly sailing along, but these birds were moving. You didn’t have much time to track them from the time they came into view and then disappeared again beyond the cliff.
	Breaking Wave An adult pelican flies undaunted past a wave breaking hard over the rocky shore of Yaquina Head.
	First Timer This young bird is probably laying over at Yaquina Head for the first time but by now, like the many other juveniles in the flock, it was soaring with the best of them, its youth betrayed only by its coloration.