

I only made it about 20 miles south out of Brookings yesterday and I landed in Crescent City. I’ve always found this city’s Boat Basin to be a good place to meet sea birds. Though there weren’t as many as I’ve found in the past, a meeting with a Common Loon in breeding plumage was a treat. I’ve met these birds here in the past, but they’ve been in basic winter garb. It required patience, but the bird ultimately got close enough for some decent shots.
I found a family of Black Oystercatchers in the harbor, but they were too far out for good images. Still it was cool to see the two babies and both parents together. I looked around the harbor, but I didn’t find where the parents were foraging.
I finished my day’s tour on a sandy beach north of the boat basin where peeps (small sandpipers) were a source of interest to me. I met Least Sandpipers (also called peeps) earlier travelling north at the Smith River mouth, but most of the peeps here were Western Sandpipers. A few Semipalmated Plovers were feeding with these peeps in the sandy flats exposed by the low tide, but none of the pictures I collected were that memorable.
When I stopped burning ones-and-zeros I considered my options. I had several days of images collected, and none of it organized. I wasn’t exhausted, but neither was I itchin’ to get on the road again. I ended up booking a motel room and working on the images I’d collected. I got all the geotaging, renaming, distribution into date-place folders, and a first round of culling done (it usually takes me three rounds to winnow the wheat from the chaff). All of the species-specific data remains to be embedded, along with the last couple of rounds of culling.
I’m tempted to stay another night and expand my explorations inland. I love the harbor encounters here, but I might miss out on some of the other avian attractions in the region.

Belted Kingfisher(Ceryle alcyon) |
Description: Birds I met in Crescent City California near the boat basin of the harbor. |
Date Taken: 2019:08:10 15:23 |
Location:
Crescent Harbor |
Camera Information: NIKON D5, 800 mm, f/16.0, 1/2000 |
File Name: BeltedKingfisher_D5X1692-CrescentCity |
© 2019 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |


Black Oystercatcher(Haematopus bachmani) |
Description: I met these birds raising babies on Pelican Rock in Crescent City California near the boat basin of the harbor. |
Date Taken: 2019:08:10 13:41 |
Location:
Crescent Harbor |
Camera Information: NIKON D5, 800 mm, f/16.0, 1/800 |
File Name: BlackOystercatcher-Family_D5X1166-CrescentCity |
© 2019 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |


Black Oystercatcher(Haematopus bachmani) |
Description: I met these birds raising babies on Pelican Rock in Crescent City California near the boat basin of the harbor. |
Date Taken: 2019:08:10 13:41 |
Location:
Crescent Harbor |
Camera Information: NIKON D5, 800 mm, f/16.0, 1/800 |
File Name: BlackOystercatcher-Family_D5X1171-CrescentCity |
© 2019 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |


Black Oystercatcher(Haematopus bachmani) |
Description: I met these birds raising babies on Pelican Rock in Crescent City California near the boat basin of the harbor. |
Date Taken: 2019:08:10 13:41 |
Location:
Crescent City |
Camera Information: NIKON D5, 800 mm, f/16.0, 1/800 |
File Name: BlackOystercatcher-Family_D5X1176-CrescentCity |
© 2019 Jack Daynes, shadeTree-Imaging |


Black Oystercatcher(Haematopus bachmani) |
Description: I met these birds raising babies on Pelican Rock in Crescent City California near the boat basin of the harbor. |
Date Taken: 2019:08:10 13:41 |
Location:
Crescent Harbor |
Camera Information: NIKON D5, 800 mm, f/16.0, 1/800 |
File Name: BlackOystercatcher-Family_D5X1178-CrescentCity |
© 2019 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |


Common Loon(Gavia immer) |
Description: This bird was in alternate, or breeding plumage. When I met these birds before in Crescent City California near the boat basin of the harbor, they were in non-breeding (basic) plumage. |
Date Taken: 2019:08:10 13:10 |
Location:
Crescent Harbor |
Camera Information: NIKON D5, 800 mm, f/16.0, 1/800 |
File Name: CommonLoon_D5X0973-CrescentCity |
© 2019 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |


Common Loon(Gavia immer) |
Description: This bird was in alternate, or breeding plumage. When I met these birds before in Crescent City California near the boat basin of the harbor, they were in non-breeding (basic) plumage. |
Date Taken: 2019:08:10 13:17 |
Location:
Crescent Harbor |
Camera Information: NIKON D5, 800 mm, f/16.0, 1/800 |
File Name: CommonLoon_D5X1070-CrescentCity |
© 2019 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |


Common Loon(Gavia immer) |
Description: This bird was in alternate, or breeding plumage. When I met these birds before in Crescent City California near the boat basin of the harbor, they were in non-breeding (basic) plumage. |
Date Taken: 2019:08:10 13:18 |
Location:
Crescent Harbor |
Camera Information: NIKON D5, 800 mm, f/16.0, 1/800 |
File Name: CommonLoon_D5X1082-CrescentCity |
© 2019 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |


Common Loon(Gavia immer) |
Description: This bird was in alternate, or breeding plumage. When I met these birds before in Crescent City California near the boat basin of the harbor, they were in non-breeding (basic) plumage. |
Date Taken: 2019:08:10 13:19 |
Location:
Crescent City |
Camera Information: NIKON D5, 800 mm, f/16.0, 1/800 |
File Name: CommonLoon_D5X1122-CrescentCity |
© 2019 Jack Daynes, shadeTree-Imaging |


Common Loon(Gavia immer) |
Description: This bird was in alternate, or breeding plumage. When I met these birds before in Crescent City California near the boat basin of the harbor, they were in non-breeding (basic) plumage. |
Date Taken: 2019:08:10 13:19 |
Location:
Crescent City |
Camera Information: NIKON D5, 800 mm, f/16.0, 1/800 |
File Name: CommonLoon_D5X1131-CrescentCity |
© 2019 Jack Daynes, shadeTree-Imaging |


Common Loon(Gavia immer) |
Description: This bird was in alternate, or breeding plumage. When I met these birds before in Crescent City California near the boat basin of the harbor, they were in non-breeding (basic) plumage. |
Date Taken: 2019:08:10 13:20 |
Location:
Crescent City |
Camera Information: NIKON D5, 800 mm, f/16.0, 1/800 |
File Name: CommonLoon_D5X1151-CrescentCity |
© 2019 Jack Daynes, shadeTree-Imaging |


Western Sandpiper(Calidris mauri) |
Description: Birds I met in Crescent City California near the boat basin of the harbor. |
Date Taken: 2019:08:10 14:59 |
Location:
Crescent Harbor |
Camera Information: NIKON D5, 800 mm, f/16.0, 1/1000 |
File Name: WesternSandpiper_D5X1348-CrescentCity |
© 2019 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |


Western Sandpiper(Calidris mauri) |
Description: Birds I met in Crescent City California near the boat basin of the harbor. |
Date Taken: 2019:08:10 15:00 |
Location:
Crescent Harbor |
Camera Information: NIKON D5, 800 mm, f/16.0, 1/800 |
File Name: WesternSandpiper_D5X1370-CrescentCity |
© 2019 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |


Western Sandpiper(Calidris mauri) |
Description: Birds I met in Crescent City California near the boat basin of the harbor. |
Date Taken: 2019:08:10 15:08 |
Location:
Crescent Harbor |
Camera Information: NIKON D5, 800 mm, f/16.0, 1/800 |
File Name: WesternSandpiper_D5X1489-CrescentCity |
© 2019 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |


Western Sandpiper(Calidris mauri) |
Description: Birds I met in Crescent City California near the boat basin of the harbor. |
Date Taken: 2019:08:10 15:10 |
Location:
Crescent Harbor |
Camera Information: NIKON D5, 800 mm, f/16.0, 1/800 |
File Name: WesternSandpiper_D5X1605-CrescentCity |
© 2019 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com |

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