Mother’s Day in Bodega Bay

It was a lovely Mother’s Day in Bodega Bay. We went for a walk early this morning at low tide. There was no wind and it was actually warm. ☺ The sand on the beach was perfectly smooth, not a single footprint—that is until our dogs began racing around. We spent time exploring the tidepools and saw starfish, mussels, anemones, barnacles, crabs and more.





The action wasn't limited to the shore. Some birds were tending to babies in their nests up above on a steep cliff. They were black with white patches on their shoulders and red on their tails. (I couldn’t find these birds in my Audubon book or by googling.) The parents would swoop down and fly really fast over the water, pick up food, and blast back up to feed the little cheeping babies. There appeared to be two or three nests up there as well as several sets of parents or other adults.

At one point, some ravens (about twice their size) started soaring around above the nests while the adults were out on these food runs. Before the ravens could attack, the parents and other adults came racing back and staked out various guard positions in the cliff surrounding the nests. The babies were cheeping away wanting more food but the parents wouldn’t budge until the ravens eventually gave up and flew away. What a timely display of serious mothering! Unfortunately we couldn't get any good shots without a telephoto lens.

We also came across a marine biologist who had a permit to collect some of the tidepool life for a classroom tank. He said there will be a very special low tide on Memorial Day weekend. Apparently the tide will recede much further than usual and marine life that rarely sees the light of day will be exposed. He said some rocks that are normally under water may have as many as 30 starfish on them, it should be quite a sight.

When we got home, we checked the tide tables and it looks like those low tides will be between 5:00–6:00 in the morning, yikes! We’re having a ton of family in that weekend, but we’ll see if any of them want to get up at dark o-clock and trek down to the beach.

I also fell in love with a different type of sea creature this weekend. This gorgeous necklace was on display at Local Color, a gallery here in Bodega Bay that features work by local artists.


Jane Garibaldi created this necklace as well as many other pieces featuring “sea creatures” as she calls them. Some include sea horse clasps like these. They’re so cool you’ll want to be sure to wear them down in front near the pendant.



In addition to jewelry, Local Color also carries coastal paintings, sculpture, notecards, and other art objects. They're located next door to Terrapin Creek Cafe, which I wrote about a few weeks ago.
Local Color
1580 Eastshore Rd.
Bodega Bay, CA 94923
707-875-2744
Open Wed-Mon 10am - 5pm

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