Date: 11/23/25 3:48 pm From: Rubba Johanna via groups.io <jer72701...> Subject: [slocobirding] Morro Bay, estuary and Marina
After a pleasant morning shorebird walk, I mounted a kayak and headed up the channels of the estuary. There were many birds, which I unfortunately flushed: many Long-billled Curlews, Willets, and Great Egrets. I had a lovely close-up look at a pair of Least Sandpipers, lovely, delicate little things As I exited the estuary, I got a bit stuck on the sandbar looking at five or six small Terns. I did not have my binoculars with me, but it looked like they had black behind the eye. They made a light but grating call. Elegant? I poled myself off the sandbar and turned towards the marina. Along the edge of the bank were at least 200 shorebirds, either Marbled Godwits or Whimbrels or both. I paddled a ways into the marina, where I saw a male Bufflehead, 4 Pied-billed Grebes, and an interesting loon, a tough call, but I think it was a Pacific Loon in non-breeding plumage. It had a light bill and face with a gray head and neck. The gray went all the way around the throat. Its back had the speckled barring that shows up in the bird guides. Next to last, there was a spotted sandpiper picking its way along the marina bank across from the boats. It had yellow legs and a white eyering with a short white eyebrow stripe, and it pumped its tail as it went along. Lastly, as I sit here in my car writing this up, I hear a Belted Kingfisher
