Cove Beach, Año Nuevo State Park, Pescadero, CA, 10/25/2006
Año Nuevo State Park is known for its natural beauty and diverse coastal wildlife, especially elephant seals. The different habitats in the park also support a notably high diversity of avian life. The sandy beach and tidepool habitats along the coast provide important feeding and resting areas for multiple species of shorebirds and gulls. The area is a bird watcher’s delight. On an autumn visit here a friend and I spotted this flock of California Gulls (Larus californicus) lined up along Cove Beach on the south shore of Año Nuevo Point. In typical fashion all the birds are facing the same direction, in this case west toward the late afternoon sun. Of the several exposures I made this has the most attractive wave. The photograph was a challenge because I had to repeatedly call out to passersby to prevent them from crossing between my camera and the birds, possibly making them fly away. Gulls are resourceful, inquisitive, and intelligent birds, demonstrating complex methods of communication and a highly developed social structure. California Gulls are migratory, with most moving to the Pacific coast in winter. It is only then that this bird is regularly found here in western California. Año Nuevo was named Punta de Año Nuevo (New Year's Point) by a chaplain on the ship of Spanish conquistador and maritime explorer Sebastian Vizcaino (1548-1624), commemorating the day they sighted the point in 1603.
