Although my broken foot nixed most of my plans for birdwatching on my trip home, that doesn’t mean that birding is out altogether. My father took me to Redwood Shores yesterday, to a spot recommended by a serious birder friend. We used “the rig,” my folks’ mini-camper, which had the advantage of height and amenities, and parked by the side of a pond aside a sewage treatment plant (didn’t smell) where there were a large number of birds.

The most impressive was the Hooded Merganser, which really makes you look twice:

Quite the headgear, eh? The following two include blowups upon clicking:

That last one expands to include a female merganser, though only viewed from behind.

There was also a variant of a bird I’ve seen before in Tokyo, the Black-necked Stilt (the Japanese variant is the Black-winged Stilt).

There was a similar bird present, the American Avocet, in winter plumage (click for larger image):

And similar to the Merganser, there was a Common Goldeneye, also a large-headed duck. In this shot, it’s close to what appears to be a Ruddy Duck (also expandable):

We also spied what we later learned to be a Ruddy Duck (winter plumage), though it was diving so much and for so long, we thought it might be some kind of Grebe.

Not a bad catch for a quick trip. Today we’re going to close to the Dumbarton to see if there are any good spots around there.