Cloisters Park

Cloisters Community Park is tucked in between Highway 1 and the coastal dunes at the north end of Morro Bay. I guess there must be some historical reason for the name. There are no nuns here, nor medieval art. Anyway, it’s a small park consisting mostly of grassy open space and paved walkways. There’s a tiny wetland—maybe five acres—in the middle of the park that’s known as a fine site for birdwatching. It’s hard (not to mention prohibited) to access most of the wetland, but there’s little observation deck that protrudes into the south end. From there you can view a tiny area of shallow open water bordered by larger expanses of thick rushes and willows. We go by this spot fairly often. It’s surprising what will turn up.

This Sora spent a few weeks in the wetland back in February before presumably moving on to more northerly breeding grounds. These diminutive rails (they only reach eight to ten inches in length) are supposed to be rather shy, but this one walked around in the open right below our feet as we watched from the observing platform. The sexes look similar in this species, but I think this was a female.

Like most rails, Soras have these enormous feet for walking on floating vegetation. The birds are apparently quite common, but due to their aforementioned shyness are not seen very often. We felt lucky to see this one so close up.

There’ve been a few immature Pied-billed Grebes in the wetland lately. Not an uncommon bird in any way, but so beautiful in good light. In contrast to most birds, Pied-billed juveniles are prettier than the adults.

Look at that eye, suspiciously regarding me and my camera.

A pensive looking American Coot. Along with Mallards, these are among the most ubiquitous of American waterfowl. Both are usually present at Cloisters.

Coots have big feet, too. On land they look like they’re wearing clown shoes. I’ve recently learned that Coots can be aggressive toward humans, but I’ve never personally seen this.

A Marsh Wren sings his heart out from a bullrush (Scirpus sp.). These birds, like so many small birds, are generally much easier to hear than to see. That was certainly the case the other day at Cloisters.

More from Merced

Even without the headliner birds I described in the pervious post Merced National Wildlife Refuge provides some excellent birding. Much of the refuge isn’t accessible to the public, and much of what is accessible can only be enjoyed from inside an automobile. Visitors can drive dirt roads along a series of levies adjacent to the wetlands, but are prohibited from leaving their cars. The good thing about that is that birds fear cars less than they fear people, allowing closer approach from a car. So anyway, here are a few photos:

We saw many White-faced Ibis foraging in the shallows. These solitary birds only display their white faces during breeding season.

Small groups of gangly Black-necked Stilts were all over the place.

Northern Shovelers were by far the most abundant ducks in the refuge. Most were paired up like these two.

Ducks can be broadly divided into diving ducks and dabbling ducks. Shovelers are dabblers, as this pair demonstrate.

The gorgeous Northern Pintails were probably the second most common duck. Another dabbler. That’s a Ruddy duck (a diver) in the background. Ruddys were uncommon here.

This rather nondescript little bird is an American Pipit. The species used to be called Water Pipit. While frequently found near water they can be abundant in dry habitats as well. They were fairly common at the refuge the day we were there.

Lots and lots of Snowy Egrets. I liked this golden hour shot.

Another golden hour shot of a ubiquitous bird—a Killdeer. Such a beautiful bird close up.

The refuge was also rich in raptors, but I’ll leave that for another post.