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Daily Bucket: Friday Sequence, Cormorants nesting at Yaquina Head Lighthouse, Oregon sea stacks [1]

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Date: 2023-06-23  

The nests of Cormorants were plentiful on the steep cliffs of the sea stacks right off shore and on cliffs.

Closer One adult is in the nest and their mate sometimes stands close by.

Here is how I took the photo above. It was so windy that I had to brace my new camera on the railing.

May and June are the months that Cormorants in this area build their nests. Ms. JG and I had not visited the area at this time of year so had missed the nesting. We look forward next year to time our trip a little later to watch the chicks hatch and develop.

The nests are made by the cormorants gathering grass and vegetation.



Grass is gathered on the hillsides. The ‘whiskers’ on this cormorant show it’s a Brandt’s Cormorant.

The white ‘pantaloons’ on this bird show it’s a Pelagic Cormorant.

Cormorants also dive to the bottom to get vegetation. see vegetation closer

One brings the material to the nest and hands it off to the other to work it into the nest.

see action closer If you click on the zoom link, you can see the handoff of some nesting material

The Cormorant on the nest weaves in the grass.

Some times there are food deliveries.



Here is a series of photos showing nests on different sea stacks.

One area had Cormorant nests with Common Murres crowded together very near the nests. There didn’t seem to be any confrontations due to spacing. see closer

Sometimes a mate had to climb the steep cliff to reach the nest of its mate.

Cormorant walking/flying up side of cliff to reach nest just above.

And what are nests for?

It took over ½ hour to see a Cormorant come off the nest enough to see eggs.

And by waiting even longer, we got to see four eggs.

A distant shot of a Pelagic Cormorant off to get food or nesting material.

The next Bucket from our trip to the Newport area will include Pigeon Guillemots, Harlequins, gulls, Brown Pelicans and Oystercatchers along with some seals.

The two areas we concentrated on were the beach below the lighthouse and a place called Seal Rock. I’ll show photos of Seal Rock beach next time, but here are photos of the beach below the lighthouse at both high tide and low tide.



The beach at high tide looking up at the lighthouse.

The beach looking down from above at high tide.

The beach looking down from above at low tide.

The same beach, looking partially down from an access stairway, at low tide.

There are many educational signs on the stairway to the beach. Here is one:

I hope you enjoyed the second part showing our trip.

The last part will show many different animals and landscapes.

Your turn to add to the Bucket. Let’s make it overflow.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/23/2176649/-Daily-Bucket-Friday-Sequence-Cormorants-nesting-at-Yaquina-Head-Lighthouse-Oregon-sea-stacks

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