Bird Watching in Bodega Bay

Bodega Bay is a great place to observe birds of the Pacific Coast. Doran Park has a large variety of birds available for viewing.  Doran Park is located one mile south of Bodega Bay just past the entrance to the Bodega Harbour development and golf course.

The park address is 201 Doran Beach Road.  Day use fees are six dollars.

The park extends from the coast highway along a sand spit of land with the outer harbor on the south side and the inner harbor on the north side.  The majority of the bird life can be found on the north side of park, although some birds frequent the surf area on the south beach.  The park has bathrooms and a beach wheel chair is also available upon request.

Some of the birds that frequent the park and harbor area include gulls, pelicans, scoters, terns, murres, plovers and rails.  Cormorants and even Canada Geese are often viewed here.

For those who don't mind the drive the Point Reyes National Seashore features a vast saltwater marsh and mudflat area located at Drake's Estero.  There are many migratory birds located here during the winter months.  According to the Audubon Society the headlands and off shore rocks are very important to a diverse nesting group of seabirds including Ashy Storm-Petrel, Rhinoceros Auklet and Tufted Puffin.  The birds are located near Bird Rock and offshore rocks within Drake's Bay.

The sandy beaches in the area host nesting Snowy Plover along North Beach and Limantour Spit.  There are also nesting egrets in the trees located near the Audubon Society location.

For more information visit the Audubon.org web site.

For lodging near Bodega Bay there are several hotels including "The Inn at the Tides", Bodega Bay Inn and Bodega Coast Inn and Suites.  Another option is to stay at a vacation rental in the area. A favorite one is located close to Doran Beach with a nice view of the beach and ocean.

Visit luxurybodega.com for more information.

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Surfing in Bodega Bay

Sonoma County is not one of the most famous places for surfing in the world, but it has its fair share of quality waves. Most beaches are easy to access from Santa Rosa or Sebastopol, just head west on highway 12 and make a right turn on highway 1 after passing through the town of Bodega.

The closest beach to Santa Rosa is Doran Beach at Doran Park. This beach has the worst surf all year except for certain days with high tide and a swell coming from the proper direction. Doran Beach is almost totally protected from the usual north-western swell by Bodega Head and the reef out by Seal Rock (also known as Bodega Rock).

Doran usually takes at least a ten foot swell to get chest-head high waves. The best time to check out Doran is at high tide, after a rain, with a good pumping swell everywhere else. Some people prefer Doran at low tide, which almost always has barrels with larger swell, but I have only seen one day that actually had quality long barrel rides, when the swell was jacking up to 17 feet outside. Usually Doran will sustain high tide better and provides a lot of fun waves throughout the year once the rains start to fall. I surfed it a lot when I was younger and I spent a lot of time learning how to surf at this beach. I never worry about sharks at this beach because it is so protected and the paddle is never very far. Sometimes a long mushy wave breaks on the northern-most component of Doran Beach near the rock jetty. This requires a huge swell and super-low tide, but could potentially be a very fun wave for longboarders when everything else is too big to surf.

If you are planning a vacation to Bodega Bay or the surrounding area and want to investigate places to stay, there are many vacation rentals such as http://luxurybodega.com that can be found on vrbo, and there are also hotels such as the Inn at the Tides.

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