Black Oyster Catcher Feeding

On this day, I had spent about an hour on my stomach hanging off of the edge of a cliff over the ocean at Wilder Ranch State Park. I’m afraid of heights, so it was all I could do to edge forward for better viewing angles. All the while, I kept hearing a chirp was clearly too small to come from a pelican nor did it sound like a songbird.  I edge forward more , dangle my camera over the edge, take a few blind shots, and capture the adult. Struck by its eye, I got up to look through the photos and realized a fellow birder had joined me. He quickly identified the bird as a black oyster catcher.

I got back down and snapped off a few more photos that I ultimately wasn’t very impressed with — the chick was cute but the lighting was harsh and the composition awful. I packed up to leave and had actually put my camera away when I suddenly just knew “Go back. Take another shot.” Sure enough, I get back on my stomach and  in the very next shot the adult had just landed on the cliff after having caught what is presumably an oyster ( I don’t actually know).

This was one of the first times I got to witness an adult wild animal nurturing its young. The chick was not  interested until the adult ripped off a chunk. The parent tried and tried to get the chick to eat. Eventually after gnashing it a bit more, the chick devoured the meal.