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Heceta Head, along with its iconic and historic lighthouse on the mid-Oregon Pacific coast, has one of the most scenic views of the area’s rocky headlands.
Some of the intertidal zone rock formations are small enough to be periodically submerged by breaking waves.
Other seastacks are huge, and some of them attract a variety of seabirds.
The sides of the seastacks are sometimes covered with nesting birds, as they were when I visited the area two weeks ago. The predominant species were black and white common murres,
and the larger, jet black Brandt’s cormorants.
When the angle and the lighting are right, iridescent blue ‘gular pouches’ (skin patches) can be seen on the “chins” below the beaks of breeding cormorants.
Some birds choose to nest on precarious ledges with precipitous drops to the sea below,
where the swirling waters would likely drown any youngsters that stumbled off the edge before they were able to fly.
But the top of the seastack seems to serve as a landing pad, where birds of a feather tend to hang together, and socializing is the main activity. At least that's the way it looked to me.
(click on attached image below)
