Kelly and I had a wonderful Valentine's weekend at the Gatehouse Inn, a lovely Victorian bed and breakfast in Pacific Grove. We spent our daylight hours walking along the coast, visiting the Monterey Bay Aquarium, picnicing at the mouth of the Carmel River, and yes, doing a little bit of birding... We saw most of the expected coastline birds you could expect to find without much effort: Common Loon, Pelagic, Brandt's and Double-crested Cormorant, Black Oysteratcher, Black Turnstone, Mew Gull and smartly-dressed Heerman's Gulls. While we failed to find the Zone-tailed Hawk at the Carmel Middle School, we did find Western Bluebird, Western Meadowlark, Orange-crowned Warbler and our first Allen's Hummingbirds of the spring.