a sign for Moss LandingBirders and pinnipeds flock to Moss Landing.

By Ginny Prior


When Alfred Hitchcock chose Bodega Bay for his epic film The Birds, he completely overlooked one of the top five birding destinations in the country.

Moss Landing would have been the perfect place for a bird tale, or almost any other wildlife story. It's a quaint fishing village on Monterey Bay that just happens to be along the Pacific Flyway, where on any given day you can see hundreds of bird species along with otters, whales and a plethora of pinnipeds. They all share a common interest--feasting on the bugs, fish and plankton in the muddy waters of the Elkhorn Slough.

Most folks drive from Oakland to Monterey in one straight shot, never stopping to take in the sights along the way. But 15 minutes north of Steinbeck's famous city is a little town with its own bragging rights. Moss Landing is an outdoor lover's dream with charming shops (more than 20 antique shops alone) and some of the best restaurants on the Peninsula.

The best way to see Moss Landing is to stay in the house where founder Charlie Moss once operated his steamship company. Today it's a beautifully restored bed and breakfast, Captain's Inn, run by Melanie Gideon and her seafaring husband, Capt.Yohn Gideon. They have lovingly turned this historic 1906 home into a nautical delight, each room featuring a different boat for a bed. Talk about being rocked to sleep--your bed may be a handmade vessel in a fishing haven, a marine biologist's dingy with trailer or even a racing craft with a billowy sail for a canopy.

The guest log at the Captain's Inn reads like a sailor's dream. "This evening before sunset we saw several things from the wonderful windows in this room. As the tide rose, four harbor seals took to the water and swam out to feed." Another entry talks about "observing a group of 15 white pelicans cruising up the waterway and feeding." "It's true," says Melanie Gideon. "You can see harbor seals, snowy egrets, brown pelicans; watch the tide come and go and never get out of your bed or chair." The viewing is made easier with binoculars and big windows that look out over the marsh, river and sand dunes.

But not everyone is content to just watch from afar. For these adventurous souls, there is the Elkhorn Slough Safari. Yes, I said safari, although lions and tigers and bears it's not. In this wild kingdom, it's all about birds and marine life. "Yuck!" said a girl who was sitting near me on Captain Yohn's pontoon last summer as a whiskery otter slurped up a big, juicy innkeeper worm. "It looks like he's eating a big string of brown cheese!"

That's how close we were to a raft of blond otters, one of which was feasting on a worm he had pulled from the mud. "It's rare to see a natural blond in California," joked Gideon as he steered his craft along the seven-mile waterway. Every day feels like a Nature Channel program in Gideon's world. "We had some cormorants and one came up with an octopus," he recalls on a recent trip. "Then some gulls dove on the cormorant and stole the octopus, and a pelican grabbed it from the gulls." The last Gideon saw, the octopus had its tentacles wrapped around the pelican's pouch and was putting up a pretty good fight.

Of course, there's more to Moss Landing than just the spectacle of nature. You can go wine tasting in the nearby Salinas and Carmel valleys, golfing on a wide array of incredible courses, whale watching, kayaking and even biking on a trail from Castroville all the way to Pebble Beach.

And while working up an appetite is no problem at all, neither is finding a place to satisfy your hunger. One of the best restaurants on any coast is Phil's Fish Market and Eatery, where the seafood is literally right off the boat. Customers come from miles around to fill up their pot with Phil DiGirolamo's famous cioppino, made from his grandmother's recipe. Another popular restaurant with the DiGirolamo family touch is Charlie Moss's, where they serve hearty meat dishes like prime rib. And locals and tourists alike recommend the Whole Enchilada for its fresh Mexican cuisine.

In the competition for tourism, Monterey will always come out ahead. But that's just fine with the folks in Moss Landing. There's plenty to squawk about here, and they know it. And now you know it, too.

If You Go:

Captain's Inn, (831) 633-5550, www. captainsinn.com;
Monterey County Convention and Visitors Bureau, (888) 221-1010, www.montereyinfo.org;
Elkhorn Slough Safari, (831) 633-5555, www.elkhornslough. com;
Phil's Fish Market and Eatery, (831) 633-2152, www.philsfishmarket. com;
The Whole Enchilada, (831) 633-3038, www.wenchilada.com.