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Tag Archives: beach

Sunset on the Beach

We got away from home for a little while just as winter was coming to an end and spring was beginning, otherwise known as mud season. I have several hundred images to edit and sort and this is my favorite batch by far. There will be more blog posts from this wonderful vacation in the days to come.

Our trip took us around the top of Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, starting at Port Angeles, then down to LaPush, a brief stop in Westport and then to our final destination near Pacific Beach. We stayed at a wonderful place called the Sandpiper – a small resort built right behind the narrow strip of dunes and against the cliff. It would not be the place to be during a tsunami. We were blessed with good weather and the first night we had a marvelous sunset! One of the best I’ve ever experienced. Last year in Florida we learned to go out to the beach and toast the sunset so we carried on with that marvelous tradition on the west coast.

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Fishing Familiar

Ken referred to this bird as his ‘familiar’. Most evenings when he was surf fishing in Florida, a Great Blue Heron would join Ken, waiting for a piece of bait or a small fish or some other tasty morsel. The bird was quite tame and would walk up to within five or six feet of Ken. It had obviously done this before with other anglers. It could tell when Ken caught a fish and it seemed disapproving when Ken was not having good luck.

The plumage on the heron was fascinating and easily studied at close range. I never before noticed the red feathers on the ‘elbows’ (do birds have elbows?) or the black streaking on the front of the neck and I’ve look at lots of Great Blue Herons over the years. The red feathers must be part of the wing coverts or possibly the alula.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The bird would poke around to find his own food when fishing was slow

 

It took the catch to the water to rinse it before swallowing it whole

 

 

 

Shorebirds at Sunset

In Florida, every night after dinner, we would walk to the beach. Surprisingly most other beach goers were gone by then. Just before the moment when the sun went down, a few people would wander back and all facing the sun, would raise a glass in a toast to another day well lived. It was a wonderful ritual – maybe one that we should practice at home as well as on vacation.

Ken would fish and I would walk on the beach – hoping to find interesting sea shells and watching the birds. At Sanibel, no cars are allowed to drive on the beach and almost no one takes dogs to the beach and then they are on leashses for the most part. These two factors must contribute to the tameness of the birds. Shorebirds were remarkably approachable. It’s the only place I’ve been where I could get good photos of these migratory wonders.

I have always struggled with shorebird ID. Some of these birds were in a transistional plumage – going from winter to breeding plumage – this made ID even harder for me. Field guide pictures show one or ther other generally, not the transistion. I was surprised to see that many of the species on the SE coast were the same as in the Pacific NW.

 

Willets relfecting the warm light of the sun

 

 

 

 

A plover – Black-bellied or American Golden?

 

 

 

Brown Pelicans flew by the beach all the time.

 

And so did the shorebirds.

 

Ruddy Turnstone

 

 

Sanderlings

 

 

 

 

A gull. I don’t even try to identify immature gulls.

 

There’s a dowitcher in the middle of this group. Long-billed or Short-billed?

 

 

 

 

 

Post cards from the Oregon Coast

I’ve always loved going to the ocean but now I find that tempered a bit with the recurring images of the tsunami that rolled over the Japanese coast this spring. As I stood on the rocks and watched waves rushing in, I imagined what it would be like if they just kept coming and did not retreat. Most of the time I managed to subdue that image in my brain and enjoyed the waves and the sand and the rocks and the birds and tide pools.

 

 

 

Gooseneck Barnacles

 

Sea Anemones

 

Sea stars and mussels

Dungeness Crab shell

 

Strange colors in that deep dark spruce forest on the way to the beach

 

Waldport Green Bikes

 

Wreck of the Iredale

 

Fort Stevens near the mouth of the Columbia. That’s Washington across the way.

 

Ken got to ‘go fly a kite’

Another kind of kite flying that we did not try

 

Brown Pelicans

Caspian Terns – maybe some of those from the colony that collapsed due to pressure from eagles and gulls on Sand Island.