Friday Morning Beach Report: Heron Stalks Fisherman and other news

Here's what the beach looked like when I arrived this morning.

And as if that wasn't enough, there were some dramatic bird goings-on.

There was a great blue heron stalking a fisherman. I've never seen a blue heron on the sand, but since this one could fly, walk, and tiptoe like a thief perfectly well, I guess it was okay. Mostly the herons hang out on the rooftops  and boat docks of the houses in the marina.

I take all my photos with my iPhone and that's painfully obvious here. But this gathering of little white birds (I couldn't quite tell if they were snowy plovers or sanderlings) is only partially captured in the photo. They were just sitting there. Hundreds of them.

And there was beach glass. Nice big chunks of it.

Wednesday Morning Beach Report Post Women's March

Clouds copying the shape of Santa Cruz Island

Snowy Plovers hunkered down in any old depression in the sand that they find (in this case, footprints)  This is probably why they're endangered. A little more planning and forethought  would be better. 

The dredging operation in the harbor seems to be churning up food for the gulls and skuas.  They seem quite a bit larger and way more complacent than normal.

I'm resolving not to be complacent, choosing wisely where to direct my energy, and looking for good examples. I plan to keep my pussyhat visible.

Do you know about the  POSTCARDS? You don't have to print them in color. Black and white is way cheaper.

Then This Happened: Snowy Plover Nest Follow-Up

This is the spot on the beach where I discovered the Snowy Plover nest yesterday. This morning I was thrilled to see that there's fencing around the area, and a sort of cage dropped on top of the actual nest. I'm not sure if it's the Audubon Society or the State Wildlife folks who do this, but it certainly was a timely response. (This cage does not hamper the birds movements--they can walk in and out.)

The next photo shows why it's so crucial to protect the nest.

How would you ever spot eggs that look like rocks if you were driving a truck across the sand?

Based on the birds I saw this morning, I'm pretty sure there are at least a couple more nests out there on the open sand. When I get the fancy birder binoculars I ordered, I'm going to go back out to that spot and have a look.

Am I having fun? Yes, I am. This morning's beach walk also included dramatic divining pelicans, whimbrels, and black-bellied plovers. Paradise. Right here. Right now.

Bird of the Day: Snowy Plover

After a bit of training, I became a docent for the snowy plover a couple of weeks ago. But because the wind has been so fierce here the past week, I've barely been out on the sand at all. Today the wind has scaled back to a stiff breeze. so I went out to take a look at the fencing near the dunes, thinking maybe the cordoned off nesting area might have lost all its ropes and stakes in the wind. Everything was in tact, so I did what I usually do on the beach. Walk, look, think.

As I walked, knowing what I now know thanks to the training, I was a bit more observant than usual. When I saw a snowy plover running madly dragging a wing, I laughed and froze. No, this was not an injured bird--this was a nesting bird trying to lure me away from some eggs. I haven't yet splurged on a pair of bird watcher binoculars, but after staying still, scanning the sand, and observing the bird, this is what I found.

It's a blurry photo--but look to the right of the large center plant--see the 3 eggs?!?

I called in my find, feeling like the Jane Goodall of the bird world or something. Now, since the nest is on the open sand not behind the fencing, I'm hoping some kind of barrier goes up soon.

Day of the Awesome Pants

I'm not sure how we got onto the subject, but I asked the girl if she had a favorite expression, and she told me she liked to say "Awesome pants!" My current favorite happens to be "Cool beans!"

The photo above does not do justice to how completely filthy our pants got today. How did we get so dirty? We climbed over this fence.

I should, of course, add that we were invited and, in fact, assisted in climbing over this fence by an uniformed environmental scientist who was surveying the area for snowy plover nests. The girl and I walked up to the fence to read the sign surrounding a portion of the dunes and struck up a conversation with the young woman with the awesome pants job. The girl and I then went on our way to hunt beach glass, but upon our return, the environmental scientist called to us and told us she'd found a nest with an egg in it, and did we want to see it?

Of course we did. As we marveled upon it, I asked why the egg was left untended. "The bird will return to lay a couple more eggs," the scientist said, "but won't start incubating them until all the eggs are in the nest. That way they all will hatch at the same time." She also told us that once the plover chicks do hatch, they set right to work hunting for sand fleas. They do not need to be fed by their parents. "They look like little cotton balls on legs," she said. "The first time I saw one I was hooked!"

As the girl and I walked back to the car, we saw a pair of snowy plovers dashing across the sand. We speculated that maybe they were the parents of the egg. And we talked about what an awesome pants job it would be to walk around in the sand dunes looking for the eggs of an endangered species.