After spending time with the birds on the deck, I enjoyed a walk on the beach in search of shorebirds. Stinson Beach isn't exactly warm in February. There is generally a cold wind blowing off the ocean that makes you appreciate your jacket.
Despite the chill, I took most of these photos lying down in the sand and feeling giddy about it. How could I not? This isn't something I get to do everyday! A marbled Godwit, above and below. Don't you just love that pink bill?
The Marbled Godwit breeds in northern prairies in the US and Canada and winters along the coast of California and western Mexico. It feeds on crabs, bristle worms and small bivalves that it extracts from the ocean water and sand with that long probing bill.
A Whimbrel, above and below, a large shorebird in the curlew family, and another inhabitant of shores, mudflats, marshes, prairies and tundra.
Amazingly, Whimbrels visit the coastal shores of North America in the winter and breed in artic and subartic areas. Some travel as far as 2500 miles without stopping.
Whimbrels forage the beach in search of marine invertebrates, including crabs, other crustaceans, marine worms and mollusks. Sometimes they grab them as they tumble in the tide, other times, they probe in the sand with their uniquely curved bill.
A bird with spectacular markings.
The waves look gigantic from this perspective, don't they?
Above and below, a Willet also walks the tide foraging.
A special way to enjoy the beach!
Visit all my posts on Stinson Beach, California
Cornell All About Birds:
Willet
Whimbrel
Marbled Godwit
Monday, May 12, 2014
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Ocean Trail at Palos Verdes Nature Preserve, California--2015
Bird-banding at Seven Islands State Birding Park--2014
Bird-banding at Seven Islands
Enjoying Gray Jays in Churchill!--2014
Smithsonian National Zoo with one of my Whooping Crane banners and son, John--2014
The Incredible Muir Woods near Stinson Beach, CA--2014
Me and Denali--2012
For the Love of It...
...the sage sees heaven reflected in Nature as in a mirror, and he pursues this Art, not for the sake of gold or silver, but for the love of the knowledge which it reveals.
Sendivogius (1750)
Sendivogius (1750)
It looks like such a lovely place to walk. Yes and I know the thought of being at the ocean, makes you think warm, not so much on the Pacific coast much of the year~
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