At low tide, I walked along the Mazatlan shoreline to a group of low rocks, most of them covered with each wave, but exposed in between. I skirted the perimeter, where the waves licked at my sandals and ran in channels beside me. Further out, a large flock of surfbirds descended with each retreating wave to feed on the draining rocks.
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| Hurry, hurry! Next wave's coming! |
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| Eating on the run |
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| Good thing they have wings! |
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| 10-second break |
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| On to the next rock; this one's gone. |
I managed to get close to a few of the birds.
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Unidentified sandpipers. Surfbirds, Calidris virgata*. Brown, black and white pattern on back, spotted bellies, yellow legs, straight, yellow and blackish beak. |
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| They seem to be poking their beaks into small cracks in the rocks. |
I looked carefully at the rocks I could reach, and fished in channels where the water was shallow enough between one wave and the next, to see what the surfbirds were catching. On the rock surfaces, I saw mostly barnacles, tiny ones. Down in the channels, bits of rockweed held tiny snails and hermit crabs. I saw a crab or two.
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| Tiny barnacles and a snail or two. |
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| Rockweed, underwater. Some of those snails are hermit crabs. |
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| Good eating here! |
The tide came in. The rocks disappeared. So did the surfbirds. I went home for supper.
*Updated to correct species. Thanks, Clare!
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