An assortment of rocks

This latest low tide day, I visited a section of beach that I'd never been able to reach before. And there were rocks. So many different rocks! Here are some of them, and I'll leave the critters for tomorrow.

Tide's still going out. In this area, mostly seaweedy rocks.

Coming back an hour later, this was halfway up the beach.

10:40 AM. Starting off, walking down to the edge, on a causeway of rounded "cookie" stones. This is as far as I'd been before.

10:48. Still underwater. An unusually-shaped stone, clean and blue, two hands'-breadth. I saw no others like it.

12:21 PM. On my way back up the beach, at mid-tide level. Oyster-bearing rocks.

Sorry; not in chronological order. 11:20 AM. Getting near the low edge. So many rocks bear these holes; as if a giant had been bouncing on a pogo-stick.

And each hole was a mini tidepool, where mobile animals waited out the dry spell. Here, purple sea stars, an anemone, a hermit, in a hole about 15 cm. across.

Near the top of the intertidal zone, were more of these large "cookies".

And they hold somewhat barren tidepools.

Just another glacial erratic. The barnacle incrustation more or less indicates the usual high tide level.

A first-year Bonaparte's gull. Large flat areas of the lower intertidal zone are covered with slippery sea lettuce.

Ok. There were two reasons I'd never been able to reach this part of the shore before. First, obviously, because I'd never come there when the tide was this low. And secondly; footwear.

The areas that look easiest to walk on; those flat, green spaces, under a cover of pretty sea lettuce; they almost look like mowed lawns. They're not. And they're dangerous. With every step, your foot slides out from under you; it's like the slickest of slick ice.

And some of the bumpy, rocky areas are just as bad; there's the sea lettuce coating on top of rocks that roll out from underfoot. I've fallen a few times, not something I want to repeat.

But this time (why didn't I think of this long ago?) I wore ice cleats on my thrift-store sneakers; those wire and rubber attachments that go on over whatever shoe or boot you wear, advertised as winter gear. (Like these.) And with those on, I could walk normally, everywhere. Yay! I'm thinking now of another beach, one I've avoided before; not any more.

Tomorrow; the critters that live here.

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Cuando la marea estaba a su nivel más bajo, el sábado pasado, pude visitar una parte de la playa donde nunca antes había estado. Encontré gran variedad de rocas, todas diferentes. Aquí hay algunas, y dejo los animalitos para mañana.

1. La marea llega a la mitad de la zona intermareal. Estas rocas luego estaban totalmente expuestas.
2. Cuando pasé por aquí una hora más tarde, esto estaba a media playa.
3. Apenas empezando; este "camino" de rocas planas, arenosas cruzaba la zona alta. Hasta aquí yo había llegado antes. 10:40 AM.
4. Una piedra bajo el agua. No vi ninguna otra parecida. Mide unos 20 cm.
5. 12:21. Regresando hacia tierra firma ya. Hay muchas piedras cerca de la mitad de la zona como estas, cubiertas de bálanos y ostiones. (Que hasta parecen ser parte de la roca misma.)
6. Cerca de la zona más baja, muchas rocas llevan estos pocitos; como si un gigante hubiera estado jugando con un palo saltarín.
7. Y cada pocito se convierte en albergue para animales donde esperan a que regrese el agua. Aqui, estrellas de mar, una anémona, un cangrejo ermitaño.
8. En la zona superior intermareal, se ven estas "galletas", casi desnudas.
9. Y en estas, los pocitos intermareales contienen unas pocas algas marinas y caracolitos, Littorina sp.
10. Otro de esos bloques erráticos glaciares. Donde está cubierto de bálanos la marea alta cubre la roca.
11. Una gaviota "Bonaparte" en su primer año. Grandes secciones de la zona están cubiertas de lechuga marina, muy resbalosa.

Por dos razones nunca había visitado esta parte de la playa antes. Primeramente, claro, porque nunca llegué cuando la marea estaba tan baja. Y, segundo, no llevaba calzado adecuado.

Esas areas que parecen buenas para caminar; esos espacios planos, verdes, cubiertas de la bella lechuga de mar, que casi parecen céspedes bien cortados, no lo son. Son peligrosas. Con cada paso, tu pie resbala; es como caminar en el hielo más resbaloso posible.

Y hay sitios con rocas pequeñas, rocas redonditas, que son igualmente peligrosos; la lechuga de mar cubre piedras que se rodean bajo tus pies. Me he caído algunas veces; no es algo que quiero repetir.

Pero esta vez (y ¿porqué no se me ocurrió antes?) llevaba tacos de agarre para hielo bajo mis zapatos; un arreglo de alambre y hule que se fija sobre cualquier zapato o bota; los venden como equipo para invierno. (Como estos.) Y con esos puestos, pude caminar como sin nada, en todas partes. ¡Excelente!

Para mañana; las criaturas.

Peeping peeps

They scurry along, just at the edge of the incoming tide, feet in the water, stitching the sand under the waves with sharp bills, always in a hurry. I never see them swallow; their prey is tiny, even microscopic*. (Which accounts for the rush; it takes a lot of mouthfuls to make a meal.) They chatter contentedly among themselves as they go, "Peep, peep, peep!"  And then suddenly, they all leap into the air together, the flock circles a couple of times, flashing white and black as they turn, then they flit far down the shore, to land and repeat the performance. "Peep, peep, peep!"

And they all look more or less alike. Little brown birds with spindly legs, some yellow (at least those are easily recognized) some black. Some have short beaks, some long, maybe curved.

And they always seem to be between us and the light, sometimes mere silhouettes to our unaided eyes.

These were busy at Oyster Bay at near high tide.

A very small bird, foraging alone.

Sanderlings, maybe? Peeps, anyhow.

Dowitchers, maybe the long-billed dowitchers. (Short-billed dowitchers also have long bills.)

Not peeps. Bonaparte's gulls. Black heads, red legs. Just resting here; they eat mainly insects in breeding season.

Time to move along.

*From All About Birds: Western Sandpipers, like other peep, eat “biofilm,” a frothy, scumlike mixture of diatoms, microbes, organic detritus, and sediment.

Least Sandpipers have a typical sandpiper diet: they "eat small invertebrates such as amphipods, isopods, gastropods, horseshoe crab eggs, water fleas, midges and flies, beetles, and dragonflies. They peck at prey on the surface and probe damp mud for buried prey, using the surface tension of the water to transport the item quickly from their bill tips to their mouths."

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Corren a lo largo de la playa mientras sube la marea, con las patas en unos centímetros de agua, penetrando repetidamente la arena con sus picos agudos; como que siempre tienen prisa. Nunca los he visto tragarse nada; su presa es miniatura, hasta microscópica*, lo que explica el apuro; se requieren muchas bocadas para completar una comida. Discursan tranquilos mientras trabajan, un constante "Pío, pío, pío." Y de repente todos juntos se lanzan al aire, la bandada da una vuelta, mostrando plumas blancas y negras al cambiar de dirección, y rapidamente vuelan a un punto distante en la costa para volver a explorar la arena de la orilla. "¡Pío, pío, pío!"

Y es difícil distinguirlos; todas las especies de estas aves playeras se parecen. Pajaritos de color café con patas largas, unas amarillas (por lo menos, estos pájaros se pueden identificar), unas negras. Unas tienen picos largos, otras cortos, algunas tienen picos curvos. 

Y parece que siempre, o casi siempre, se nos presentan con la luz de fondo, haciéndolas aparecer ante nuestros ojos como siluetas en movimiento continuo.

Estas aves playeras buscaban su comida mientras subía la marea en Oyster Bay.

1. Un pajarito, muy chico, solitario.
2. Correlimos, posiblemente.
3. Agujetas, posiblemente las de picos largos. (Pero las de picos cortos también tienen los picos largos.)
4. Estas son gaviotas de Bonaparte. Tienen cabezas negras, patas rojas. Descansan aquí; en la época reproductiva comen principalmente los insectos.
5. Hora de ir a la próxima sección de la playa.

*De AllAboutBirds: "Los correlimos de Alaska Western Sandpipers, como otros correlimos, comen "película biológica", una mezcla espumosa de diatomea, microbios, restos orgánicos, y sedimentos.

El correlimos menudillo "come invertebrados pequeños tales como anfípodos, isópodos, caracoles marinos, huevos de cangrejo, "piojos acuáticos", moscos y moscas, escarabajos y libélulas. Cogen presa en la superficie y buscan presa enterrada entre lodo húmedo, usando la tensión de superficie del agua para trasportar el material rapidamente desde la punta del pico hasta la boca."

Shy Napoleon

I tried out a new lens, a 70 - 300 mm. It turned out not to be really compatible with my camera body, so I returned it, but it would have been wonderful for those shy shorebirds. Here are some Bonaparte's gulls, well beyond the reach of my present lenses.

Bonaparte's gull, Xema sabini, non-breeding. In season they have black heads.

They are the smallest of our gulls, about the size of a crow, and relatively shy.

On the beach they are always foraging at the very edge of the water; they don't pester human visitors asking for treats.

I got too close. The leading edge of the wing shows white in flight. There's another gull flying with them, obviously larger, with a yellow bill. Bonaparte's have black bills.

The species is named for Charles Lucien Bonaparte, a French ornithologist (and nephew to the former French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte)... (Wikipedia)

Flighty

A mixed flock of Bonaparte's gulls and sandpipers foraged peacefully on the shore at Willow Point. I approached them carefully, one slow step at a time, stopping often to pretend I was just another rock. It didn't work. They're too smart for me.

Mostly Bonaparte's gulls, 4 sandpipers, and one plover. And their reflections.

The breeding adults have black heads; younger ones are grey and white with a black smudge behind the eye.

And the one semi-trusting gull. But he's watchful.

Bonaparte's Gulls

At low tide, small flocks of these gulls congregate on Campbell River's beaches and just off the shoreline.

Non-breeding plumage; black spot behind eye.

Breeding adults have black heads.

This is a small gull; here with one of our average-sized gulls.

"Cool facts" from Cornell's All About Birds:

• The Bonaparte's Gull is the only gull that regularly nests in trees.
• During the breeding season, the Bonaparte's Gull feeds mainly on insects, often catching them on the wing.