Friday, March 08, 2013

Surf and Sanderlings, Monterey Bay



Now that we are in Idaho, I miss the ocean--a lot--even though I didn't go there often. Still, it was there, and I knew it was there and I could go. Silly, am I not?? This photo is something I had scanned recently; sent big boxes of slides, photos and negatives to Scancafe--they did nice work on them. They often have special prices, watch for them!--it takes a couple of months, but every image is right side up, and clean. I don't know how they do it this cheaply. Living here I luckily have a stream, with three kinds of ducks, and greedy red-winged blackbirds that fight over the feeder and spill tremendous amounts of seed, making the ducks very happy. Yesterday, I had SEVEN pairs of wood ducks eating my cracked corn in the late afternoon, along with many mallards. This is more wood ducks than I have ever had; last year topped out at four pairs. Pretty soon they should be making an effort to find cavities or nest boxes to lay eggs in. I cannot put up nest boxes here because of the neighborhood killer cat.

This is the memory thread on sanderlings; how they run along the surf's edge, poking into the sand for goodies. How they take flight (as in the photo above) and the flock wheels together in great swooping turns. How, once, I told a veteran birder that they were sanderlings (where he usally saw similar sandpipers) and I was right! That was fun. A Very Good Night to you!

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