Sunday, January 15, 2012

Beach Day (With Elk)

On Friday we went to the ocean. Might actually have preferred to do nothing on Friday and outer coast on Saturday or Sunday, but a snowstorm was coming, so off we went.

There were elk, both on Beaver Prairie and in a field of stumps and grasses and scotch broom.

Elk on Beaver Prairie, off Dancing Elk Road :-) January 13, 2012 (Click for larger image.)
Boss elk on Beaver Prairie, January 13, 2012 (Click for larger image.)
Elk among the stumps, January 13, 2012 (Click for larger image.)
The elk in the scotch broom were at the pin by Sappho. Beaver Prairie is the other pin. (Click for larger image.)

It was kind of a murky day. Tide too close to high to get out on the beach, really. We stood up in the drift and watched the moderate swell come in and in. Sometimes the sun tried to break through. Blue patches grew in the sky, but never any direct sunlight.

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Looking back: Quileute River, Rialto Jetty, James Island and Pacific Ocean beyond. (Click for larger image.)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your photographs are FANTASTIC. I love the elk and the motion of the ocean. Well done!

Darius Cartmell said...

I like how you took the picture of those roaring waves, even with the minimal amount of sunlight. I'd be so moved if I was the one who shot that beach scene personally. By the way, do those elks live near or far from the beach?

anita said...

I have never seen an elk without antlers!

mb said...

Darius, the elk are on Beaver Prairie, some miles from the beach. I hope this link works. http://bit.ly/wG5nUr If you zoom in you will see the fields where the elk appear in winter. I think what Google Maps calls Magnolia Road is what the street sign calls 'Dancing Elk Road'. Sure 'nuff more elk than magnolias there...

mb said...

Anita, hmmmm, I only see them there in winter, and without antlers. Various websites, and Tim McNulty's Olympic Natural History book, say that the herds are the cows and juveniles; the males are more solitary, and not with the herds, except during the rutting season when they are strutting around with their antlers laying claim to the females... But in any case the males would have shed their antlers in the early winter.