Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Eagles(s), Oystercatchers, Cormorants, Pelicans

On Sunday, a bubble of sunshine out at Rialto Beach. GF kept not believing it; in his universe the weather is always worst on the outer coast, and they had driven through rain all the way from Seattle. But there it was: a bit murky perhaps, but sunshine. Sky blue-ish.

Dahdayla Rock (Click for larger image.)
Rialto Beach, July 15, 2012 (Click for larger image.)

PB ambled along, picking up small stones and "lovely sticks", while GF and I headed for the Hole-in-the-Wall, otherwise known as The Most Beautiful Beach in the World. (OK, so your mileage may vary.) For the Park's premier drive-to beach in the height of the season on a sunny Sunday, it wasn't all that crowded. We had eagles, and oystercatchers (GF recognized their profiles as they flew off, and me their whistley calls.) Cormorants. Gulls of course. The tide was dropping, but only to a 3.8 foot low. Not good enough for tide-pooling, but still, when we got out there, we had some giant green anemones to admire on the rocks, and the bolder people we going through the Hole. (It's marked on the map as needing a tide less than 5 feet.)

Eagle out near Hole in the Wall (Click for larger image.)

The air thickened. GF went over the trail to the next cove, just to see. Flights of pelicans began to pass by far out over the water. More flights of pelicans. We started hiking back, picking up PB along the way.

Later in the Day, Rialto Beach (Click for larger image.)

We had planned to go around to the La Push side of the river, just for geographic completeness, but there wasn't time since they needed to get all the way back to Seattle. Too bad, odds are the harbor at La Push is where the pelicans were heading. GF has never seen one close up, and we could have gotten pictures...

No comments: