Tuesday, May 21, 2013

The Ocean on Sunday

Did went. I decided the whales either were at La Push, or not; and that I was happy to have seen one a month ago, and happy to know I could go look again. But really I needed a long listen to the sound of waves. So I went to Rialto Beach, and had the nicest time in months. Sea stars, anemones, black oystercatchers, gray sky turned blue etc.

Rialto Beach, May 18, 2013 (Click for larger image.)

I ambled out

Bryozoan, Bull Kelp, Rockweed (Click for larger image.)

toward Hole-in-the-Wall,

... (Click for larger image.)

beginning an hour before a not-very-low low tide. Maybe there wouldn't be any tidepool critters with the tide at this level, I thought, but yes there were.

Giant Green Anemone (Click for larger image.)
Chiton (Click for larger image.)
Pisaster ochraceus (purple sea star) (Click for larger image.)

Bird nerds will be happy to know I don't only greet cetaceans (and other charismatic megafauna, rivers, or stray sweeps of landscape). I also talk to birds. When I heard oystercatchers whistling and saw a pair circle past, all flappity flap, I too flapped my arms. 'Hi,' I told them, 'Hi darlings.'

Full confession. Later I had this guy nearby on a rock and I started edging closer to get a better picture. Bad me. After a while he squawked indignantly and flew away. No cheerful sounding whistles that time. 'Sorry, sweetie,' I told him.

Black Oystercatcher (Click for larger image.)

Eagles in the forest trees behind the beach. On the way home, an eagle sitting in the Quileute River from the pullout behind the beach.

Blurry eagle. (Click for larger image.)
Quileute River eagle (Click for larger image.)

I kept looking back along the beach, unable to understand how it can still be so beautiful when we know we have spoiled the world. It's done. See what we have lost.

Not a single panoramic still in the camera. All the little videos I took for soundscapes have mostly only the sound of the wind blowing across the camera. But they are where the panorama of waves sweeping up the beach are.

Rialto Beach panorama, May 19, 2013
Rialto Beach panorama, May 19, 2013

Shoutout to @7shores for putting me in mind to go listen to the waves. Thankyou, Olympic National Park.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Very nice. I talk to the bunnies in the backyard. There are two at the moment. There were four this morning and two of them were doing the binky (look it up) Sounds like a dance from the 50s, lol