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| Pooled Sanderlings, Ocean Beach |
I was so looking forward to seeing Ocean Beach with a "high surf advisory" that I started my walk almost an hour earlier than usual. The surf was indeed huge, but too chaotic to entice any surfers. Instead I zeroed in on a flock of sanderlings working the beach right in front of me.
As I was walking home from the beach I noticed quite a few newly hatched, winged termites helicoptering in the sunshine. The birds hadn't been noticing them until about a block from home, where I encountered another hatch that was drawing in yellow-rumped and Townsend's warblers.
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| When a Townsend's warbler lit on a bush before I'd walked a block from home, I couldn't resist trying to snap a shot of him. I'd get another chance in the same general area on the way home, too, thanks to the winged termites hatching. |
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| Morning at the Beach |
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| Foamy Feet |
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| A herring gull stands nearly motionless in the midst of sanderlings busily going about their business. |
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| Reflections #1 |
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| Reflections #2 |
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| Working the Riverbank |
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| Milky Mahem |
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| Peaceful Ripples |
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| Charging Chaos |
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| Sometimes a large group of sanderlings would work the same small pool left by a receding wave. |
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| It was a beautiful November morning at Ocean Beach. |
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| Clearing Fog |
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| Yellow-rumped Warbler Eyeing Flying Termites |
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| The birds would hawk after a flying termite (or two), then flit back into a street tree, like this Townsend's warbler perched in a cotoneaster. |
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| The best hatching area I saw was on a bike path down by the beach. The birds hadn't discovered it yet. |
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| Snow even reach the valley floor (but had melted from this view by this afternoon). |
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