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| Sanderling Takes A Bow, Ocean Beach |
There was a report of snowy plovers at Ocean Beach yesterday, so I went looking for them this morning. The report said they were at Lawton Street, but I parked at Noriega, figuring they could be anywhere. Nope. Just a couple of gulls and a raven or two. All the action appeared to be south of there. Toward Lawton Street.
I ended up walking all the way down the beach, past Lawton, to around Judah Street, where a flock of small shorebirds was working the tide line. Every one of those little guys was a sanderling. There wasn't a snowy plover in sight. I snapped a few photos and hung around awhile, but finally started walking back to the car in defeat.
Naturally, I soon saw the snowy plovers. I can't say for sure they were at Lawton Street, but they very well could have been. Unlike the busily feeding sanderlings, the plovers were resting higher up the beach. A couple of dogs got them up and on the wing, but after swirling around a couple times, they would return to about the same patch of beach.
More interesting than the dogs was a raven that tested the resting plovers the way a mountain lion tests a herd of bighorn sheep -- by swooping in to get them moving, in the hope that one of them is slow enough to go after. None of the plovers obliged this time, and the raven kept on going as the flock circled around and returned to their resting area.
I shot some video, but it was too shaky. Check out some video of snowy plovers I shot a long time ago using a tripod.
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| Bathing Sanderlings |
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| Landing Zone |
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| Preening & Resting Zone |
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| Unlike the plovers, most of the sanderlings stayed down by the tide line as they rested. Every now and then a wave would wash up high enough to send them skittering up the beach, often hopping on one leg, casually wasting no energy. |
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| Western Snowy Plovers Escaping A Chasing Dog |
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| Small as they are, sanderlings are quite a bit larger than their cousins, the snowy plovers. |
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| This little guy kept coming closer and closer, until I couldn't resist snapping a photo. |
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| When the snowy plovers really settle down, they relax in little depressions in the sand. This one ducked down a little bit on semi-alert while a raven flew overhead. |
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| Bracelets |
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