Heron's Head High

 

Greater Yellowlegs, Heron's Head Park

I was looking forward to checking out the high tide at Heron's Head today, and I wasn't disappointed. The predicted high (probably lower than the actual high) was 7 feet at about 12:30 p.m., and the trail was only inches above the water in some places. The king tides that will come around the solstice will probably submerge those lower stretches (and I might have to head back to see that too).

Other than the freakishly high tide, the high point for me was photographing a couple of Wilson's snipes, a species I haven't seen in a long time.

An unusual woodpecker had been photographed near the Horseshoe Courts yesterday, so I stopped by there on my way to Heron's Head. I managed to photograph this Nuttall's woodpecker in the Oak Woodlands, but I only saw the unusual one after I put away my camera. By the time I got the camera back out, a couple of squirrels had chased off the out-of-town woodpecker, and I was unable to find it again.

This was right around the peak high tide. That spit of land in the background is Heron's Head.

This was the view from the Heron's Head trail.

The Snowy Egret was bossing the Black-legged Stilt around, never letting it get down to business, so the stilt found another spot to forage in peace.

Did it catch a fish? Nope. It's an earwig!

Stalking Stilt

I could hear the American Wigeons' wheezy calls before I finally spotted a few.

The Greater Yellowlegs landed too near the human for comfort and soon took off to put more distance between us.

Which I didn't mind since I got a chance to photograph it in flight.

I figured the Gumweed wasn't being drowned, but it sure was proving its mettle as a specialized halophyte.

Hey, whatta ya know, another Meadowlark! Definitely different habitat than Crissy Field, which might explain why I saw only one foraging in the marsh.

Legs built for high tides.

Gumweed & Yellowlegs

I've seen a couple of Say's Phoebes recently, but this was the first time I had a camera with me.

The phoebe caught something like a mayfly.

A couple of Elegant Terns were swooping around, but they were not present in large numbers.

The Black-bellied Plover rested on one leg while various other birds roamed around nearby.

A couple of Wilson's Snipes were hiding next to a nearby tuft of plants, but one of them finally came out into the open.

Then it (or the other one) took a stroll past some fall foliage.

And ended up hiding in another spot. However, it soon realized it wasn't very well-concealed after all and strode back to the other side of the plant patch where I could no longer see it.

Least Sandpipers

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