High Tide at Ocean Beach

 

Sanderling on the Run, Ocean Beach

A huge and chaotic swell joined a high tide, drowning most of the sand at Ocean Beach near Noriega Street this morning. I'd arrived about 45 minutes before peak high tide during my morning walk, so it was just about peak by the time I got back home. After a short rest, I slipped on a pair of reef-walkers and biked back down to check it out.

I had to cross a pool to get from the dunes to where the birds were hunting mole crabs, and at one point the water rose just above my knees. You definitely don't want to be in there with an expensive camera when the occasional super-sized set rolls in, since it gets even deeper and rowdier in the pool.

One of the highlights was seeing a mole crab swimming in maybe three inches of water right at my feet, then diving under the sand while it was still wet and loose.

Waves often pushed water way up to very near the base of the dunes just north of Noriega Street, so I wondered where the Snowy Plovers were hanging out. I saw only one foraging with the Sanderlings.

On the way home I spotted a coyote in the Pioneer East Meadow near Blue Heron Lake. It looked much like the one I recently saw near Spreckels Lake -- infected with mange and not exactly photogenic. The poor guy was just looking for a place to bed down for the afternoon, so I didn't stick around for long.

Sanderling pecking into a mole crab.

The sanderlings were often pushed high up the beach by incoming waves, only to have to fly back closer to the ocean when the coast was clear.

There were lots of interesting patterns being created by the interaction of water, sand, and various states of sea foam.

Here's a fairly organized state of sea foam with its iridescent bubbles.

At one point, all the sanderlings up and flew north. I turned around expecting to see a dog chasing them, but there was nothing there. No dog, no humans. The signal to flee remained a mystery.

The handsome Western Gull didn't even flinch when the flocks of sanderlings took off.

Here's some of the more chaotic and condensed sea foam.

A Raven was trying to get into the good parts of a washed-up sea lion. You can also see how high up the beach the water had pushed up. Those are dune grasses in the background.

This was my only snowy plover visitor.

Snowy didn't stick around very long.

Sanderlings escape a foamy deluge.

A young Black-crowned Night Heron was hanging out in the shallows at South Lake.

The coyote was in obvious discomfort with its mite infection.

Here it's trying to gnaw some relief into its leg.

I followed along until I found the coyote resting in a shallow depression on the forest floor just south of the log cabin.

I figured it needed its rest and continued on my way.

Nice little lenticular cloud above Mt. Shasta this morning.

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