There was plenty of wildlife about:
Here's a Turnstone and a Purple Sandpiper, with a pair of Ringed Plover.
Two pairs of Red-breasted Mergansers were spooked into flight by a small boat...
A bit of a photo finish, there.
Soon to be heading north for the breeding season, this smart male Long-tailed Duck was feeding in the shelter of Barrier 3.
Up at the trig point in the centre of the island, a dizzying 32 metres above sea level, we could look back towards Tense Towers, nestled between Hurtiso Farm and the East Mainland Church.
Back on the beach, we were in the pink...
What a grand morning!
2 comments:
Nice belly-laugh at the "dizzying 32 metres above sea level." =) We're at 3500 ft (1066 m). And live next to Yosemite NP & the Sierra Nevada which push well up into the clouds. That long-tailed duck is a STUNNER, wow. And I always love seeing shorebirds--my first real biologist-kinda work was shorebird monitoring. Only AFTER that did I start birding on my own, for fun. =) And it was ducks & other water bird that made me do it--"What IS that?!?"
In the following days, I visited a trig point at just 16m (though my record so far is an oxygen-sapping 9m).
Aye, the ducks are now into their breeding plumage and are looking spectacular. Won't be long before the Long-Tails head further north to raise another brood.
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