The Beach in Winter

 The snow has gone, and with it the frigid temperatures. But it is still winter - a west coast winter of gloomy dark days, drizzling rain, and fog.  I've never liked this time of year - the gloom feels as oppressive in winter as heat and humidity do in summer.  Anyone know of a place with just two seasons - spring and fall? That would be my Utopia. 

But at least gloom and drizzle and fog don't stop us from getting outside, and so Maggie and I spent a couple of hours on the beach today.  In winter, the low daytime tides are still high, and the high tides even higher.  The only really low tides seem to occur in the wee small hours.  And so there's not lots of sand to roam, nor herons fishing nor eagles feeding.  Maggie, however, doesn't much care - to her, the beach in winter is about logs, and ducks, and time with her mama. And as usual, she likes to stop and pose for the camera.

We took some time to watch the ducks, first those paddling around solo, grazing as they go:

And then those illustrating the cliché "getting your ducks in a row":

While I played with the camera, Maggie settled beside me to keep watch on the people and dogs wandering the boardwalk.  

They better stay up there - this is mah beach!

And the crows - gotta make sure none of those crows sneak up on us.  You know what a whole lot of crows are called, don't you? A murder of crows!  Maggie has feelings about that! Fortunately, this crow was more interested in whatever tidbit they had found than in murdering us.  

But soon the crow's friends had all gathered in the tree above, 

And Maggie decided it was time to move on. 

Don't ya think we shoulds leave now, Mama?

You know, just in case.