A Convocation of Eagles

 ♫♫  If you go down to the beach today, you're sure of a big surprise! 
        If you go down to the beach today, you better go in disguise. 
       For every eagle for miles around, is in the air and down on the ground. 

      Today's the day, the eagles are here for a picnic! ♫♫

The midshipman fish have arrived - the females laying the eggs among the rocks in the water, the males guarding them until they mature.  And lots of midshipman fish in the shallows of the outgoing tide mean lots of eagles ready to pounce.  

It happens every year at this time, and I have often seen dozens of eagles in a very small area, all hopping and strutting, flying and fluttering about as they eat their way through the midshipman fish buffet. 

Today, I had Maggie with me so I didn't go anywhere near them. But I also had the good camera with the telephoto lens so even from about 300 yards away I was able to get a few shots, though they were almost out of range.  Still, some of the images had 40-50 eagles in a single shot. 

Yeah, right.  I'm  much more photogenic and a whole lot closer too!

Just sittin' here quietly, watching a bunch of dumb birds. 

Tomorrow, if the rain holds off  when the tide is falling, I'll head down there without Maggie, park myself on a rock about 50 - 75 yards away, and try for some better shots.  

The weather forecast doesn't look great, but perhaps I'll get lucky.  There are few things more thrilling to me than sitting among dozens of these majestic birds as they skillfully fill their bellies at the edge of the surf. 

There are few things more thrilling to me than filling my belly! 
 Is it dinner time yet? Let's go home. 

A Not-So-Exciting Week, by Maggie

Hi everyone.  It's me, Maggie.  Not much going on this week.  We went to the beach a few times.  Mama sez I have to get my 'beach fix' topped up because soon it will be closed to dogs for Two Whole Months while the Brant geese fatten themselves up before continuing their flight north.  I think that sucks.  I is always on leash, so how the heck am I gonna chase them?  They should just ban off leash dogs. Oh. Wait.  Off leash dogs are already banned on the beach, but every day we see tons of dogs off leash there.  I guess their owners can't read. So we all get booted off the beach fer two months. 

So not fair!

Anyway, as I said, we haz gone to the beach whenever the tide was out far enough in the daytime.  But that has mostly been in the afternoon, so we didn't see eagles or herons feeding - too late for breakfast and too early for dinner I guess.  That doesn't seem to stop the gulls - they are like me, they can eat any time at all. 

This gull was turning himself upside down to eat! 

 We saw some duckies too.  I likes duckies.  But Mama won't let me chase them.  These ones were swimming and eating, and eating while swimming. 

But mostly we saw gulls.  All kinds of gulls, but Mama doesn't know their names.  Do you know why seagulls are found in the ocean?  Because if they were found in the bay, they would be baygulls.  Get it?  Bagels!  HAHAHAHAHA.  Well, I thought it was funny.  

Here's some more photos of the baygulls.....er, seagulls....eating.  This one was kneading the wet sand, sort of like someone smushing grapes with their feet to make wine.  Except the gull just wanted to stir up the goodies and grab a snack or two or three.  It was kinda neat to watch.

Well, see, I said it wasn't such an exciting week.  Just gulls. And ducks. And more gulls.  And, of course, little old me.  Now Mama sez it is 'way past my bedtime, and she's going hiking tomorrow so she needs her shut-eye and I have to get off the computer.  See ya again soon! 

Bye from the gull too! Ha ha. 

Brushing those winter doldrums away!

 The days have been gray and dreary for a couple of weeks and I do not cope well with that.  But today, the sun tried hard to emerge and pops of blue appeared in the sky.  My back has been bothering me this week so I had called off my usual Friday hike, but nothing, nothing was going to keep me indoors. So swallowing a few pain pills, grabbing my new camera, and leashing up Maggie, we headed to Craig Bay Heritage Park, where we could walk on soft surfaces, find lots of places to sit and rest, and enjoy the ocean view. 

As we headed down the trail, we saw the first signs of spring - masses of snowdrops in bloom.  If snowdrops are blooming, crocuses will soon follow, then daffodils, then tulips......oh, my heart rejoices in the thought of spring flowers and blossoms everywhere. 

As we neared the water, we heard an eagle cry.  There in the trees, high above us, the eagle sat gazing out to sea and telling the world all about it.

Perhaps the eagle was reminding us that it is nearly time for the Brant goose migration - a time when our beaches are closed to dogs for two months to allow the geese to regain their energy and fatten themselves on their long journey from Mexico to Alaska.  The closures don't start for a couple more weeks, but the geese apparently didn't check the local bylaws because there were plenty of them in Craig Bay today.

Maggie and I wandered the shoreline, stopping frequently to take photos. Maggie has a favourite boulder on this beach - it is low at one end, high at the other, so she can easily access it but still be elevated enough to survey her world.  This day, however, someone had made stone piles on the high end, and Maggie was too respectful to knock them over, though she certainly had something to say to them.

What're you doing on MY boulder?

But once she had said her piece, she settled down and enjoyed the view for awhile.

Is someone gonna move these things for me, please?

I guess I can share. 

They're kinda nice.  Very quiet. Pretty, too.  Just like me. 

I persuaded her to walk a bit further, and we investigated sea shells and rocks and interesting bits of roots along the beach.  

This was part of a tree root that had washed ashore.
I liked the swirls and colours in it.

When we stopped for another rest, we were entertained by crows who chattered away as they explored logs for whatever it is crows find in logs.

We moved back from shoreline to trail, and stopped to rest once more on one of the wood Adirondack chairs that have been placed along the edge where one can watch the tide ebb and flow. Maggie sat beside me as I played with camera settings and snapped away at my perfect model.

And soon the sun was dipping down behind the treetops and the air was getting chilly and Maggie's tummy clock was saying "It's dinner time - let's go home!"

And so we did.  

Fog meets Sun, and a bit of rain.

 Maggie and I meandered through the community park towards the beach, cloaked in thick fog.  By the time we reached the beach, the sun was fighting for dominion, and it was quite the battle. During the couple of hours we were down there, we saw fog roll in and recede many times, we saw treetops appear and disappear, blue skies streaked with dark and light clouds, fine mist and a few sprinkles of rain and all shades of light and dark. It made for a lovely adventure and some interesting photos. 

Treetops emerging from fog

Sun battles dark clouds and fog

Sun takes the lead

Maggie watching the weather battle.  Or not. 

Fog rolling in again

A little rain and wind to spice things up

Sun and fog and damp sidewalk
make for a silhouetted walker.

Spring will be here soon.  It will.  It will. Cheer on the sun!

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.