cazalea
[Seiko Moderator]
17159
October is here but it's still summer
We found another corner of Mission Bay today, where neither my wife nor I had ever walked. The route is marked in orange on this aerial view I took as we flew out of San Diego.
We've seen it "from the other side" but not close up, so we dared to venture out onto this peninsula, then later we went to the other side.
Our recent walks have covered the blue, yellow and green parts of the Bay.
We never know what to expect on our walks, and today was certainly a surprise day. We saw uniformed teams playing soccer, a few homeless vans, a couple tents on the sand, some fishermen, and a safe parking place.
After exiting the car, we stared at the birds going EVERYWHERE. How can they fly like that in such close company, close to the ground, in a huge flock?
These are called Black Skimmers.
Unusually their lower bill is longer than the top one, so they can skim the water with the lower part in the water, scooping up tiny fish.
Seagull and children couldn't be bothered to watch.
Downwind, we found feathers everywhere! Is this from the birds grooming themselves, or has Mike Lindell Mr MyPillow been here?
This Golden Plover wasn't part of the flying contingent, she just poked along the shoreline and was ignored by all the rest.
We spotted some pelicans too, and another flock of white birds who were mostly separated from the Skimmers.
These are called Royal Terns.
It looked like they were dressing in costumes for Halloween.
Occasionally the two groups allowed a few from the other species to poke around, but in a couple minutes they always went back to their own groups.
Except perhaps the chicks who were undoubtedly confused.
If you noticed on the initial photo we couldn't go to the end of the peninsula. We were stopped by the fenced-off area to give the Least Tern some breeding space.
We gave some attention to the water, where kayaks, canoes, yachts and inflatables were floating by.
or invading to set up camp. Can you imagine trying to unsnarl that hair?
The birds didn't like the beach landing either.
and drifted away.
I turned to the Pelican king and decided to check him out.
What strange prehistoric birds!
How can they be so dumpy and compact at rest on land?
and so majestic in the air?
Imagine - do pelicans get a sore throat? I'd never seen this head/neck position before.
The terns got riled because a couple with a small dog walked right into their resting place (What were those people thinking?)
We left and went back to the car and decided to move across
to the other side (using the bridge).
There we observed some brain-dead fishermen sticking to the "I'm in front, I have right of way" when in my thinking they could have pulled a bit to the left to let New Seaforth into the cove.
I prefer the "Yield to Tonnage" rule, myself.
There was a bit of chaos on the water, with boats racing each other to get in, and throwing too much wake.
Not quite enough to upset the dog paddlers though. Yap yap.
This squirrel and I sat on the water's edge and watched the show.
That has to be a party boat; if not, then what?
He was dazzled by the reflections. My camera had trouble focusing on the mirror panels.
We heard something coming around the corner and waited to see what it was.
The squirrel ran off to hide and my wife took a photo of a family here on holiday. So I took one of an "elderly Asian unicycle scooter-er" (words never combined in a sentence before).
The excitement and crowds were getting to be a bit too much by this time, so we headed for home.
Passing our resident Osprey on the bridge light pole.
I hope you enjoyed our October Saturday
Cazalea
October is here but it's still summer
We found another corner of Mission Bay today, where neither my wife nor I had ever walked. The route is marked in orange on this aerial view I took as we flew out of San Diego. We've seen it "from the other side" but not close up, so we dared to venture o...
