We got up in the dark and drove over to the beach parking lot. The park was not yet open to visitors so only those folks that were camping were down at the beach with us. We alternated between the boardwalk over the dunes and the beach. The sound ID function on the Merlin app was telling us that there were two different rail species in the underbrush. Both the King Rail and the Clapper Rail were singing to the sun as it rose over the dunes. There were six to eight different birds calling but I was not able to see a single one of them. I headed back to the beach and saw plover, gulls, skimmers, pelicans, and terns. I had not seen Ken for a while as he had gone down to the salt pond. We met again in the parking lot where we saw grackle, crows, herons and egrets. One quick walk through a nature trail and we hit the road for some breakfast.
A walkway over the dunes and the scrub
Red flags are flying
Big dunes
A ghost crab
Still pretty dark
Large sections of the beach was closed off for the birds
A Wilson's Plover Lifebird #1
Ken heading over to the beach
Just in time for the sunrise
Yes, it is the rainy season
Mug Race T-shirt
Passion vines in the scrub
Big gull. little gull
Pretty sunrise shots
A Herring Gull
The black skimmers
Getting in position
Skimming!
Pelicans
The lighthouse
Lifeguard tower
I lost Ken for a while and zoomed in to see if this was him, it was not
Spikes and blooms
A patch of little flowers
Fish crow
Great Crested Flycatcher
Little egret
Fish cleaning table
Reddish Egret
Blue flowers
The common ground dove
skimming!
Wilson's Plover
Took a nature trail before we left
Very lush with the resurrection ferns
Sprawling live oaks
Cardinal
Heading out we passed the lighthouse
We saw a osprey
Our breakfast spot
The morning jam also had music
Jamming and jam for breakfast
Omlet for me and breakfast special for Ken
Fish fishy!
