Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Baylands in the Morning


I have often visited the Baylands preserve after work or at lunch during the work week, but wanted to see what it was like in the morning. One weekend, a couple of weeks ago, I dragged myself out of bed early and headed over there with cameras and coffee. The tide is lower in the morning, or at least it was this morning, and the shore birds were taking advantage of it, sucking up mud filled with tiny creatures and plants. The Marbled Godwits were very busy that morning and didn't take much time to look up from their work. Working along side the Godwits were Avocets and Plovers, equally involved in their mud scouring.




It was a chilly morning and fairly quiet otherwise. A low fog blocked out much of the light and noise of the day and the air was still. I decided to head back for more coffee and as I was leaving a trio of American White Pelicans made a circuit around the park overhead.











I headed out of the preserve, but before I headed home I made a stop on the frontage road that runs along the outside of the park. It was too difficult to get a good view of a flock of White Pelicans that were resting on a pond, but I did see some smaller creatures that were closer to the road, including a Checkered Skipper and a Garden Spider.

Western checkered skipper



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