To Marina

Thursday we spent a beautiful day walking 8 miles along the beach to Marina. Like Wednesday, we had the beach almost entirely to ourselves throughout our walk (except for the countless birds).

We started the day walking past the marina at Moss Landing. Here a Sea Lion was taking advantage of the back deck of one of the boats.

Following Wednesday’s rain and strengthening wind overnight, the waves were large and crashing. This made for a wonderful backdrop for some bird photos. This is a pair of Surf Scoters, female in front and male behind.

In this photo of Surf Scoters, it is much easier to see the brightly colored beaks and the bolder black and white coloration of the males.

This photo has a mixed collection of Long-billed Curlews and Marbled Godwits. The bills of the Long-billed Curlews curve downwards while the Marbled Godwits have a slight upward curve to their bills and are slightly smaller. I think this photo gives a good sense of how large the crashing waves really were.

Here is an American Pipit resting on the log.

While we were mostly walking along the beach, there was one segment where we were walking on a designated path on the dunes. Kate is ahead in the distance after I had stopped to take some photos.

White-crowned Sparrows remained the most common bird in the scrub.

A raptor flew by in front of me, but with the sun in my eyes, it was hard to identify. However, it looped behind me and landed allowing me to get this photo and see it was an American Kestrel.

A bit later in the day, we saw this deer on top of the dunes.

The majority of the day was spent hiking along deserted beaches.

Several times, we came across large flocks of birds. Here is a Brown Pelican surrounded by California Gulls in front as well as some Heermann’s Gulls behind.

The landscape was stunning, both constant in some ways and ever changing in others. I love the pattern on the sand.

Here is my fabulous hiking partner taking a moment to enjoy the view of the ocean.

As we got to Marina, we headed inland. The dunes were covered by Ice Plants, an invasive species from South Africa that was introduced to stabilize the sand dunes.

The color of the Ice Plants helps to make a nice background for this photo of a Western Bluebird.

Similarly, the Ice Plants make a lovely foreground for this photo of a House Finch. Friday, we hike the final 12 miles to Monterey.