Well, on the 12th I had promised myself that I would go back to Beach Grove at high tide to check out the dyke when there's some water in the bay. So that night I had checked the tides and found that high tide was due around 8am.

Eight in the morning is a little early for me, but like a trooper I got up around seven and made it to Beach Grove at about a quarter to eight. The place had quite a different feel in the morning light; I'd always been there in the afternoons or evenings.

I started by walking out towards the dyke. On the way, by the side of the road, I found this pale bird in the bushes. It's a juvenile Golden-crowned Sparrow.

One interesting thing is that the sparrow just perched there for quite a long time, and when I stopped taking photos, it was still perched there. Normally I have to stop taking photos of sparrows because they fly away or hop off.

Once I was at the dyke, I took a few shots northward, parallel to the waterfront. Here's one of them, showing a couple of Bald Eagles in the trees.

I liked the lens flare (bright circles) at the top and the reflection of the sun off the water at the bottom of that photo.

For completeness, here's the view southward; I'm not sure if the land in the foreground is Tsawassen (Canada) or Pt. Roberts (U.S.A.). Either way, it's gotta be pretty near the border.

There's an interesting artifact in that photo: a faint bright line going straight up from the highest patch of bright reflection. That's a consequence of the way most digital camera sensors work: they "push" the image through the sensor in order to read it into memory. Here the image was pushed downward, and extra light from the bright reflection got smeared out into that upward streak.

I hadn't gone too far down the dyke, as the reflections off the water were almost blinding and they made all the birds appear as silhouettes. I'll have to come back some other time when it's both high tide and not the morning. Then I'd be able to look eastward at the birds.

So I turned around and went back down the street to where I had parked. There were several cherry trees on the street, and they were all in bloom. I spent some time taking photos of their pretty pink blossoms.

Then I briefly went through the park; I didn't want to stay long as I had just been there the day before. The only birds I found on my short visit were a Fox Sparrow and a Hutton's Vireo. My photos of them were okay but nothing spectacular, and they're common, so I won't bore you with them.

Next I went back to the ferry jetty, just in case the Rock Sandpiper decided to show up. He didn't, but I did find this lovely male Surf Scoter swimming about.

I looked for my tale-telling grebe friend, but he was nowhere to be found.

It was high tide, but the Black Turnstones were as much out on the rocks than they were on the dock. I crept down on the rocks myself and took many photos, trying to work in foreground rocks as part of the framing for the turnstones. Here's such a shot.

My parking time at the ferry terminal expired, and I got in the car not knowing what I'd do next. I started driving and eventually decided to head to the beach in White Rock. I hadn't been there in quite some time.

On the way, I drove through the upper part of White Rock, and stopped on a street when I noticed some other blooming trees. I'm not sure what kind of tree this is, but here's an upward shot showing its pretty white blossoms and the corner of a nearby apartment building.

He was pushing that clam around and trying different ways to get his bill in. He had his head positioned one way, and then another, and the clam was sliding all around on the mud. It really made me appreciate my prehensile upper limbs and opposable thumbs.

Eventually, my gull decided to pick up the clam...

Eventually he did try the "drop it to break it open" thing, but he dropped it on the mud in the bay, not on the rocks. That had about as little effect as you might imagine.

What followed was a repeat of his efforts when I first found him, trying to get his bill into the shell. When I left him, he had loaded it into his mouth and was flying around with it again. I hope he eventually got it figured out.

Right when I reached the land end of the pier, I saw a grey parrot go by on an unlikely steed.

I don't know the species, but African grey parrots are popular pets.

That was about it for my morning. From here I headed on to lunch and then got some work in during the afternoon. I'll leave you with a final shot down the White Rock beachfront.

Sending a few less feathers than usual,
Tom