The Bald Truth . . .

Another beach therapy day today…sometimes a beachcomber's best find for the day, isn't on the sand…so here's the bald truth, which can now be told since I've been able to right a wrong…the first time I visited this beach, since deciding to make an effort to go weekly, I did not take my SLR camera. At that time, I was strolling along, scanning the sand…rounded the bend where the Atlantic and Matanzas Inlet meet, and lo and behold…a bald eagle. A stationery, perched bald eagle, just waiting for some camera nut to have a field day. Needless to say, a whole lot of moaning and groaning and sand-kicking ensued. ARG! That'll teach me…and yes, it did. On the way home, I slinked into Walmart and bought a backpack. Now the SLR rides piggyback on the beach…

AnyWHO, this am, (weeks later now), bright and early, I once again round the bend, lo and behold…Mr. or Mrs. Baldie has returned…Oh Yay!! The eagle was actually perched on a very tall post, a handful of yards away…. 

…. Like this….

…I was so busy falling over myself to get photos of baldie that the black-bellied plover that I was trying to capture during my previous beach bumming excursion, almost went unnoticed…still didn't get a decent shot of the fully transitioned-to-summer-plumage plover, but you can see that the black and white is striking…

…I also nearly tripped over a snowy egret that was fishing and striding past me...

…the same pretty much goes for the common grackle...

…By the way, the sunrise was lovely this morning...

On the way back from whence I came, I passed this big (22"), peg-legged immature lesser black-backed gull…I always seem to stumble upon one lone LBB gull each visit to this beach…there were also Wilson's plovers and sanderlings that I didn't capture...

…This brown 2" common American auger shell was my favorite find on the sand today...

The ruddy turnstones have their summer plumage now…

…This shrimp was probably left by a surf fisherman…

There have been a lot of shells on the beach lately, that have anemones on them, like this ark…
I'm not sure but these may be hermit crab anemones…

My 2nd sighting of red knots in summer plumage…


Just another therapeutic day on the beach   :)