A forgotten trip to Limantour Spit in Point Reyes National Seashore

When I was looking for something to post on flickr the other morning, I ended up flipping back through the archives to a pre-dawn trip I took to Limantour Spit in Point Reyes National Seashore that I had forgotten about. This was the last trip I took with the D50 as my primary (read: only) camera. Later that week my D90 arrived, and I spent some time trying it out at a few locations, leaving these unsorted in the archives.

All in all, this wasn't a super-productive trip, but it was a gorgeous morning with clear skies for the sunrise. I spent attempted to photograph sanderlings with the first rays coming over the horizon, but I still need to go through those images. Soon thereafter, I headed back towards the other side of the dunes to explore some of the coastal scrub.



I was also treated to a group of turkey vultures sunning themselves in the early light while following the trail. They're a pretty ugly species, but it sort of fits well with their there important ecological role of scavenging.



After wandering along the backside of the dunes during most of the good morning light without finding too much else, I decided to head back to the trailhead and then follow the Muddy Hollow trail back along the side of the salt marsh. The tide was very high that morning, giving a really nice flooded marsh plain -- which was quite stunning in the early light (see the top shot of this post). I also encountered some lovely song-birds in the bushes along the marsh edge, including this savannah sparrow.



It posed quite nicely with those rich colors in the backdrop.