Sandpiper inspection

After following a small flock of these guys around the beach for at least half an hour, this curious one decided to check out what exactly the slow crawling monster with the giant lens coming out of his nose was. He tentatively ran over pretty close to me, gave me a few up and down glances, and then scurried back to the group. Apparently I was deemed no threat (probably because they saw the glacial speed at which I was moving while belly crawling after them through the sand), or perhaps they found me to an acceptable proxy of a new kind of sandpiper species (well, I'm not so sure about that!). Either way, it was a real pleasure to have a chance to photograph them with some summer color.

Quail in a sea of gold, Point Reyes National Seashore

Two more shots from my Weekend of the Quail in May of this year (previous posts from this weekend are here, here, and here). I saw this guy perched a little way off the trail and in front of a beautiful valley of golden wildflowers. This normally skittish species actually let me approach over what must have taken 10-15 minutes to get into the right position. Every now and then he would glance my way (see below), but was totally cool with my approach, and let me snap off a lot of frames with this awesome backdrop.

Evenly matched

A quick post from the many shots I took yesterday on a hike out the Tomales Point Trail in Point Reyes National Seashore to see the tule elk rut. Here are two males trying to determine their ranking order. We watched both of these guys get run out of a harem by a larger male earlier in the day (no fight, these two just ran to the outskirts while the other male introduced himself to the females), and then after hanging out and feeding peacefully together on the edge of the harem they eventually came to blows to figure out who is the next bull in line, I suppose. There was no clear winner in this fight to us, and as quickly as it started, they stopped and went back to feeding near each other, apparently satisfied with the results of the quarrel for the time being.

It was really awesome to see a scuffle like this up close, and what stands out most about this shot to me is the intensity of their eyes while they fought. During the live action it was just a slow shoving match. But when you get to see these frozen moments in time, the intensity of the fight really comes to life.

View more of my photographs of tule elk in Point Reyes National Seashore.

Fogscape in Point Reyes National Seashore

Thick early morning fog shrouds the sandstone bluffs around Limantour Spit and the entrance to Drake's Estero in Point Reyes National Seashore. I do enjoy the fog since it gives that nice diffuse light all morning long, but I don't know that I can remember the last time it was sunny for a sunrise in the Bay Area.

Against the grain

Even when everyone is running in one direction, sometimes its not a bad idea to take a step in the other.

Sanderlings on an overcast evening at Pillar Point Harbor.