A Winter Loon, and Other Shore Sights

Paul ran in a race this morning at Short Beach Park in the town of Stratford, and I got to tag along. The day was cold and windy and cloudy, but I was happy to toodle around on the beach while other people engaged in strenuous physical activity. :P

We have two species of loons that hang out in the ocean around here during the winter: the Common Loon and the Red-throated Loon. Both birds have that sleek loon shape, and at this time of year they wear similar patterns of gray and white (greatly muted from their striking breeding plumage). I'm much more familiar with Common Loons, especially in their fancy black-and-white summer costumes, but this morning I was happy to get to see a Red-throated Loon for the first time, distinguishable (as I learned today) by its speckled back, its relatively thin bill (compared to the Common Loon), and its habit of holding its bill up at a slight angle. I'm amazed at the elegence of this bird, even (or perhaps especially) in its simple gray and white:
 

On such a cold and windy day, not many other creatures (besides running people, of course) were particularly active. A saw a ton of Blue Mussel shells in the sand, swept up into a colorful band by the tide:
 

And several Ring-billed Gulls kept me company on the wind-blown beach, huddled against the cold. I especially like this grumpy-looking fellow:
 

The days are getting steadily colder, but the beach has has creatures to see no matter the season. And now that it feels like winter, all we need is some real snow!

Fall Brings Some Familiar Faces

I arrived at Naugatuck State Forest early this morning, just as a light rain had finished falling, making the woods moist and cool. (Chilly, actually.) Despite the rainy start, this turned out to be a great day for a woods walk!

Soon after I entered the woods, I turned around and was surprised to see big, dark shapes melting out of the damp forest to cross the path behind me:
 

I really just never see deer in this part of the woods, so this was a cool beginning to the day. Two deer emerged, looked at me, then went on their way.

Fall has officially begun, and the woods are filling up again with the creatures we'll see through the winter -- this morning, I saw Dark-eyed Juncos and White-throated Sparrows for the first time since spring. I've missed the White-throated Sparrows' funky clown-painted faces, and I'm glad to have these birds around again:
 

Tons of warblers were moving through the trees, most of them too high up for me to identify (let alone get pictures). A couple of Yellow-rumped Warblers came down to my level, though, and I was happy to see them -- I've missed these dainty birds and their yellow butts during the summer, too:

Several woodpeckers made an appearance this morning, including a group of raucous Northern Flickers, flashing their bright yellow tails:

And a handsome Yellow-bellied Sapsucker was hopping around as well -- I think this is a young male, whose red cap and throat feathers haven't quite all grown in yet (I'm reminded of a scruffy adolescent goatee):
 

While I was watching the woodpeckers, a Red Squirrel took up a post on a nearby tree and started chittering at me:

At that point I heard another sound behind me, and I turned to see a second Red Squirrel, just a few feet away and staring me right in the face:
 

This squirrel kept skittering from one side of the tree to the other and peering around at me, clearly agitated, and trying really hard to find a way past this annoying human standing in its path. I finally got the hint and walked away, so the squirrels could stop scolding. (Also, it looks like someone's been digging in the dirt -- clean your face, squirrel!)

There were a few more cool creatures around, including this Green Frog with its stylish yellow leaf hat:

And a small snail wandering around -- I see snails only rarely, actually (much less frequently than slugs), and I'm not sure why that is:

Here's hoping for a long stretch of lovely fall walks like this one before the weather gets really cold!

Winter Escape in San Diego, Part 2: Birds and Other Beach Critters

We had an awesome time exploring the San Diego shore, and we got to hang out up close with some pretty cool creatures. I mentioned the seals and squirrels in my last post, but the birds, especially, seemed completely unafraid of people, and many let us get within a few feet of them without showing any signs of discomfort. Some of the birds, like this Snowy Egret, were ones that I already knew from my home on the east coast, but that didn't make them any less cool:

Check out those yellow feet! This fancy fellow was hanging out on our whale-watching boat, perhaps keeping an eye on us in case we dropped some fish. (Hey, you never know!)

Even though I've seen egrets and herons plenty of times now at the ocean, I still find myself surprised to see them there, I guess because for some reason I have it in my head that these should be fresh water birds. Either way, we found another Snowy Egret hunting in the tidal pools near our hotel. They're such elegant little birds, and this one looks almost like it has horns:

I saw Brown Pelicans for the first time just a few weeks ago, in New Orleans, but not in nearly as large numbers as they were here:

So many pelicans! These pelicans were also much more brightly colored than the ones I saw in Louisiana -- I don't know for sure whether this is because of some regional difference, or if these birds were coming into breeding plumage, or maybe a combination of both. (The internet is inconclusive on this question.) In any case, I definitely didn't see anything near this shade of red when I was watching those other Brown Pelicans last month:

This cute Black Phoebe was a new bird for me, although it looked almost identical to our Eastern Phoebe from back home -- the only difference that I could see was its all-black breast, and it was making a chirping sound instead of the familiar "phoe-bee" call:

So many of the gulls on the beaches looked all the same to me (I'm still not very good at identifying gulls), except for one strikingly different species. This handsome fellow is a Heermann's Gull, a species that lives only along the Pacific coast:

I don't know of any other gull that has a head lighter than its body. And how about that bright red beak, and the ring around its eyes?

Here's something interesting that I learned just now: The Heermann's Gull is listed globally as near threatened (on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species) because, although its population is relatively stable, 90% of its entire worldwide population nests on a single small island, and if something happens to the island, there goes the gull! Fortunately, the island is well protected, so it doesn't sound like these birds are in any immediate danger. Maybe you should think about spreading out a little, gull!

Back at the beach near our hotel, we had a lot of fun poking around in the tidal pools, with the ocean roaring nearby but failing to reach us:

My camera is woefully incapable of taking clear pictures through the surface of the water, so I don't have any shots of the many hermit crabs and seaweed-green fish we found in the pools. But there were plenty of things to see above the water, too, like these carefully closed-up barnacles and chiton -- these are barely recognizable as animals, but they'll come back to life once the tide comes in!

And speaking of animals in hiding, Paul was the first to notice these strange doughnut-shaped mounds of shells in several places on the rocks:

We had no idea what could've been gathering bits of shell together like that, and on closer inspection, the shells turned out to be all stuck together. Then we found a similar mound covered by a little water, and that provided the answer to our mystery:

Sea anemonies!

The creatures in tidal zones are always amazing -- what a crazy environment to have to live in, and it seems like they do a good job of it!

I have one more creature from our trip that I'd like to share, but it's going to have to get its own post. (I took too many pictures, and it's too cool!) So one more day of spring-like San Diego, and then it's back to normal post about gray/snowy/rainy/wet Connecticut!

Seashore Sights in Irene's Wake

We got our visit from Hurricane Irene (actually more of a tropical storm by that point) on Sunday morning. There was a lot of rain and wind, but it wasn't as bad as the weather people had been predicting, and we were lucky enough to not have any lasting damage to our apartment. By Sunday afternoon, when the rain had stopped (but not the wind), Paul and I got tired of sitting around with no power, so we decided to go on an adventure... to the beach!

We chose Silver Sands State Park as our destination, even though we had heard that Connecticut's state parks would be closed due to the hurricane. Sure enough, the road into the park was blocked off when we arrived, but several other people were parking outside the gate and walking in right past a seemingly unconcerned ranger, so we did the same. This all seemed like such an insane idea -- is immediately-post-hurricane really the best time to hang out in an open space with wind and waves? As it turns out, the answer seems to be "yes"! There were so many things to see, and we had a completely awesome time.

One of the first creatures we saw was also one of the most exciting. After we'd walked only a short distance down the road into the park, we came upon this Red Fox watching us calmly from an adjoining road:

This is the first fox I've seen in Connecticut, and something about this creature gave me the impression of a teenager -- it's something in the face, I think, and in the overall lankiness -- although I couldn't say for sure whether this is actually a juvenile. The storm, it seems, was not kind to this fellow, and that looks like a pretty bad scrape on its front right leg. After a minute or so of staring at us, however, the fox bounded off into the woods, so hopefully he or she will be OK. These are such impressive creatures, and it was cool to get to see one of these guys.

I didn't see any "hurricane" birds while we were there -- rare birds that would have been blown far north of their normal range by the storm -- but I did see some cool birds that were completely new to me. (As I've said before, I don't know shore birds very well.)

This juvenile Forster's Tern was really something to watch, as it sliced its way through the battering winds with those razor wings:

There were several small sandpipers scurrying around in the sand (I still can't figure out exact identifications with these guys), and with them a few Semipalmated Plovers:

I think these birds are just too cute, so dinky and plump. They looked like they were in danger of being blown away by the wind as they rushed around on their stick legs:

 

Here's a wacky bird that I've never seen in real life before: a Black Skimmer, hanging out in a flock of Ring-billed Gulls. It's a juvenile, so its beak isn't quite as remarkably strange as that of a full-grown skimmer, but it's still pretty crazy-looking, with that big lower mandible perfect for snatching fish as it skims the surface of the water:

We happened to arrive at the beach during low tide, and the storm's waves had brought all sorts of interesting shells and living ocean creatures up onto the shore. Several of these colonies of what I think are Common Slipper Shells (Crepidula fornicata, is that a great name or what), for instance, dotted the sand:

For more on Crepidula fornicata and its fascinating sex life, check out this post from another nature blog, Sandy Wildlife.

There were so many colors in the sand, like this blue/purple mussel:

And this orange/red formation, which was soft and porous and suggested a sponge:

It was definitely worth braving the after-effects of the storm to go on this adventure. I'm starting to appreciate the seashore more and more, and we already have our next trip tentatively planned. Such cool things to be found in the sand and surf!