Tag Archives: migrate

by

Salish Sea

Today in the Salish Sea, it is 7.9 to 9.1 degrees C. I do not want to swim in it, though I have a neighbor that swims in it year round.

Yesterday the sun came out, so I hurry to Chetzemoka Park and down to the beach. I walked towards Point Hudson. The brandt are there. They need time on shore and we are supposed to leave them alone, but a tourist walked out the point. I promptly sat down with my camera in the sand, because the brandt left the point and came over to me. It’s the closest I’ve been to them.

Brandt make a noise that’s half chuckle and half purr. It’s a really nice sound. They were dabbling to feed. They are geese. More here. These are migrating to Alaska nesting grounds, but they feed along the shoreline. They are smaller than Canada geese and do not show up in our parks.

Eventually I got up and moved back down the beach slowly. They did not spook. I think there was quite a bit of Brandt community flirting and arguing going on.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: cold.

by

Gleaning

This is for Ronovanwrites weekly haiku challenge #70, with prompt words crane and gold.

quick look gleaning fields
sandhill cranes glean gold near Sand
Dunes National Park

I lived in Alamosa, Colorado for three years, at 7500 feet in the San Luis Valley, land of cool sunshine. The sandhill cranes would migrate through and glean the potato fields, flocks with thousands. There were more cranes than people at the height of migration. And in the northeastern corner of the Valley, surrounded by the Sangro de Cristo Mountains and the San Juans, is the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, with dunes up to 600 feet high. We were surrounded at 7500 feet by 14,000 foot peaks and passes out the Valley in all four directions. It is an amazing place.

I took the photo in 2007 at the dunes: I chose this one to try to give an idea of the scale…..we had just climbed up to the top of the first dunes….