Swimmers

There were long distance swimmers out going parallel to the shore on my last beach walk. Four of them. Women, because voices carry over the water. Brrr, but wearing wet suits. Good for them, I’m jealous.

I had my big camera with the serious zoom. The swimmers would stop to talk.

swimmers in the sound at North Beach

They don’t look tired or cold or stressed, do they? They were ending their swim back at North Beach.

elevated eagle

For today’s Ragtag Daily Prompt: elevate.

Walking the beach this past week, we saw this eagle. We thought he or she was pretty happy. Why?

First, there were patches of little fish on the beach.

patches of little fish on the beach: dead fish

We discussed the fish. Did they get chased by a predator and get left by a receding wave? Interesting.

Then we wondered why there were no gulls eating the little fish. No birds eating the little fish at all.

And then we figured out why:

Dead seagull wings and beak and not much else left.

Oh, we thought. Amazing how much the gull looked like a dead angel at first.

And a bit further along the beach, the eagle sat, looking very happy. Mmmm, seagull.

The happy eagle.

mysterious

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: speculate.

We walked North Beach yesterday, 2 or 3 miles out starting at high tide 1:30 pm. There was a very large dead octopus on the beach. There were three bald eagles in the trees above and then more in flight, arriving for a chance at this meal. There was a pair of bald eagles flying in tandem and then this bird. The white wing tips are the clue. I can only find one very large bird in North America with the wings with white feathers at the ends, and it’s not an eagle.

Do you care to speculate? If I am correct, it is a long way from the Cornell Bird Lab map of where it is supposed to live.

spiky

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: spiky.

So this is a beach. Why spiky? The tide is way out. Watch where you step or sit, because these are the spiky bits!

Barnacles! The live ones are closed with the water out, but the dead shells are also sharp and spiky. Bits that aren’t spiky are slick!

I took these on North Beach last May. Wear shoes or at least carry them.