The Secret Beach -- Last Day for the Winter Kure!

This was one of my Eider Ducks coming out of the water. I just loved all the different colors in this scene. It probably looks better if you double click on it. The water was so blue reflecting the bright sunny day.
This is the relatively common herring gull but strangely this is the first one I saw in NC and I didn't see any in Florida when I was there! There were certainly lots of Laughing Gulls and Ring Billed Gulls though in both places.

The spectacular winter storm that closed down parts of North Carolina had little effect on us except to have the waves a little higher and the wind blow quite a bit harder! The temps were a bit chilly too but no snow or ice for us! As we were leaving on Monday, I wanted to spend a little time exploring the rocky beach at low tide. We were packing the van so Warren nicely drove me down and picked me up a half an hour later. It was such a sunny bright day and the birds were covering the rocks. I figure they had a rough day getting any food the two preceding days! The beach was really reorganized by the storm with huge drifts of sand on the dunes and a sheer cliff down to the beach! Walking a bit of the way down the beach, I finally found a place where I could climb down and get closer to the rocks.
The local name for these sandstone rocks is cochina rocks, referring to the small shell that lives in the tideline on the beaches. The rocks under the water are just covered with seaweed of all different colors. The contrast of the seaweed, dull beige of the rocks and the brilliant blue of the sky was really nice -- very inspirational -- must be a quilt in there somewhere!

The rocks were covered with Semi-Palmated Sandpipers, Ruddy Turnstones, Sanderlings and Willets. It was very bright and hard to even know what I was photographing!

On my way back to the house, I spotted this Yellow Rumped Warbler. I took several shots as he was at a distance and I only knew that he had yellow on him. One of the shots clearly shows the yellow on his rump as well as the bright yellow spots on his breast. It is one of the most common of the warblers but seeing any warblerand then being able to identify it is a treat for me!

And what day on the rocky beach would be complete without seeing Buffle Ducks and the Common Eiders, both of which didn't disappoint me the last day. I probably took 30 pictures of the Eiders. There was a pair of juveniles and they even took the opportunity to come out of the water for a walk on the beach! This is just one of them but he looks just like the picture in my Field Guide to Birds by Stokes.