Full Moons and Plovers

It was a beautiful full moon last night and the tides this morning reflected that! The surf was up; partly due to a strong west wind, but that satellite of ours pulls on the oceans too. Even the blooming Spanish Bayonet were listing in the breeze.



Just to show my friends and family that this work can be hard, I'm including this photo of one of the nests that I located today. There is a female snowy plover here sitting on a four egg nest. Can you find her? She actually sticks out quite a bit.



She's a little easier to see here in an extreme close-up, from far enough away that she isn't scared off the nest (it's a hard balance).



She was not at all pleased to see my close proximity as I walked towards her to find her eggs. I don't like scaring them, but if we're going to close a section of beach, I need to know where the nest is so I close the right area. It's kind of hard to explain that to a plover, but I tell her anyway. Maybe she understands more than I realize.



After a few nest checks, they do seem to get used to us, and display a little less each time, knowing we'll soon back-off. I hope that doesn't make them less vigilant with other predators. This snowy had a relatively rare four-egg nest.



Some of her black-bellied plover (Pluvialis squatarola) cousins were hanging out in Spanish Cove, back in breeding plumage. Aren't they striking?



For some reason, bright yellow flowers always catch my eye, especially on the rather muddy expanse of Spanish Cove. It's a little sunshine even on a gray day :)



Tomorrow, we're doing a least tern/nest census on Santa Rosa -- again with the road construction question in the air. Apparently, the superintendent doesn't believe we have nesting birds. Strange. I hope to have time to work on turtle friendly lights too -- there's a lot of work to do before the hatchlings hit the beach! I need to study up in case anyone has hard questions -- maybe I should put a few turtle friends on speed-dial!