Gifts from the north country

  

It was a bit of soggy day here today (10 December 2024), but we spent a little time walking at Duxbury Beach (in Massachusetts) and encountered a flock of ~25-30 Horned Larks (Eremophila alpestris).  

I thought I could hear some Lapland Longspurs (Calcarius lapponicus) mixed in with them as they flew by, so I snapped a few quick photos and then we spent a little more time trying to find them when they landed.  (You can see at least four longspurs in the photo above.)

Conditions were tough for photos (distant and dark), but here's an example of a Horned Lark (first photo below) and a Lapland Longspur (second photo):

 

 

 

 

 

 

And when we were walking back to the car, we noticed some movement on the ground and were glad to see a few Snow Buntings (Plectrophenax nivalis):

 

 

 

It was worth going out in the rain!

 

Homes on the rocks

  

Northern Acorn Barnacles (Semibalanus balanoides), photographed in Scituate, Massachusetts, on 9 December 2024.

Thanks for the great photo, Eric!

Light on the light

 
 

A couple of photos of sunrise over Scituate Harbor, 9 December 2024

 

 

And here's one more, with the light on the light:

 

Morning warning?

  

Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning?

Whew, it was an intense day with a tsunami warning issued after an earthquake near Cape Mendocino.  The tsunami warning covered a large swath of the West Coast from Florence, Oregon, to Davenport, California.

The only surge measurement I've heard about so far was 9 cm at Arena Cove (near Point Arena) at 11:45 a.m.

This brought back memories of the Tōhoku tsunami in 2011 and the Tonga tsunami in 2022.  I posted a few photos and some info in 2022, so if you'd like to review that post, see "Tsunami surges" on 16 January 2022.

The same or different?

  

Eric photographed some nice sculpins a few days ago.  These two (above and below) were intriguing.  Although at first glance these fish appear to be different, a closer look reveals quite a few similarities, e.g., the shape of the head, the red striping in their eyes, the shapes and sizes of some of the pale blue markings.  So now I'm wondering if they're the same species?  What do you think?

 

 

P.S.  Thanks for the great photos, Eric!

 

December light

  

 Sunset off Bodega Head, 2 December 2024

Wile E.'s

  

These are somewhat distant views (the photos are heavily cropped), but it was interesting to watch a group of three coyotes in a salt marsh at Point Reyes recently.  I appreciated the way their fur matched the fall colors of the marsh. Were they hunting small mammals during the flood tide?  Ducks?