A Gorgeous Day

I figured today would be Cliff Walk day. I wanted to see if I could find those Harlequins again, but no such luck. But there were things to see, so lets go look.

Just off First Beach in Easton's Bay I spotted this male and female pair of Greater Scaup swimming around. There'll be a lot more of these later in the Winter. In fact there usually are more, but they're usually in Big Pond behind the beach, but the pond is frozen over and I have no idea where the rest of the Scaup are.

A little farther down the path there were a bunch of Common Loons. note how different their Winter coloration is - no dramatic black and white with subtle striping, this is just plain old drab gray.

While swimming along our Loon spots something tasty-looking under the water, so down he dives!

Mission accomplished! Luncheon is served.

Down off Ledge Rd. I came across this male Common Eider with his harem braving the rising surf.

And right down by Bailey's Beach there were a bunch of American Blacks on shore and in the water. This one was the best shot I took of them.

Bailey's Beach is the end of the Cliff Walk, but I noticed that the surf was getting more powerful as low tide approached. I'd bumped into my friend Vic earlier on the walk; he was watching some of the surfers off Ochre Point and calculating when the surf would be best, which was when he'd come back and hit the waves himself. I left the Cliff Walk and went up Bellevue Ave. to Ruggles to go see if he'd come back. And there he is! BTW, you've met Vic's son Waylon and you've seen his wife Nikki's award-winning fresh garden veggie cornucopia when we went to the Norman Bird Sanctuary's Harvest Fair last Septenber with Bob and Papa.

 Of course Vic wasn't the only fanatic outh there in a wetsuit today. Here's another:

And that's our walk on the Cliff Walk today.