Colder and stormy weather at the beach - January 8-14

On Monday we had a round of golf booked at Heritage.  It was a colder day so we dressed accordingly.  We stopped at Huntington for a quick 45 minute visit and enjoyed seeing a few birds.  What amazed me the most was this Osprey that flew overhead and he kept hovering above us like he was watching what we were doing.  It was the perfect opportunity to take a picture.

There was a female Merganser with a juvenile swimming around which was enjoyable to watch as well.  Because of the temperature, a lot of the birds were hiding or found a place to keep warm.  We did enjoy seeing a few more.  One of my favourites was the Red Bellied Woodpecker.

On Tuesday we were hit with all kinds of weather.  High wind alerts, tornado watches, severe thunderstorms and flooding all throughout the day.  The wind was so strong that it started to cause our sliding door to open so we had to keep it locked. It was a good day for book reading. I did get a short walk in, first thing in the morning and was amazed at the number of pelicans that I saw fly by.  I counted over 150 and I'm sure that I missed a lot.  It was amazing to see.  I did however, get caught in the rain as I misjudged my distance and how quickly the storm was rolling in.

The sun came out on Wednesday but the temperature was still a little cool.  I went for my morning walk and this time I took my camera.  Wouldn't you know it, not one pelican flew by.  I did however see a starfish on the beach and expected to see more shells but there certainly wasn't many that were deposited by the high waves.  Oh well, we have lots of days to go shelling.

Thursday we went to Huntington Beach to enjoy the birds again.  While it's not particularly busy with birds, we always see something which is fun.  

Friday we went golfing at Aberdeen with Lawrence and Teresa.  The course was really wet from the rain and our round was very slow (5 hours).  Oh well, it's still nice to get out into the fresh air.  On Saturday morning I went for a walk and I found 14 sea urchins which were washed up on shore.  That was pretty cool.  I spent some time during the day getting them ready and let them dry outside over night.

John and Grace arrived as did Liz who was visiting with Harry and Marian.  It was nice to see them all make it here safely.  We enjoyed a nice dinner with John and Grace and Lawrence and Teresa on Saturday evening and had coffee and a nice get together on Sunday with everyone.  In between sermons Ralph and I went to check on the eagles and to see how they were doing.  To our delight we were able to capture a picture of one of the eaglets (I think there might be two).  We saw a beautiful red tailed hawk and some ibis as well.

See the little head popping up.  Estimated age is just under two weeks.  

All in all it was a really fun week.