Huntington Beach SP

Super long post...
As promised from my last post here is the rack I purchased, if I had to review it for the money it's perfect,.it's not the best made one, and it's not the best quality, but for the price it's just right...

It's really simple after you put it together, mount it via the 2 inch trailer hitch receiver, it will hold 2 bikes, what I really like is the way it folds down out of the way so I can get into the cargo area without removing the bike...Its a bit annoying to put the pin back in with the weight of the bike on it but it's manageable. Here I did have the bike off but you can lower the rack with the bike on too...the gear shifter I replaced is working well...

So feeling confident that the bike wont fall off I took a 2.5 hr drive to the coast to try out my theory...to pedal the 2 mile beach walk...OK here is where human error comes into play...I got a late start and arrived at high tide...10:30 AM so I had some difficulty finding hard packed sand on the ride IN...Because the fishermen set up all down the beach...and I would have to steer behind them in the loose sand,  or risk being tangled up in their lines, if I go in front of them so I didn't consider that either.  I pedaled in and out of them till I came to the service road. Its about 1/3 the way down.

Fishermen lined up

I pedaled the  service road the staff use when they take a short cut in their ATV to make rounds, and it was sandy and had sand spurs that  stuck in my tires, did not cause a flat, but gave some worry and the beginning part of that trail was ankle deep sand and I had to push the bike...
So those are the trouble shooting things I ran into,
but once I arrived at the jetty cove area I had a blast. 

Parked the bike and left my backpack on it, and  made my way to the jetty  salt marsh ponds,

 found Semipalmated Plover, Least Tern, Black Bellied Plover, Snowy Egret, Willet, Wilson's Plover with chicks, and two Whimbrel, one took to the air and flew to a pond farther away but one hung out for a photo opt.  

Whimbrel 

The Wilson's Plover with a chick they had 3 chicks altogether

Hiding behind Mom, and Papa made sure I didn't get too close..

I came upon this odd couple they were together  A couple of bachelors maybe...a Sanderling with a Ruddy Turnstone.  Besties

They always remind me of an ice cream sundae...dripping with color

Oh and a couple of Oyster Catchers showed up----> distant view..

The group of Terns had some company with them so I started to try and pick through that to see what's in there...it's like sorting thru straight pins, or needles in haystacks looking for the subtle differences,

The big ones of course the Royal Tern.

Some are ringed I noticed...

Then I found some  Sandwich Terns, with the little yellow tip of the beak and much smaller than the royals 

also some ringed.

And a flying Sandwich...

When I see a Tern in the air, the first thing I look for is the wing tips, the second is leg color and the 3rd is bill color.  BUT where is his legs??? LoL tucked in pretty tight. 

found 2 Common Terns in there as well short reddish legs with a bi-color of red and black beak...A more finely shaped head, one on each side of the big tern preening centerstage...

and this batch had one Black Skimmer trying to hide but he stood out like a sore thumb...
 across the waterway on the opposite bank I could make out a few more skimmers.

No hiding that beak

The little Least Terns are all over the place they have a nesting area roped off for them and it's protected by an electric fence!  ZAPPA.....They make  little wooden tents to give some cover to the eggs, protection from Gulls and others.

According to ebird 100 is way too many TOO F'N BAD...Im so fed up with ebird...

After my trek around the cove end of the Jetty I moved the bike to the Jetty proper and had my lunch break and relaxed for at least an hour...nothing like sitting on hot asphalt just taking in all the recreation  happening around me

the Jetty cove

Fighter Jet, F15, or F18? Sound Barrier was Broken, 

If you like to hang out call    843 357 7777

After the rest....I pedaled to the point where you exit the Jetty to head back, tied up the bike and walked to the other end watched these Ruddy Turnstones hunt on the rocks, 

Then it was time to head back....can you find my bike in this photo?

the ride back was fine, what is normally an hr walk of 2 miles I did in about 20 minutes and that's with photo stops!!   I still don't have my biking legs yet.  Anyways it was more of a challenge that I had wanted but I did not figure in the tide, so the beach was wide open for the return I could easily get behind the fishermen the ones who remained most were gone, 

Sanderlings in the surf

 Jelly Fish  make food for the Black Bellied Plover

And a couple of  Sea Star...
did you know they can grow a new limb if one comes up missing for some "unforeseen" reason? 

I parked before exiting the park and walked along the sides of the Mullet Pond, had more Black Bellied Plover, along with Least Sandpiper, and Semipalmated Sandpiper along with Semipalmated Plover...

Semi Plover with a long worm...

a Least Sandpiper in the sand...

A black Bellied Plover in a hurry to see what's up over there....

The Semipalmated Sandpiper, 

The word semipalmated refers to a slight amount of webbing between the toes...

and the usual Great Blue Heron

And Yellowlegs, greater 

I was a tired puppy and got home around 8 pm...if not for having  to fed the girls  I would stay over, but they depend on me. 
 I was surprised at how crowded it was people have come out of the woodwork like 

wolf spiders on the the wood pile, hopefully they will return to the mall soon...lol But judging from all the fun they were having, I rather doubt it teehee! 

Till Next time...be safe out there...

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Sing the Song....

Life is Just a Metaphor... 

I have spent a few nights browsing my old posts...tho jovial me who had all this expectation of a wonderful future is MIA
I see that somewhere along the line, I lost my mojo.  This post is an introspective glace ...what's outside may look the same but what's inside is under construction..

Mottled Duck

Tri Colored Heron

  I get monthly calls from Grief Counselors...it's part of the Hospice Mom was assigned at the end...but to be honest if you really start to open up and express those feelings you get the expected response...sometimes it helps to put your grief into words and to get it out, you are not asking for a quick fix, you're simply saying I'M NOT OK, is that acceptable?

Willet

he shows me his beautiful wing pattern

dye to the changes to my life  the past 18 months,  all the loss of cherished loved ones, and my sweet Casey too, I live in an enormous vacuum...Someone said, "people don't like when you are in pain, because they feel obligated to comfort  you, make you all right again" so we hide our emotions...we hide our feelings and we start to break down the path back to settled,  we hold in our turmoil, and we change.  The truth is there is no ever going back to normal, because it will never be the same. Death changes everything around you. 

Snowy Egrets with their backs to the wind...

Sometimes this is me, with my back turned to the world and hunkered down against the next hurdle that I don't want to deal with.

A snowy Egret made of cotton candy...

When Im out in nature I feel good if I burst into tears no one is there to see me and feel bad for me,  so I just let it out and  that is helping me to accept what I can not control,  does that make sense to you?  I can go through my pain and not fell guilty for bringing someone down,  I can not bottle things up.   Im trying to get back to some sort of inner peace, one tear at a time...but to be honest It's a constant struggle.  I am holding the hand of my inner child while the  grown up me attempts to march on and be the strong one.  

Quiet trials to walk 

Or I can walk with my emotions as part of me, part of my path the one I'm walking.  Some where in our society we were taught to show happiness, joy, serenity, but we are not to show our misery, our pain, our tears, if we do then we need a pill or we need a therapists, or need to just "get a grip"....The Navajo have a song or a sing instead of prayers they sing for beauty and balance to return to them. 

Wood Stork

Gull Billed Terns

So many to pick thru...

You ever tried to climb a ladder and just miss steps, hop to the next rung? Well it doesn't work that way..Emotions and feelings are like picking through a mixed flock of birds...trying to see which ones you can say with confidence, you know what  it is... and there's ones you will never really clearly put a label on, (I don't know what this is)!

Snowy's, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Dunlin, 

Black Necked Stilt...

 a beautiful Phlox that brings a broad smile to my face...

  Common Gallinule and her chick

I tried to remind myself it's all part of life, the birth, the death...but then there's all that
in between stuff...the day to day life

play

The movement of this big Spanish Moss covered tree can explain more to you than I can about life it's the ability to sway in the wind, the bending without breaking, its standing strong one minute and weeping helplessly the next, and then it's being swept away...sometime it breaks and is no more...

play

I stood and watched this tree in movement for a long time,  my Mom always said the trees sing, and this one sang loudly...beauty and harmony will return one day I will remember the  smiles and the  jingle of laughter, but for now the tears are the water needed to sprout that new place for me to exist in. 

Ok I wanna say "Stand Still" please...everyone just STOP moving so I can catch up...the me who does not wish to make eye contact with anyone, because you may see what's inside...

play

Even in a crowd we stand alone, each one  looking for what we need to grow...and until it is found we seek out quiet places where we can scream if we need to, where we can sob and it's okay or we can sing  off key,  we do not have to speak or explain, we only need to listen to our inner voice the one that says it's okay to feel this way...

Dunlin

A Cedar Waxwing  and the Black Bellied Whistling Duck

Seeing these ducks took me back in time to a place when life for me was pretty darn good...inside and out and I think my mojo was close by...I may find it again, I may never, the point is I am no longer who I was, and I never will be again.  See I was waiting to feel like I used to...and then suddenly it hit me...

Rosette Spoonbill

 Boat-Tailed Grackle

That's never coming so stop looking for it...Sometimes my inner child walks in front and  pulls me along, she says, "don't keep your pain in let it out, let the tree hear your sobs and turn it into songs....let us sing". 

A place to be what I am

play

... if I step off my little island could be something is waiting to devour what is left.   I take my solace from Nature and I see the parallel of life inside and out, the metaphor...and then my inner child and I walk side by side for at least a while
we both are smiling as we sing.  We are working through our soul sickness...And then another person approaches and asks, "how are you"? in a polite expected manner and even tho you're crying and fighting darkness inside you say, "I'm fine."   Yeah Right...

So now I am singing I don't know all the words and my harmony is off, but it's a process of learning how to sing this new to me, lifesong.  


NOW THIS:

I wonder how each of you are dealing with emotions that I know are buzzing around with the murder of George Floyd and the emotions stirred in people  that forced them to do something...

I personally know I would have  jumped that cop...I would either be dead or arrested but no way I'd stand there and watch that without doing something...these are the people who won't stand for this...it takes only ONE person to act then the others will follow.  I think life is worth fighting for.  I don't think possessions are worth a person's life, a fake $20, 
four cops ??? And a murderer went home for 4 days!! And 3 who did nothing to stop that did too.  

I get it...but don't tell one group to turn the other cheek whilst you encourage another to pluck out an eye.   

----------please let your comments be about you, your emotions,  and the issues I have raised ----------

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.