It was a holiday, and a day off from running, and not too windy, so I headed out in the kayak again.
I went back to the little inlet where I'd seen the fawn and otter last time. Neither was around, but I did see some movement on the beach that turned out to be a family of raccoons - two adults and two juveniles. I was lucky to have the wind behind me pushing me slowly closer so I could stop paddling and not scare them away. But at some point something made them decide to leave and they traipsed off down the beach and into the bushes.
This time I managed to spot a couple of sea stars out of the water (it was quite a low tide since it's almost full moon). One was a nice plump Ochre Sea Star.
At first I thought the other one was a sickly Ochre Sea Star, but it turned out to be a Leather Star. I see it's supposed to have a distinctive smell of garlic and sulfur, but I'm afraid I didn't notice it.
I spotted the juvenile oystercatchers again, but once more they scurried away before I could take any photographs. They looked a little bigger and their beaks a little redder. This Killdeer was a little more cooperative, although it didn't sit still long either.
The purple martins were still around the nesting boxes. They are quite vocal birds.
There were a number of Great Blue Herons around. They seem to come out for low tide. This one flew by, landed on the piling next to me, gave a squawk, and then proceeded to clean its bill on the piling.
It was a bright sunny morning with some good reflections.
All these photos (and the last batch from kayaking) were taken with my OM-1 (formerly Olympus) and the 100-400 mm lens (200-800 equivalent). I'm impressed with the versatility of this combination. It's small and light enough to hand hold, and the image stabilization works remarkably well. (Important on a rocking kayak!) It focuses quite close so it's also good for photographing insects without getting too close and scaring them away.
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