A Day on the Beach, Part Two

 Two pairs of Black Oystercatchers, that I know of, nest on Chief Kiawanda Rock, off the coast of Cape Kiwanda. That rock is a mile offshore so it's very hard to see little black birds on that big black rock. Instead, I've found that those birds fly to the cape to forage as the tide uncovers the shellfish they live on. One pair flies to the north side and one pair to the south. If there are others on the Rock, they must forage on the Rock itself. Thanks to the efforts of the Park to keep people from falling off the end of the Cape, visitors are discouraged from going out there. So I can only monitor the north side birds usually. That's okay, the scenery is lovely and there are often colorful paragliders to watch. And such was the case this day.

It was still foggy at Cape Kiwanda State Park when I arrived at the north foot of the cape about 4 p.m. Two BLOY were on their usual foraging rock in the distance (the middle rock).

The camera brought them up closer

The sun soon came out and a little elevation helped ...

When the waves started to get close to the BLOY, they began to move...

... and forage... At 4:18, they called and flew toward The Rock. So not nesting yet. When they are, they will disappear for as long as it takes the eggs to hatch, then only one will come at a time to forage while the other stays with the chicks. If/when the chicks fledge, the parents will bring them to their foraging area here on the north side of Cape Kiwanda. Photos of some of their previous years' fledglings are on my Black Oystercatcher blog.

As I started the walk back to my car at McPhillips Park, a school of paragliding hopefuls was practicing putting their kites up and back down. It looked like a lot of work to learn how to work with the wind.

The tent at the left had the paragliding school's name on it but I did not get that in a photo.

I was home, 35 miles inland, by 6 p.m. It was still hot, but not as hot as before. 

A lovely day on the beautiful Oregon coast.