Reader Tracy Hurley sent a nice batch of photos; her captions are indented below.
I’m a long-time reader, and I want to help fill your tank with some nature photos.
I signed up for a nature tour at the Seal Beach National Wildlife Refuge, which is a salt marsh habitat on the grounds of the Naval Weapons Station in Seal Beach, CA. This is a monthly tour, and a reservation requires a background check. We were told we could not photograph anything naval-base related, only nature. Fine by me!
A gigantic salt marsh ecosystem used to exist on the coast of southern California, but it has been paved over and fragmented so that only a tiny bit remains. 965 acres of salt marsh is in the Seal Beach National Wildlife refuge. We visited during a low tide, so these photos show the grasses and pickleweed and mudflats in plain view. They are submerged twice a day by high tides.
We saw a lot of Belding’s Savannah Sparrows (Passerculus sandwichensis). These birds have a narrow range and require the pickleweed-dense salt marsh for nesting (and other pursuits). The bird in this photo is in a patch of pickleweed.
Here’s a Marbled Godwit (Limosa fedoa) poking around the mudflats.
Most of these are Long-Billed Curlews (Numenius americanus). There’s a Snowy Egret (Egretta thula) in there, too.
I believe these are Double-Crested Cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus), plus a few Snowy Egrets and a Western Gull (Larus occentalis).
This light-footed Ridgway’s Rail (Railus obsoletus) was the most cooperative of subjects! The Refuge is providing habitat and rehabilitation to this endangered species. The problem for the Rails at the refuge is that during high tides, their nests float upward with the rising water. Under normal circumstances this is fine, because the nests would still remain trapped in the long strands of cordgrass–the cordgrass holds the nests in place so they don’t float out to sea when the tide goes back out. However, this particular salt marsh no longer gets fed enough fresh water to allow cordgrass to grow tall enough. Thus, the nests tend to float away. In the contraption in this photo you can see one of the hundred-plus nesting platforms installed at the refuge. These platforms float on the rising water, but the vertical bars keep them from drifting away when the tide goes out. The tent over the top protects the birds from predators.
That is a clever way to make the platform adjust to the water depth. Did that with a dock to allow it do the same. However, unlike Florida, in a freezing and thawing climate, it only lasts so long.
The cormorants seem to be deliberately facing away from the camera operator. Maybe they are shy. Looks like a great place to visit. I’m glad to see, in the news lately, that some of the Everglades is now being restored.
Very interesting! Thank you for sharing this. It is sobering to think of what was lost along coastal areas as we developed the land.
I would see similar habitats when I would visit the Peurto Penasco area in Mexico, and these pix really take me back. Those habitats too are disappearing by building trophy homes and dredging for coastal marinas.
Beautiful pics, Tracy!
Love the shore birds. At least some of the salt-flats remain in SoCal, they look to be teaming with life.
Very uplifting post. Thanks!
Thanks, Tracy, for a story as fascinating as the pics are beautiful! Now I so want to visit and take the same tour!
Thank you for all the nice comments! And Diane G., I LOVED the tour. I recommend you sign up!
I went to Seal Beach once when I worked for the OC Register, along with the environment reporter Pat Brennan. The story was on efforts to combat invasive species. I did a graphic of some of the native plants and a bird:
http://ploubere.com/xtraImages/hogisland_loubere_ocr.09-2006.jpg
It’s a pretty neat place, if you overlook the fact that the navy stores a lot of heavy ammunition there. But if they didn’t have possession of the land, then it would have all been developed.
Beautiful! You are most talented!
+1
What a wonderful illustration–so clear and beautiful!
Nice drawing.