Monday Heerman's Gull Blogging

Heerman's Gulls - Point Reyes  2026

Heerman's Gulls - Point Reyes 2026

Heerman's gulls were featured in an earlier 2018 post. Very picturesque.

Limantour Beach Wave

Limantour Beach Wave #1 - Point Reyes  2026

Limantour Beach Wave #2 - Point Reyes  2026

Nice. I used a Nikon Z7II with a 40mm (non-zoom) lens. 

Limantour Beach

Limantour Marsh - Point Reyes  2026

Limantour Beach - Point Reyes  2026

Photos taken just after my most recent Coast Camp backpack. During my visit there I hadn't been able to go down to the beach. Annoying! So when I returned to my car I decided to drive over to the Limantour beach area, to get some actual beach time in.

Alders

Alders, Road - Point Reyes  2026

Alders - Point Reyes  2026

Hanna and I hiked this route in 2025, so I knew that it was quite long. Still seemed to take forever.

Coast Camp - Hiking Out

Coyote Bush, Ocean - Point Reyes  2026

View South - Point Reyes  2026

I wanted to avoid the eroded trail that I had come in on, so I was taking the (much longer) alternate fire road out. The road follows the coast for a while before turning inland.

Coast Camp Morning

Morning Coffee - Point Reyes  2026

Tent - Point Reyes  2026

Very heavy drizzle. I had known that the morning was going to be a wet one, so I'd put most of my stuff into the metal bear box, with the backpack going underneath the table. 

It was apparent that the soaked and sagging tent fly hadn't really been staked out correctly. 

Grass, Hills

Grass, Hills - Point Reyes  2026

An afternoon photo . . . nice even overcast light.

Monday Sooty Shearwaters Blogging

Sooty Shearwaters - Point Reyes  2026

One of the most widespread and numerous of all pelagic seabirds, the Sooty Shearwater is an unassuming, dark brown bird with silvery flashes in the underwing. With stiff wingbeats they fly low over the ocean ("shearing" the water), using wind power to glide long distances. 

Watching the ocean from a headland or taking a pelagic birding trip are good ways to see Sooty Shearwaters. Populations are larger in the Pacific than the Atlantic, and huge flocks can sometimes be seen from shore along the California coast in fall.

Photo above (with a Nikon Z7II / 24-200mm lens) shows the flock (indeed, quite huge) as seen from a hill overlooking the ocean. Below, a crop showing individual birds.

Sooty Shearwaters - Point Reyes  2026

Drake's Bay, Headlands

Drake's Bay, Headlands - Point Reyes  2026

 Taken from high up on a bluff . . . sun trying to break through the afternoon fog. The dark specks in the bay are "sooty shearwater" birds. Dedicated post tomorrow.

Camp Sightems

Charging Apple Watch - Point Reyes  2026

Ramen, Chardonnay, Nikon, Tent - Point Reyes  2026

I like the Apple Watch for keeping track of my steps, exercise minutes and so on. But its main use for me is being able to press a button and have my iPhone beep. I'm constantly losing track of the iPhone - I need to use that function two-three times per day. 

I took a small charger with me in order to keep the watch functional. (I now have discovered that you can a) turn the watch completely off to save battery life, or b) put it into low power mode. Will have to try those options.)

Ramen meal was quite successful! I packed a small zip-lock bag with some bok choy and a few ounces of pork belly for that umami goodness.

Coast Camp Plants

Poison Oak - Point Reyes  2026

California Sagebrush - Point Reyes  2026

Photos taken with a Nikon Z7II / 24-200mm lens.

Eucalyptus / Pond

Eucalyptus - Point Reyes  2026

Pond - Point Reyes  2026

Walking past the eucalyptus to the beach. Alas, the pond that is usually off to the side had somehow enlarged itself and covered the trail! I had brought water sandals with me - mainly for wearing around the camp - but I never got around to putting them on and wading through the water.

Coast Camp

Coast Camp - Point Reyes  2026

A short mini-hike. I had hiked up to a ridge overlooking the main campground sites, with a view of the tents, the eucalyptus and the ocean.

Campsite - Coast Camp Backpack

Campsite (Coast Camp) - Point Reyes  2026

 Nice, huh? A little bit of sun breaking through the marine layer in the afternoon. 

Getting there was not that easy though. The trail erosion made it quite difficult hiking in - at one point I attempted to scooch through one of the eroded sections and ended up down on the ground. Not a fall, exactly, but still - down on the ground. Luckily two hikers (Wolfgang and Becky) were able to help me up and get me down past the bad section. 

Then, on to camp 3 unaided, and some welcome Fritos and beer.

Fritos and Beer - Point Reyes  2026

Monday Skunk Blogging

Skunk in Campground - Point Reyes  2026

As seen during this year's Coast Camp backpack. I was sitting in my campground chair when this individual wandered through. My getting up to take a photo led to a swift departure past the campground food box and into the poison oak.

Campground Chair - Point Reyes  2026

Spider Web / Fence (Point Reyes)

Spider Web, Poison Oak - Point Reyes  2026

Fence, Rain - Point Reyes  2026

Last of the photos from my little Limantour excursion.

Alders / California Buckthorn

Alder Trunks - Point Reyes  2026

California Buckthorn - Point Reyes  2026

Stopping by the Coast Camp trailhead area. I was able to use the Nikon Z7II for the alder photo . . . it's not that suitable for wet weather so hadn't brought it out for Limantour photos (Olympus has better weather-sealing).

The iPhone was able to identify the California Buckthorn - note how wet the leaves are

Limantour Marsh / Ocean

Limantour Marsh - Point Reyes  2026

Ocean - Point Reyes  2026

There's a metal pedestrian bridge over the marsh that is not very camera-friendly. I have to poke the lens through the rails to get the photo, as in the marsh scene above.

If you're there it's always necessary to go visit the beach, although this time it was kind of bland with some uninteresting waves.

Bishop Pines

Bishop Pine Trunk - Point Reyes  2026

Bishop Pine Needles - Point Reyes  2026

There's a collection of Bishop Pines near the parking lot. I was using an Olympus E-M1II with a small 25mm (prime) lens equipped with an extended rubber lens hood used in wet weather.

Rain vs Drizzle

Morning Bun, Coffee - Point Reyes  2026

Side Window View - Point Reyes  2026

"Drizzle is liquid precipitation with small droplet size. In order to be classified as drizzle rather than as rain, the droplets must be less than 0.5mm in diameter; however drizzle droplets are significantly larger than cloud droplets. For an observer who cannot readily distinguish droplet size, rain droplets may be observed to splash as they hit a puddle and drizzle droplets generally do not."

Huh. My definition is, if I've got the windshield wipers going non-intermittently, then it's rain. If I need a parka, then it's rain. Both conditions obtained here, although the moisture was probably coming from the Bay Area's marine layer.