Sporadic dispatches from the hinterlands.
We went out to look at birds at a couple of different spots in town this weekend. First we went to the harbor, because I was curious about some shorebirds I saw while paddling my canoe this week. A couple of days later we went to the arboretum to check up on an old friend.
It looks like the shorebirds have begun their fall migration, but we did not see many birds up at the arboretum.
There's not a lot of bird activity in our area in July, but we walked around at Elkhorn Slough and Moss Landing today to see what we could see, and take a few pictures along the way.
Last weekend we went to Neary Lagoon in Santa Cruz to see if we could find some Wood Ducks. We did find a few, along with some other birds.
Neary Lagoon is an easy photo spot for us, but it was very dark and grey that morning, so we had to choose our camera settings with care: fast enough shutter speed to reduce blur, but low enough ISO to reduce noise. Luckily, the birds gave us several chances.
I completed my second Jay Race last weekend. It's a 12-mile paddling race from Capitola to the Santa Cruz wharf, out around the Mile Buoy, and back to Capitola beach. I did it last year on my stand-up paddleboard, and it was a struggle. This year I paddled my OC1 (1-person outrigger canoe). It was no less painful, but I did go considerably faster.
I hadn't been planning to compete again, but when they opened an OC1 division a few weeks before the race, I decided to do it. I wish I had trained more; maybe next year! This race took a lot out of me, and I don't know if I'd do it again without more preparation.
Joy doubled as support crew and action photographer. Thanks, Joy!
