It’s been another very wet day today (I’ve read that, last month, we got triple the average amount of rain for our region; it doesn’t seem to be letting up this month, yet). We did manage to get a dump run in. Because of when it closes on Saturdays, and when my younger daughter gets off work, we left it to near closing time, then just continued on to town. After running some errands, we had time enough to hit the beach and look for interesting things.
Along with fascinating bones and interesting rocks, we found a tiny surprise.
What follows are pictures of a dead creature, so for those who don’t like seeing that, I’ll post it after the jump.
While at the beach a few days ago, I tried to get photos of all the seagulls on the shore.
These are just a few that I could get in frame at once!
It’s so nice to go to the beach this time of year. It’s still pleasant out, but tourist season is over, so there’s hardly any people around. Especially in the morning. 🙂
This morning, after dropping my daughter off at work, I took the time to check out the beach and take a walk.
It was really quite gorgeous.
As always, I keep an eye out for interesting things washed up by the waves and tides. For myself, I look for interesting rocks. For my older daughter, I look for interesting… anything.
And, wow, did I ever hit the jackpot today!!
At first glance, I actually thought it was some washed up, crumpled plastic or something.
I’ve found the odd jaw bone of a fish before, but never an entire skull! It’s pretty big, too. About the size of the palm of my hand. Slightly longer, in fact.
I have no clue what it is, though. That bone “sail” at the back of the skull is fascinating.
Does anyone recognize what it is?
Also, it rattles. There is something stuck inside the skull. Sounds like a small pebble.
Whenever I am able to go to the beach, I keep an eye out for interesting things. Especially for things for my daughter’s collection. We sometimes joke about her habit of picking up random things she finds on the ground! 😀
The last time I was at the beach, I made an unusual find that I thought was funny enough to take a picture to send to her.
I was able to swing by the beach after dropping my daughter off at work.
What a glorious morning!
I love these marks the waves left behind, as the tide receded.
Those squiggly whiter lines are tiny ridges of sand, left behind by waves.
The rocky part of the beach is always so much more interesting than the sandy parts!
You never know what you might find, too.
Unfortunately all the pictures I took focused on my dash in the background, instead of this amazing rib bone I found. The size of the fish this belonged to must have been impressive!
Yes, I kept it – for my other daughter’s collection.
I was able to visit the beach yesterday morning and was walking along on the sidewalk, when I realized I was seeing a whole lot of birds that weren’t seagulls!
So I headed over for a closer look (my broken toe is healing nicely, so walking on the sand wasn’t too much of an issue).
If you look at the opposite shore, on the left, you can see smoke. It had been heavier, earlier, but was gone by the time I returned to my vehicle, which is good.
This is just one group of the different birds, along with our usual seagulls, that were along the beach.
Digital zoom sucks.
I did some research to find out what these birds were. In appearance, it came down to either Laughing Gulls or Franklin’s Gulls. They have to be Franklin’s Gulls, though. Laughing Gulls have a range in the southeastern and southwestern North American coast, while the Franklin’s Gull is a more northerly, prairie bird.
While doing my evening rounds, I found all sorts of lovely growing things!
My mother’s yellow lilies ad opening up like crazy, with lots of buds. They are going to do very well this year!
The white roses my mother planted in the same area are doing much better than last year. These are the same type as by the house, but it’s not as good a location for them, so they tend not to be the explosion of flowers, like I can see outside my bedroom window right now.
I was really happy to see so many cherries forming! These are just the ones by the house – where last year, I found only 3 cherries, in total! The ones by the spruces are also showing lots of cherries starting to form.
Not long after I did my rounds and got these photos, it start to rain.
It continued to rain pretty much through the night, and was still raining when I drove my daughter to work.
Which is so awesome! All the flowers, fruit trees and berry bushes are going to love it!
I swung by the lake this morning. It was still raining and quite windy, so I was expecting things to be empty, but nope. Some people are just really, really dedicated to their fun!
I watched as this guy was kneeling on his board, struggling to paddle against the waves. He managed to stand for a little while, but was soon back on his knees, trying to paddle out further. He was still at it when I left!
Though the rain has certainly cooled things down, we’re still supposed to be hitting temperatures in the mid 20s C for a while, then into the high 20s C by next week. I’ll take the cool breezes while I can! 🙂
I swung by the beach this morning, after dropping my daughter off at work. The last time I was there, the water was free of ice.
It isn’t, anymore. It’s harder to tell in the photo above, but there is ice covering the water in the distance.
The lake narrows a bit in this area; enough that we can just see the far side (visible in the top and bottom photos). It extends a considerable distance to the north, and the ice is being blown south.
It was moving so fast, I could see the ice coming closer to the beach, even in the short time I was there. You can even see how much closer it came between this photo, and the one at the top, which were taken less than a minute apart.
For a lake as large as this one, it will take a long time for the ice to clear on all of it.
