Ocean Day 5

Wednesday 8/18/2021

Ed and I went fishing again, this time on the bank in a boat ramp/fishing park just a few miles south of our campground. I caught a redfish!  It didn't fight much and in fact, I wasn't even sure I had a fish on for a minute there. Yeah, I saw the cork disappear and I gave a jerk, feeling something, but then it stopped struggling and I assumed I'd missed it. Again.

I did miss an awful lot of them. They--or something--were very good at sneaking the frozen shrimp off the hook without me even noticing them. And it didn't help that a strong south wind was blowing in our face, bringing our hooks back to the bank.

The coolest thing about that site was the big sea turtle who kept poking his head up to look at us. Later I saw a second turtle. But of course I never had my camera ready when they looked out. Also a little Great Blue Heron stood right next to me on the "bank" (it was a concrete surface with little holes cut out, just the right size to swallow up any shrimp I accidentally dropped down there.) He stood there for a long time, not really fishing or taking much notice of my movements as I went back and forth to the bait supply in the cooler. I wish now I'd thrown him a shrimp to see if he were interested.

I got a walk in and saw lots of the usual beach birds--Brown Pelican, Laughing Gull, Sanderling, and Willet. And Ruddy Turnstone, of course.. But that makes me wonder if maybe there were other birds I missed because I wasn't looking for them. According to the bird book,, Sanderling "shouldn't" have been there in the winter--they should have been way far north. But
allaboutbirds.org says "Nonbreeding Sanderlings often stay on the wintering grounds through the summer, saving energy by avoiding the long trip to the Arctic nesting grounds. "