Florencia bay
Though the morning was very foggy, it didn’t rain, and later in the day the sun broke through the fog and it became a very nice day to explore the beaches of this park.
Whimbrel
We first walked down to the beach below our campsite at Greenpoint. The tide was almost in, and so we could not investigate the tide pools as we did yesterday. Instead I spent quite a while filming and photographing birds. There were two species: some form of plovers which are small birds that rapidly dart around in flocks at the edge of the water, and actively probing the sand for food; and whimbrels which are a blue legged bird with a curved bill. The whimbrels are much larger, and were eating much higher up from the water in the drier sand. One of the signs at an interpretive site identified the plovers as semipalmated plovers, however they look much more like snowy plovers in my field guide.
After lunch we drove to Wickaninnish Beach. There is a large interpretive center (and restaurant) here. Several of the displays are still under construction. We walked quite a way along the beach until it started to sprinkle rain, watching the surfers (who didn’t seem to be doing much) and also watching the birds again. We met another couple from Ontario who were also wondering what the small birds (the plovers) were. They were not any more certain than we were. We then drove to Florencia Bay and walked down to that beach. It was much calmer than Wickaninnish. One man was surfing there, though he was very far away from us. We sat and just enjoyed the warmth of the sun on the beach for by now the sun had finally become strong enough to warm the air.
When we got back to our campsite we tried to book it for tomorrow. They told us that we would have to check back tomorrow at just before 11, ist ahead of us, and our chances didn’t look good.