Another Walk on the Beach

It has only been two days since our race on Saturday, so the plan this morning was to complete an easy, attentive recovery run, "listening to your body" as the runner's adage goes.  We have another race next Saturday, only five days from now, so this is a time for caution.  But everything felt fine, for both of us - three miles for me, five for Martha.  We will probably only run one more time this week.

This afternoon, we tuned in to the impeachment trial in the Senate for a while, but I just could not watch Kenneth Starr for very long, lamenting the "age of impeachment" of all things.  We turned if off and, it being low tide, decided to walk on the beach again.  One's call to civic duty only goes so far, after all.

We did not find any shells, but we did see some interesting jellyfish, more this year than any other time we have been here, I think.  This looked completely different from the moon  jelly we spotted last Friday, but our Living Beaches book told us it is a male moon jelly.

I almost overlooked this one that Martha spotted.  We puzzled over it a little before deciding that it had to be an ovate comb jelly, with iridescent combs visible inside its opaque exterior.

It was not very windy or cold, but we found that we had the beach to ourselves for the most part.  Toward the east, a pickup truck was parked and we could see fishing poles stuck in their rod holders.  And this fishing boat was out on the choppy waters, bobbing up and down, pursuing the same quarry in a different way.  

The seagulls and the sanderlings and the sandpipers were all attentively watching the surf.  The gulls were mostly standing silently, waiting for small fish to appear, I think, and reluctantly moving away as we approached.  This one looked like he was trying to stay ahead of his shadow.

Sandpipers always seem busy gobbling up something in the foaming surf; I discovered last year that they are eating insects and other small organisms such as worms, spiders, gnats, and snails, as well as what is called biofilm, a thin layer of nutritious slime on the sand.  

Now I have a raging appetite!  Dinner will be shrimp tacos, prepared here in the condo.  And then, after checking in briefly with Mr. Starr and his cronies, back to our books.