Huntington Beach, Part 3 - Sunday - May 22, 2010

Nancy here:  This is the third part of our nature adventures at Huntington Beach SP. 
I had the entire day off which rarely happens on Sunday. Early this morning, we did a long bike ride.  Then we just chilled at home and decided to do a walk on the beach at Sunset. In all the years that we have been coming to Huntington Beach SP, we have never walked out on the jetty which actually creates Murrells Inlet.  So tonight, we were going to do just that!!

As we crossed the causeway coming into the state park, we saw this Wood Stork!! 

Click on any photo to enlarge.

We drove to the northern parking lot, walked to the beach and headed north toward the jetty that forms Murrells Inlet. Below is a map of our walk, about 4 miles round-trip.

View of the jetty as we headed up the beach.

Sanderlings

Jelly Fish stuck on the beach.

Walk This Way!!

Shorebird nesting area and jetty in the background.

Loggerhead Turtle Cage to protect the eggs.

We spoke to the fisherman in the picture below.  He had several fishing poles, but one was the longest we had ever seen… 15ft. long… WOW!!!

“The Longest Pole”

Approaching the Jetty

On the Jetty

Looking at Garden City across Murrells Inlet

Jetty on the Garden City side of Murrells Inlet

Large Catamaran anchored in Murrells Inlet

Biking the Jetty ?!?!

Fisherman having a GREAT day!!Bill stopped to talk with him and found out that he had been catching Spanish Mackerels non-stop.  There is a limit of 12 per license, so he had to fillet his 12 in order to carry them home.  I’m sure the Sea Birds will be feasting tonight on the remains!!

While Bill watched the fisherman, I continued out to the very end of the jetty.  There I saw birds I had never seen before.  I had no idea what they were.  Once I did some Internet research, I found out they are Ruddy Turnstones.

Here’s a closer look.

The sun was starting to set,

so we left the jetty and headed back to the car. 

Along the way,

I saw this collection of broken beach beauties.  

Sun going down

Day is Done!Another beautiful day!!

Well, I did this entire blog in Live Writer and then up-loaded it to blogger.  Definitely easier to add photos, but another plus is the fact that I have a copy of the blog on my hard drive.  That way I can back it up and have it in case something happens and blogger loses some blogs.  

I just can’t imagine that ever happening ;o)))