Posts by B. Clay Shannon
While taking my usual stroll along Del Monte beach in Monterey yesterday, I found this sand dollar with a clump of barnacles attached: Is this rare at all? Any observations on why it would wash ...
I walk along Del Monte Beach in Crow City, USA (Monterey, California) quite often. It is not too rare to see dolphins frolicking (so it seems to me, although they may just be going about their bu...
In an area near where I work in Monterey, I often walk during the noon hour and end up in a meadow that is much-beloved to red-winged blackbirds. The other day I saw something unusual, though - as...
I live within walking distance of Del Monte beach in Crow City, USA (Also known as Monterey, California). I enjoy scouring the beach for interesting-looking stones, seashells, and bits of seaworn ...
My brother once told a concerned parent (whose son he was taking hiking in the "wilderness" (John Muir trail) for a few days) that the most dangerous part of the trip would be the drive there and b...
I noticed a couple of Sandpipers today who, after extracting a larger-than-normal morsel from the sand under the receding waves, "strutted their stuff" and dropped the morsel they had discovered fo...
While walking on the beach in Monterey, I have noticed several Sandpipers that I at first thought had lost a leg; they hop along on the one, eliciting pity from naive onlookers. Then, though, they...
Humans differ in their food preferences. One person loves oysters, another can't stand them, etc. What about animals? Are there any rabbits that don't like carrots? Lions that don't care for zebra...
I often take a slice of bread to the beach when I go on my beachcombing ramblings, and throw pieces of it to the shore birds that are, like me, combing the beach but, unlike my search for "jewels" ...
I live in Crow City, USA (AKA Monterey, California). I can't tell one crow from another without their perching right next to me on a bust of Portola. They seem to all be clones of each other, as f...
For any Dr. Doolittles out there, when a seagull makes a "cooing" sound, is it more like the "miaow" of a cat, or the purring of a cat? Specifically, when the seagulls "talk" to each other, it is ...
(long time passing). I walk along Del Monte beach in Crow City, USA (Monterey, California) quite often. For quite awhile, sandpipers were there in abundance - more than any other bird. I haven't...
I walk on Del Monte beach in Monterey, California quite often. I see LOTS of Sandpipers there; and always with them are Plovers (which remind me of little frenetic Killdeer). The Sandpipers dig i...
Where I work, there was a great pine tree which was recently chopped (actually, sawed) down. Prior to its demise, this tall pine was visited often by lizards and birds. After its removal, though,...
I took my usual weekend stroll along the strand (Del Monte Beach in Monterey, California) today. It was different today than ever before. For one thing, there were no Sandpipers or Plovers or Gul...
Walking along the strand this morning in Monterey, I was confronted by hundreds (at least) of stranded (no pun intended) tuna crabs (I thought they were shrimp, but a visitor from San Diego told me...
Last night, I had to climb a tower at work. When I reached the top platform (about 40 feet up), and turned my back to close the swinging gate behind me, I was whacked on the back of the head. Fort...
During my usual weekend morning jaunt along Del Monte Beach in Monterey (California), I noticed for the first time the Plovers, who normally seem to forage nonstop, actually taking a communal break...
Where I walk weekly (Del Monte Beach in Monterey, California), I beachcomb for shells, glass, and particularly stones. Most of what gets cast up is rather dull and uninteresting - gray and black ro...
