Changing Landscapes

No matter how often I go to the beach, it always amazes me how different it can look from one day to the next. Getting to the beach during high tide one day and low tide the next is going to result in some dramatic contrasts. Having a creek drain out into the ocean also presents some opportunities for nature to refashion the landscape on a regular basis.

Hubby and I have been checking certain spots on the beach and on the creek to see how they are changing following the big rains last month.

The level of water in San Juan Creek is far lower now but there is still enough to attract seagulls and this egret more inland along its course.

Here is a reminder of how it looked after a week of rain.

And what it looked like at the weekend.

Here is the Creek where it empties into the ocean after the rain.

 At the weekend.

And a few days later.

Hubby surveying the scene with the new sandbar in the background. Once he recovers from his cold he’ll be taking advantage of the surf off the sandbar.

The progress of the Creek changes according to the amount and strength of the water flowing and new sand and silt that piles up.

I loved the effect of the water running over these rocks and golden brown minerals or other material brought down the creek.

The sandbar is so long the water has to run quite a distance until it fully empties into the open ocean.

Bulldozers have started to clear the tons of debris that washed up on the beach. While I’ll be glad to see it all gone (A spell of very warm weather raised the level of smell quite considerably) I enjoyed seeing what people did with some of it.

There were also circumstances where the random position of a piece of tree ended up could have a beauty of its own.