Thursday, April 30, 2015--Crescent City to Arcata, CA--Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park

As we left Crescent City this morning the temperature was a calm 53 degrees.

We left at 8:20 and drove S on Hwy 101 for about a mile. The beach in the bottom of the photo above is where we saw the shorebirds.

 We figured they were a mixture of Dunlin and Western Sandpipers. It was fun to watch the sandpipers fly in a group from one spot to another.

Then we saw some bigger shorebirds, and soon identified them with their down-turned bills as Whimbrels. There were a couple dozen Whimbrels strung out for a mile or two.

Back on Hwy 101, before we blinked our eyes we were surrounded by big trees growing right up to the side of of the road.

Soon an overlook revealed the California coast.

We stopped at a pond at Lagoon Creek Wayside to look for birds. We saw a Band-tailed Pigeon at the top of a tall distant tree, also a Kingfisher, Wood Ducks, Barn and Cliff Swallows, and Savannah Sparrows. But we only got a photo of a female Red-winged Blackbird working over a bush beside us.

 A purple trillium

Then we were in the redwoods of Prairie Creek Redwoods National and State Park. Again, there were no services and not many signs identifying what we saw. There were quite a few trails and we walked several of them. You just can't see the redwoods without walking among them.

How many separate ecosystems lived in this one tree?

The lush ferns carpeted the entire forest, making for a stunningly breathtaking walk.

At 1 pm the temperature in the Redwoods was 78 degrees.

The redwoods have very delicate needles, giving a green lace-like canopy to the walk.

Burls are a common feature on redwoods, at ground level, or all the way to the top.

The burls then collect another ecosystem on them, sometimes including a whole separate tree as on this one.

The bark is usually gray with streaks of red

Even the fallen logs become home to another system of plants

A burl on the right side on the center trunk is the total support of the large tree growing on the right. Talk about no visible means of support!

This fern mass is growing on top of a broken limb very high in the tree. A bit of dirt collects and maybe birds drop seeds to become a separate ecosystem, sometimes weighing up to 1000 pounds! A ranger walked with us for a while and showed us this feature.

A world growing within a world! It makes you lose all perspective.

Although this tree trunk was hollowed out, possibly by fire long ago, the huge tree above was alive and well.

And just like that, here we are in sunny Arcata, CA with petunias blooming and palm trees and bright colors in the motel! The temperature near the ocean dropped to 62.

Today our eyes were on many ocean birds--it was especially exciting to find the Whimbrels. Then our eyes were on Redwoods in all their immensity, beauty and majesty.