The cold water saturating the sand had soaked through three layers of clothing. My pockets were filled with sand from army crawling on the beach, and my lens was making a worrisome grinding noise every time I zoomed. My hands were getting numb, and I was grinning ear to ear because shorebird season was well under way.
It’s a shame Snowy Plovers don’t breed in San Francisco, but I’ve really enjoyed getting to know them outside nesting season. There’s something so heartwarming about their start-stop style of locomotion, dashing and then freezing over and over as they feed just above the surf while avoiding giants a hundred times their size.