Predicted 95°F. at home, 70°F. at Pt. Reyes, so I head for Limantour Spit. It's pretty crowded for a weekday. I walk out on the marsh side and am surprised to see how much is in bloom: sticky monkey flower, yarrow, dandelion, baccharis, purple thistle, and the special salt marsh plants—grindelia, jaumea, limonium, Armeria maritima, brass buttons. Also two species of pickelweed and the orange parasite, dodder, both in bloom. Lots of orange and red splotches on the dunes—this is Carpobrotus edulis or Hottentot-fig, introduced from South Africa to control erosion along highways and banks. It has become naturalized on California dunes and other sandy places. 

Fall migration hasn't started so the birding is a bit sparse. Still I see great and snowy egrets, white pelicans, great blue herons, ring-billed and Heerman's gulls, sandpipers, sanderlings, godwits. I spot one female northern harrier and an osprey soaring up high. The tide is out, no clouds, a bit of a breeze. Among the pickleweed I spy the bleached bones of a deer—skull, three legs, rib cage. At the end of the spit, no harbor seals are hanging out. I walk back on the ocean side, keeping my stride in tempo with the waves.