We have been at Pismo Beach for 2 or three days, it is a very pleasant town. The campground is pretty good by Ca SP standards, having hook ups and being by a small lake. The weather has been dominated by cold nights and windy days, the wind being cold. However when you get in the sun it is warm enough. We have tried to do as little as possible, but that gets boring. We visited the State Beach and found that you could take your car onto the beach and drive along the sand for miles, so we did. We enjoyed watching the Kite Surfers, the Dune Buggies and ATV's and the little waderbirds, which we have found out are called Sanderlings. Sanderlings are very funny to watch. They are very small, blackbird sized and run up and down the beach following waves in and out, presumably looking for food brought in on the waves. However they also stand just above the water line. As we watched we noticed various behaviours. They stand absolutely still in tight little groups of up to 50 birds. Then we noticed that they all face exactly the same direction, into the wind (It was quite windy). Then that some of them stood on one leg, actually a lot of them stood on one leg. Then as they followed the waves, they ran on one leg (hopped)! The we saw that some groups stood in a dead straight line, which looked strange, but reduced the effect of the wind. The whole thing looked like a pelaton from the Tour De France, as every now and then the one at the front of the line ran round to the back. We then saw large groups hiding in the lee of clumps of seaweed, every now and then one or two would run from one group to another and the whole group would shuffle round to accommodate the new, or close up the space where one had left, then stillness again. It was fascinating watching the birds moving. It appeared to be a dynamic combination of a social dance and making sure that they lost as little body heat as possible. Even the standing on one leg is a mechanism to reduce body heat loss.
On lour last day we stopped for a meal at the local diner - a real converted train. it was great fun and the food was good as well.
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