October Beach Days

We had a really warm day this past week and we decided to take this, most likely last, opportunity to spend it at the beach.

So we packed up and went but it was actually rather blustery when we got there and the waves were really rough and because tourist season ended ... there was no hunting allowed... heh heh heh... Just Kidding! But off-season the beach is practically empty except for a few fellow locals, so there are No life guards on duty which meant there was to be No swimming this day!

So,I just sat in my chair all bundled up with towels watching Webster digging his huge pit and piling up his Sand of Gibraltar, as he affectionately called it, and relaxed.

I began thinking of the amazing the difference between seasons here, the transformation between the hustling, bustling crowds that were here just a few short weeks ago and how now the beach is barren and practically deserted... and it was about then that I noticed this little guy only a few feet from me.

I thought what a difference for him it must be also between the congested snack packing, chip dropping, crumb leaving crowds of summer and the placid desolated sands of now... I wondered where do the crowds of seagulls go? Do they migrate with the tourists? Do they *gasp* all starve to death?? Was this poor little thing left behind to fend for himself?!? I watched as he paced forlornly about in front of me.

He did look hungry. Then remembering that Noah did pack a snack, I leaned over and fetched the box of Ritz crackers and retrieved a sleeve and opened it and tossed the cracker in the direction of the forlorn bird who immediately sprang into action and gobbled it down... he then proceeded to screech a seagully cry of satisfaction as if in gratitude for my generous gift! Ü So feeling pretty pleased with myself, I tossed him another to which I heard the same seagully crys... but this time they weren't just coming from him but from also behind me. It would seem we had company stopping in for dinner!

So I tossed a few more crackers.

And a few more showed up.

And so I tossed a few more crackers...

you see where this is heading eh?

I have since come to the conclusion that seagulls are amongst the worlds most elusive shape shifters, as it would seem, unbeknownst to me, that the same gully cry of gratitude were also a beacon call to any friends and family within earshot who must have been disguising themselves as grains of sand as they seemed to have come from from everywhere and out of nowhere at once!

It was a grand and marvelous (and slightly scary) sight to see as they flocked in from all directions around me.

So... I tossed them a few more crackers. Ü

It was causing quite a scene and those who were there that day were stopping to watch. And Webster came running to get in on the feeding frenzy. So I relinquished cracker duty to him and handed him the package ... he emptied what was left of that sleeve so I handed him another.

Then he started tossing them up high into the air and letting the wind take them, he loved watching as the gulls would swoop and dive in flight.

And they were beautiful...

and because it was so breezy they would hover seemingly effortless in the air without ever having to flap their wings,

just soaring a few feet above me,

I could have reached up and touched them if I had been so inclined to do so...

but I was not inclined to do so.

But it did give me an idea... I suggested that Webster hold out his hand with a cracker to see if one would take it from him.

to which he did...

and it worked! *snicker* Hehehehe ... Bah-hahahahaha!!!

His face is precious and his expression is priceless!

But he lived and realized that this was actually a really fun thing to do and went through the last sleeve of crackers!

But then.... a feeling of doom came over me

and I clutched the empty box of Ritz to my chest and gasped...

I thought to myself, 'What have I done?'as from behind us the sky darkened and a Huge flock of Big black birds crested the dune and flew directly over the group of gulls and ourselves...

But I let out a big sigh of relief and loosened my grip on the box when I realized these were only  comorants, a diving, fish eating sea bird not a cracker eating one... which was a very good thing because of there being no more crackers left! 

Ü