I wiped away the weeds & foam. / I fetched my sea-born treasures home... Ralph Waldo Emerson







Thursday, March 11, 2010

Update-They're Back!

March 11, 2010. The oystercatchers arrived today! Right on schedule.

I was so pleased and excited to see them---I've been walking the shoreline daily, awaiting their appearance so I am sure this is their first day. Small groups of 3 and 5 were flying in even as I watched, including my small trio, ménage a trois, that nest in the western dune overlooking the ocean. I think it is a pair and each year a surviving baby from the previous summer. One had a tinge on rusty brown on his back. All three were preening and displaying, no sign of flight exhaustion---and by the end of my hour's walk, the two "adults" had shooed away the third little guy. He looked so sad, alone on the shore, eyes peeled for the new flocks arriving, hoping to see his bride!!! Or---oyster dinner?
Great beachcombing too!


Look at my treasures! I love the white pebbles like jelly beans, great in a bowl with a white candle.

And what a find! An 1800s patent medicine bottle. It says: VITAMI...and misspelled or foreign: ISTITUTI???....
It is very worn but recently broken. I know I'll spend the whole summer looking for the rest of it. Bottles like this are very rare!


It's grey, it's windy, a damp chill is in the air.  A storm looms to the east...it's March. And despite all that, I know that Spring is near: No pretty flocks of robins for us...but the oystercatchers have arrived.
{more about my shorebirds in the preceding story!}

enjoy!

love~

              lizzy