Stillness of the night

Crane Neck is once again looking like a green finger sticking out into the bay and I was thinking how funny it is that trees do the exact opposite of what we humans do. We are shedding our coats now and want to wear as little as possible, while the trees are full and covered up. In the winter, we put on our puffy coats and the trees stand there naked and shivering. Last night the sunset cast a pink hue on the water and fish were literally jumping out of the water. This was followed by humid and oppressive air that moved in at night giving the Smithtown Bay the look of one of those lakes in a horror movie where all of a sudden hand comes up or the Loch Ness monster makes an appearance. Of course I won't have my camera when that happens.

Romance in the air

Now starts my yearly obsession with Limulus! The horse shoe crab! Who doesn't love them? I just love their consistency and their story of survival over millions of years. I just knew that even if the world HAD ENDED last night, they would have still been scooting around out there in the bay. This is the first mating that I have spotted this season. For the sake of privacy, I will not identify the horse shoe crabs in the photo.

In other Smithtown Bay news, barn swallows have been flitting around down at the water’s edge. Perhaps there is a shortage of barns? I have never seen them there before. I also spotted two oyster catchers (it’s a bird, not a person) last week. I have seen photos of them before but never the real thing. They are extremely shy and I wasn’t able to photograph them but keep an eye out for a little bird with long legs and an orange bill.

Remember the plastic wagon wheels that appeared on our beaches? I wrote a stern letter to the sewage treatment plant in Mamaroneck responsible for releasing them and called for some help with picking them up from our shoreline. Included with my letter were hundreds of the plastic wagon wheels that I have picked on the beach over the past few months. I like to picture the plant manager opening the package and all the wheels spilling out all over his desk.

Wagon wheels and seaweed

I was down at the beach this morning and I have this to report. Stiff wind from the West; hundreds more of the wagon wheels washing up AGAIN and I am NOT HAPPY about that. There is also a lot of my favorite seaweed on the shore. You know the kind that you can POP? I include some photos. I am sure that the windsurfers or kite-surf-board people will be out today, too.

Bird's eye view

I was down at the beach today observing a large flock of those beautiful ducks that I can't properly identify. They are black, white, gray and have nice markings. I was watching them as they took off, all flustered and in a terrible rush. Did you ever notice how when ducks fly them seem so stressed out and nervous? Like someone is always chasing them. I can just imagine what they are are all saying to each other. "AAH! I think I saw something move! Let's go! Go! Hurry!" They are totally the nervous Nellies of the water. If the beach were an office setting, the ducks would be the guys who wear bow ties and suits to the office EVERYDAY. They would always be worrying that something was going to go wrong, or be late, or that there would be traffic on the way home. The seagulls on the other hand would be the office mate who dressed like it was casual Friday everyday. They would probably light up a joint at work if they could. They would be the office mate who says "Don't worry. We'll finish it on time. But first let's go out to lunch. I'm starving." The gulls take so much more joy in life! And they still work hard and get the job done. They just have fun doing it.