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With the astonishingly good weather, everybody and all their cousins were out walking, birding, breading, rollerblading, and whatever today. The two parking lots for access to the East Bay Bike Path along Veteran's Memorial Parkway in East Providence were overflowing. We had the cove to ourselves - well to ourselves and a few zillion waterfowl - for awhile until we were joined by a woman all dressed up in a nice conservative blue and white dress who was on her way home from church. She remarked to us that the Lord had given us a beautiful day. We concurred. The words that came into my head were "This is the day the Lord has made, rejoice and be glad." But I didn't say that aloud.
We soaked up the sun and I started to count the ducks while our new friend told us of how the Lord had found her a house in Riverside (a neighborhood of East Providence). She found a description of it in the Bible (overlooking water, two hills (mounts of olives), etc.) and told her realtor to look for it. The realtor was skeptical. Boy was he surprised when the exact house she described came on the market and her old house sold immediately. Not only that, the price was right. Nancy asked if the realtor had become a believer. She didn't really answer that but told us another story of an even more spectacular miracle - she had cured herself of breast cancer through prayer. We listened with ears wide open. I tremendously respect people with that kind of faith. This woman was straightforward and sincere and absolutely unshakable in her faith. I could see it in her eyes. After our conversation, we said our goodbyes and she got in her car to leave. A few minutes later, she got back out of the car and brought us each a copy of a prayer that she described as "special". At the bottom of the page were spaces to sign and date your acceptance of Jesus Christ as your personal savior.
And now, back to the ducks. As always, lots of 'em. Lots of breaders too after our new friend left. Whole families. Including one family who apparently came to throw rocks together - seriously. They didn't bring bread and they weren't birders. The younger son started to throw rocks at the swans, which he insisted were ducks, and the mother told him not to throw the rocks at the birds. Then she and the rest of the family joined him in throwing rocks into the water. They weren't skimming stones or throwing the rocks at anything, just busily and industriously throwing every stone they could get their hands on into the water. A couple of swans hissed at them and I was afraid one of the swans would attack the little kid, but nothing untoward happened. When they were done stone-throwing, they left.
The list for today:
13 mallards
2 domestic geese
34 mute swans
5 Canada geese (including Igor)
2 mourning doves
a zillion ring-billed gulls
3 common Goldeneye
18 buffleheads
8 American widgeons
1 killdeer
4 red breasted mergansers (2 male-female pairs)
1 common black-headed gull with the full black hood
2 house sparrows
2 starlings
Today was the first time I'd seen a killdeer at the cove. There are sometimes shorebirds at low tide (which this was) mostly the occasional lesser yellowlegs, but it's still kind of early for them.
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