Journal of a Sabbatical |
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May 31, 2001 |
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Today's
Bird Sightings: Today's Reading: Unbeaten Tracks in Japan by Isabella Bird Today's Starting Pitcher: Hideo Nomo Plum Island Bird List for 2001 Plum Island Life List |
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The wind is still blowing like crazy.
Rick at the gatehouse and Ernie the guy I relieved both say
I'll be sandblasted at Sandy Point. Boy are they ever right!
The dry sand from the dunes is swirling over the beach and
accumulating in mini-dunes around the rocks. My mouth is
full of sand already. I learn quickly that it is foolish to
try to keep my hat on, so I stuff it in my pack and put the
little plover warden badge on my jacket. The report forms
almost blow away so I stuff the clipboard in the pack. I'm
afraid my chair will blow away if I stand up so I hang the
pack over the back of it and I have two visitors right away, an elderly couple who want to know if I've seen a piping plover today. Nope, not yet. I point out the small group of black-bellied plovers hanging around at the water's edge. They're satisfied with that, then check out the swallows nesting in the cliff, and head back to their car 'cause they're cold. Yup, this wind will penetrate just about any form of clothing. The sand too. I can feel it going right through my jeans. After the elderly couple leaves, I have the beach to myself for awhile and go check out the swallows. Of course they move too fast for me to identify them and with sand swirling around and all the vegetation on the point moving, it's pretty hard to focus in on the swallows. I look to see if the little patch of
yellow flag is in bloom yet. It's just starting to open and
like everything else was moving too fast to photograph. What
A writer who wants to interview me about plover wardening (would the verb for that be warding?) arrives and we talk. I love to talk about piping plovers, my favorite bird (well maybe second favorite to the bufflehead - but buffleheads are only here in the winter and piping plovers are only here in the summer so I guess I can have two favorites). So do I talk a blue streak about the piping plover? Well I started out with tales of the parallel run display, aerial mating display, and feeding behavior but soon ended up on mindfulness, enlightenment, the kids, cats, elders, and Dubya's weird press conference at Sequoia National Park. Must be the wind.
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Copyright © 2001, Janet I. Egan |