harbor

July 21, 2002

Today's Reading
Eye of the Albatross by Carl Safina

This Year's Reading
2002 Book List

I'd have thought this gull was a statue, it sits so still, except that every time another gull comes within 6 feet it lets out the loudest gull scream I've ever heard. I mean this herring gull is louder than a great black back. And all without moving from its perch.

Jamestown harbor is full of boats from all over with all kinds of names. My favorite one is Bob. Who names a boat Bob? And the boats almost all have American flags streaming in the breeze. Big flags. The bigger the flag the more patriotic the boater? Who knows. A launch ferries people back and forth from shore to their moorings, actually it's two launches taking turns. It's not just people coming ashore either. One party lands with two identical golden retrievers wearing matching bandanas as well as matching collars and leads. The entire line waiting at the tiny dockside ice cream parlor exclaims over the matching goldens. Goldens are not small. I'm wondering how big these people's yacht is. Idle thoughts while waiting for ice cream.

A female mallard is shepherding two ducklings through the maze of boats at anchor. One wanders off to the other side of the dock and gets totally lost. The adult quacks loudly and urgently and the duckling freezes where it is, reverses direction, and paddles furiously in the direction of the quacking leaving a tiny V-shaped wake. The mother keeps quacking until she has the duckling safely in sight. The three of them cruise off under the dock and emerge on the other side. The errant one starts to wander off again and the mother goes after it chasing it from behind toward the other duckling her intended direction. The duckling keeps trying to strike out on its own and the mother keeps rounding it up. I imagine this continues long after they're out of sight across the harbor.