Well, I’m sad to report that I haven’t seen my gull friend with the mangled foot since our encounter on July 10th… I have a strong feeling that he was indeed saying good-bye.
Sunday afternoon a different gull with an injured foot limped over to us to see what food we might offer him. He’s young so he hasn’t learned yet that most humans follow the rules and don’t feed the gulls. While I’m pretty sure our old friend was a herring gull, our new friend is much larger, perhaps a juvenile great black-backed gull.
Of course I was without camera, but I made sure to bring it with me yesterday. The sky was striking. But our new friend wasn’t there.
On Sunday the parking lot had been full of laughing gulls, but yesterday there was only one, and he perched near us, watching us eat. The laughing gulls don’t usually hang out on the white posts. It seems everyone is behaving differently these days!
As we left for home I spotted this bird wading in the nearly dried up salt water pond. Connecticut is in a moderate drought. We have many great egrets but this one was smaller and I wondered if it was a young one. He was too far away to get a decent picture.
Imagine my surprise when I enlarged a few of the pictures and noticed his yellow feet! Pretty sure this identifies him as a snowy egret, which is smaller than the great egret.
Not sure what kind of little shorebird this but he sure looked cute exploring the exposed pond bed. So many appearances in the flow of life…
The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.
~ Alan Watts
(The Wisdom of Insecurity)
Sweet!
Thanks, Jeff!
Yes, maybe your old friend was saying his good-byes and sent a new friend to you. That little shorebird could be a Sanderling, but can’t be quite sure. I just saw your 1975 wedding ‘card’ on the side bar and it made me smile. We also wed in 1975, and my hubby also had a long hair, somehow the picture of the Rodgers is very much like the picture of the Kuuselas 🙂
Wow – I looked up sanderling and the little bird does look just like one! Thanks for the identification, Tiny!
A local photographer recently posted a picture of our great egrets on Facebook and it had bitterns in the background, another kind of shorebird I’ve not seen before. And now I’ve seen on the news that humpback whales have been spotted in Long Island Sound. Perhaps the efforts to clean up the sound are having positive results and are encouraging wildlife to return.
It made me smile to read that your wedding picture is similar to ours. 🙂 And married in the same year, too! Oh how I do miss my husband’s long curly hair… So many changes in 40 years…
These limping gulls must recognize kindness in you! I love the way the shorebirds sprinkle their tracks everywhere! Jane
Thank you, Jane, I’d like to think so! It’s been a delight to see so many new (to me) shorebirds and their tracks in our area in recent years.
I adore watching shorebirds, and studied them often when I lived near the SF Bay. Now, I get to see them thanks to your photos. THANK YOU.
Your very welcome, Pam! 🙂 I’ve grown to love observing shorebirds over the years, too. And now I understand why my parents loved bird-watching so much.
Sad about your seagull disappearing. I wonder what is causing their injuries ? Love sitting by the shore an watching the birds — but it’s sorta hard as I usually have two gallumping dogs with me ! lol
You know, Sybil, I’m wondering the same thing. I assumed the first one was some sort of freak accident but now we have another one. Are they getting caught in fishing nets perhaps? Or is something in the environment causing birth defects?
Well, at least you’re getting exercise while galumphing. 🙂 I’m sitting around stuffing my face while watching the shore birds…
I’m thinking that that little guy could be a plover? Or possibly a juvenile sandpiper? And that egret shod in yellow is most definitely a snowy! The sight of one always cheers Boyfriend and myself considerably.
We haven’t seen that many shore birds this summer and we miss them – hopefully this isn’t a trend.
This is fun, trying to identify shorebirds! At the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website, All About Birds, I compared the pictures of plovers and sandpipers and the picture of a sanderling that Tiny suggested, with my photograph. All so similar, but my bird seems to have the black legs of a sanderling. It wasn’t as small as a sparrow like the sandpiper and it didn’t have the yellow legs of a plover.
I hope to see the snowy egret with his yellow slippers again some day! I can see why sighting one cheers you up. How interesting that you are seeing fewer shorebirds and we are seeing more of them this summer. One wonders what other trends climate change might stir up.