Albany Bulb

I’ve been too busy recently to catch up on my procrastination. So while the end result is the same (novel remains unedited), I feel slightly more virtuous.

Like today. Woke up early, made bourbon balls, took the dog to the beach, went shopping at Goodwill, Target, jewelry store, and Comic Relief, wielded hot-glue gun to finish a birthday present, delivered said present at b-day party for a wonderful almost-cougar, came home to celebrate christmas with sisters, then capped off the day working on an almost-due report to a foundation for work. All done without losing a drop of holiday cheer.

All that has no bearing on what I wanted to share. I just wanted to brag.

At the beach this morning, Boonie and I decided to make the Big Loop, and circle around the lagoon at the end of the Bulb. Halfway there, while I was slipping on barnacled half-submerged rocks, she took off like a shot after a pair of these:

They let out a shrill scream the likes of which I’ve never heard, and, thankfully, Boonie listened to me when I told her to leave it. I’d never seen these guys before, and on my way out, I stopped at the bird watching station where a pair of finely aged women were peeking through cameras with gigantic lenses. They were delighted to help, and showed me the page in their well-worn guidebook that identified Boonie’s prey as Black Oyster Catchers.

Those birds aren’t endangered, but they’re not exactly thick on the ground either, and the little old ladies were super excited for me, that I got to see them. They were just disappointed they couldn’t make the hike out to the lagoon themselves, but they felt sure that their next stop for the day, a pier a little further down the shoreline, would also the the next stop of the Oyster Catchers. These ladies must have been 82 if if they were a day, and they had a full day of accessible bird-viewing planned out.

I kinda loved them. Even though I was interrupting their viewing with a silly, “Hey, you like birds? I just saw a bird!” question, they had huge grins on their faces the whole time we were talking, and seemed absolutely thrilled to be able to help me pinpoint the answer. I’m not sure why I felt comfortable walking up to them with my stupid question. Sometimes you can just tell kindred spirits, I guess.