Priscilla's World | A Memory from the Beach
A Memory from the Beach

A late afternoon splash of rain chases the humans away. By the time I walk the beach after dinner the birds have returned and people have vanished. This is what I consider a perfect beach.evening waves

When I think about global warming I ponder how long these slivers of island off the mainland will last. I stop and take a picture of the wide stretch of beach between the water and the rise of the dune. I am grateful that it is one of the widest beaches along the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

width of beachA couple of pictures from the rise of the dune toward my house provide comfort when I calculate the distance.

distance from dune

Flocks of some of my favorite birds have the beach mostly to themselves. Gulls, mostly the great black-backed gull – terns, mostly royal terns – willets and sanderlings. A few brown pelicans flying by.

I don’t see any this evening, but I have watched small groups of gannets flying over the ocean close to land, but never (or rarely) over it.

Avon pierA number of years ago we could count on seeing a few whimbrels, but I haven’t seen any for several years. The Sibley Bird Book says that whimbrels are a very rare visitor to the Atlantic coast. Their long downcurved bills are so distinctive which helped me know them. And I must have been just lucky to see them.

The Avon pier looks lonely in the distance.