Crane Beach, Ipswich, Massachusetts
Long legs in a hurry.
I know these walkabout strides.
Sandpipers !!!
Should be on their way to warm places.
But they are still HERE.
Adorning the edges of sandy coasts, with their swift runs against the waves.
It is all about food, this is what we are told.
Why then do I feel that it is this play with the waves that thrills them?
Such a delight to watch...
Crane Beach, Ipswich, Massachusetts
The summer season is officially finished.
And we are here...
Sunny crowds are dispersed over the sand,
sounds of motor driven boats, coloring the sandbars;
and the sails.
They are all here...
Sharing the beach with seagulls and sandpipers.
Aliens with natives...
Gooseberry Island, Westport, Massachusetts
Walking along a windy, rough coast does not spark hopes of seeing anybody.
But they are here.
A sizable group of sandpipers almost invisible among rocky pebbles,
yet illustrious as a singular energy stream when taking off.
Such a delight to see them in the air as a unit
and it amazes me
how they leave their individuality and plunge into synchrony with others. How is it possible?
In his book The Outermost House, Henry Beston asks himself a similar question:
... is there some psychic relation between these creatures?
Does some current flow through them and between them as they fly?
I guess, we may never know...
... For the animal shall not be measured by man.
In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete,
gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained,
living by voices we shall never hear...
Crane Beach, Massachusetts
High tide brings the ocean closer.
Barefoot, stop and wait for the wave to splash my legs.
Then comes another...
and so it goes.
Each one singular in form, sound, and touch,
yet all of them with each other,
swashing through this sandy world in gloriously orchestrated movements,
while Sandpipers take a nap...
Allens Pond Wildlife Sanctuary, Massachusetts
A glimpse of the marshland and cruising Ospreys, makes me sense the ocean.
I know that this path will bring me to the point
where I step on the sand and the ripples come in to splash my boots,
saying in their gentle voices: Stop Here...
Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, Plum Island, Massachusetts
Hidden among rocks, almost invisible... these are Sandpipers,
the shorebirds that summer in Arctic lands and winter in Central America...
Now is the time when they embark upon this long voyage, with a few stops of respite,
and to fatten-up for the rest of the flight of 4,000 km to their winter homes...
... so special to see them here, among these rocks, having a pause...
