A day at the Beach

Todays Hike-Ku

first one, then hundreds
feasting, resting, summer birds
migration awaits

Since the weather forecast has high temps and hummidity in it for the next several days, Steve and I took advantage of the day and went off to the beach at Crane's. We also had (what is fast becoming) our trusty 60 hikes book with a hike described for the beach, estuary and dunes. We could go to the beach AND knock off one of the sixty in the same day. Good concept. Execution? A little warm.

The hike along the Atlantic side was glorious. Just the right temperature, lowish tide with the sand bars exposed and easy walking. Once we rounded the spit after 3 miles or so, we were out of the ocean breeze on the lee side and it was just . . .hot. . .and then we cut into the dunes trails. Even hotter. And walking up and down soft dune sand was surprisingly difficult. My body is certainly feeling the second half of our 6 mile workout. We earned our swim, and what's more important, actually enjoyed it - I usually do a baptismal dip because no matter how hot I am the water is never warm enough. Today, the water was downright hospitable, August being the only time we can spend more than a few minutes in the icy Atlantic without legs and arms going numb.

The really wonderful moments on the hike, and this relates to the Hike-Ku posted above was seeing all the shorebirds swooping and wheeling over us in the dunes. They were fairly scarce on the beach - it was a fairly populous spot, even the boat in people w,ere there en masse - but once we hit the dunes trail we were in another world entirely. A bird world. Hundreds of birds flying overhead. Steve insists they were piping plovers, but I think they were the little swallows that 'stage' for migration in late summer.

Wouldn't it be great if we had plovers in those numbers? Once nice thing about Crane's is that the trustees of the reservation are also working to preserve some serenity for the birds with a significant part of the beach made a 'no blanket zone' above high tide mark. You can walk through. You just can't plant yourselves there for the afternoon. You know those co-exist bumper stickers - the ones with symbols from many world religions? Can we get one with non humans on it? Plovers? Swallows? Bears? Coyotes? Come on people, move over. Co-exist.