SCENES FROM THE BEACH | by George Thatcher / MARCH 6, 2015

For shorebirds, winter is a cruel season, because of the lack of food. In warmer months, tides and currents bring to our shore a veritable daily smorgasbord. On this chilly day, high tide is at midafternoon. Although gulls assembled for the event, they found little edible. Soon they flew away toward a tourist on the seawall, who was feeding shorebirds bits of a loaf of bread. Trying to count the birds in flight all vying for bread, we lost count at 55; nearly all were gulls. -- Diary, winter 2015

From the diary of beach walker George Thatcher / Email: fishcrow@aol.com

Collections of Mr. Thatcher's observations are available from Quail Ridge Press (www.quailridge.com or 1-800-343-1583).

This story was originally published March 5, 2016 at 6:57 PM with the headline "SCENES FROM THE BEACH | by George Thatcher / MARCH 6, 2015 ."