Hanging by a root

It is a small point of land projecting into Malpeque Bay on the north shore of Prince Edward Island. 

This day park has a lovely beach and picnic area which we visit every summer. The effects of erosion are obvious along the coastline in the park where trees hang by their roots over the bank.

My husband and I walked along the shoreline and observed the trees and other vegetation in their eroded state. They hold on to life as long as possible.

The red sandstone, once exposed, is eroded by the wave action. Sharp edges are soon made smooth as exposed pieces of sandstone litter the beach.

In some areas, the exposed soil contains shells. One wonders how long they have been caught in the soil.

Closer to the water’s edge, several species of birds are busy feeding. Least Sandpipers are small birds which can be easily missed along the shoreline if one doesn’t stop and watch for movement.

The Semipalmated Plovers are easier to identify but blend in so well too.

A larger bird, a Willet, likes this area and we see them here every year.

The picnic table above the beach gets a bit closer to the edge every year. For now, there is space to move it.

When we compare an area of shoreline from 2017 to 2022, one can see how much the bank and sandstone have eroded.

                                                                                     2017

                                                                                     2022

This park will disappear eventually, a victim of the changing climate. We will enjoy it as long as possible.

Lunch with friends

Treatment is going well. My friend has cancer and has had surgery, chemotherapy and now immunotherapy. Stage 4 cancer doesn’t leave you much hope but compared to a year ago, she has more energy and is embracing life. After her latest treatment, we headed to a nearby park for a picnic and time on the beach.

The Belmont Day Use Park is on the north shore of Prince Edward Island. A tiny triangle of grass covered red earth on a sandstone ledge overlooking the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the park has the essentials, plus trees to provide shade and a beach, perfect for a few hours in nature.

It was hot and humid but the island breeze made it bearable, as usual. We sat facing the empty beach and talked of the last year, about life and death and embracing the moments when all feels right.

After lunch we walked the beach and noticed how erosion, the ever present force of nature and threat, has felled great trees and threatened others. 

Further along, the sandstone ledge dominates the landscape and the sand gives way to rock and seaweed. We sat and talked as tiny fish, Silversides, leapt from the water and swam past in schools, as we watched from a sandstone bench.

We ventured further around the point and noticed a bird busy along the shoreline.

We thought it was catching Silversides. It looked like a Willet but on the two occasions I had seen Willets previously, they were in salt marshes. That wasn’t the case here.

We sat on some sandstone and watched the bird, later confirmed a Willet, mere metres away. I thought it would fly off as we settled there. However it must have found the eating too good and ignored us. We discovered as we watched, it was crabbing, 

not fishing.

I took many photos as the bird posed but ignored us as it stealthily approached its prey. We watched for an hour and chatted, soaking up the atmosphere along the Gulf, sat atop the red sandstone with the bird below us along the shoreline, busy eating its fill.

The sun and the breeze were perfect. The bird was quiet but I heard another Willet in the area, knowing their sounds from previous encounters.

Cares and worries fell away as we sat there engrossed in this bird crabbing and enjoying its lunch as we had enjoyed ours. You can’t beat lunch with friends.

Birds around the estuary

Slowly, over the last several years, a love of birds, their appearance and behaviour, crept up on me and seeped into my bones. My husband supports my interest in every way possible. Everywhere we go these days, we watch and listen for the birds in that area. Sometimes I recognize the birds by sight and/or sound, other times, I need the reference book or a website check at home for identification. Usually, the camera is nearby for photos.

Recently, we visited our family at a beach house on the estuary of the Hillsborough River near Charlottetown, the capital of Prince Edward Island. 

We spent the day on the beach with the kids and enjoyed every minute. Some of our time was spent birdwatching with the family.

Bird listening is a better description when it comes to the Common Terns. 

The birds probably nest in the area and their in-flight acrobatics in the sky around the house and their voices were hard to ignore. In one area of the beach, they were loud and looked to be distracting us with aerial antics above our heads. I didn’t get any photos but their behaviour was amazing to watch.

One of the shorebirds, I later identified as a Willet, appeared to be nesting in the same area. We could hear noise among the grasses in the marsh and the bird put on a display a short distance from the noise. 

This bird stood on the beach and chirped its loudest as we approached and walked by. When we passed, it took to the air, the beautiful markings on its wings were easy to see but hard to photograph.

From our beach chairs, we observed the Willet and several terns being noisy and aggressive towards a Bald Eagle.

The birds flew towards the eagle, veering off at the last second. The eagle stayed around for a few minutes then flew to the trees a distance away. The smaller birds saw the eagle for the predator it was.

In the water, a flock of eleven Great Blue Herons caught our attention as well.

As the tide rose, the bird moved from one position to another, to shallow water. Eventually they flew off together. 

Watching the birds with family and sharing an interest with them was fun.

Unspoiled

In the Evangeline region of Prince Edward Island, my husband and I had a picnic in the shadow of the cemetery in Egmont Bay, a peaceful area overlooking the ocean. 

 

Afterwards, we walked the beach as we usually do, combining a walk with a new area to explore. We were not disappointed.

There are a few homes and cottages built back from the shoreline. As we walked east along the shore however, we approached an area without homes and cottages. There was an estuary where the Jacques River flows into an inlet of the Northumberland Strait. It was wild and unspoiled.

 

Spotted sandpipers were busy along the shoreline but scurried ahead of us down the beach. 

 

Ring-billed gulls stood in the receding tide as unidentified small fish came to the surface of the water nearby. The gulls munched on some of them as we watched.

 

A pair of osprey nested in the forest beyond the beach, alternately circling overhead and perching in the trees.

 

Along the shoreline, a willet, a large shorebird, had its mottled brown plumage, which announced it was breeding season.

 

A beaver pond, positioned between the beach and the forest was an interesting discovery when we looked over the bank. Again, the beavers were elusive.

 

Along the beach, at the mouth of the estuary, raccoon tracks elicited images of marauding raccoons at sunset, ready to snatch anything they encounter.

 

We paused along that shoreline to absorb the wilderness feel of the place.