A Bird in the Hand is Worth Two on the Beach
We are not alone.
This is not a post about aliens, or ghosts, or those things that go bump in the night.
No, this post is for the birds.
Literally, its about birds.
Spent the last few days of last week down the shore in Belmar, New Jersey. Most days were spent on the beach, and in the ocean. During the day, when the beach is crowded, there are seagulls, but they are not the main focus. The fly above, land down by the water, and basically stay out of everyone’s way.
But, as the sun descends the sky, that dynamic changes.
Next to last day at the shore, eight of us head toward the beach, later in the day than usual, nearly four o’clock. Beach chairs in semi-circle, blankets on the sand, we had a great view of the groups that sat around us. As the areas once filled with beach goers empty, they were replaced by seagulls.
These birds are smart, they know humans leave food behind when they exit.
Although, sometimes they don’t wait until the humans actually leave.
From our view, we watch seagulls land near and around chairs, bags, and blankets abandoned as their owners walked down to the ocean. We watched as the seagulls staked out the area, then slowly moved forward, looked amongst the belongings, found their treasure, then dragged it across the sand, back peddling the entire time.
As the near-by guard, I felt compelled to stand from my beach chair and ‘shushed’ the thief away. Before I could get back to my chair, the bird returned and replayed the theft. This went on for a while, then I realized he was a decoy as another bird attacked the bag from the left.
It was a coordinated assault.
Then, to our right, an unprotected bag of potato chips was easy pickings as it was dragged to a secluded area of the beach and quickly beaked open the goods. Not sure how they knew, but within seconds birds from all directions focused in on the bounty, and a melee ensued.
As this occurred, an Osprey grabbed a fish from the ocean and flew over head. It was then my sister pointed and said, “Oh, look, fish-n-chips”.
The day grew shorter and it didn’t take long before the birds out numbered the patrons on the beach.
Side note, during these bird encounters, a woman in a prom dress posed for pictures on the jetty. Has nothing to do with the birds, but seemed out of place.
Back to the birds.
As their numbers increased, so did their attitude. One bird flew so low over my nephew’s fiance’s head he could have stolen her hat.
The situation wasn’t helped as my sister’s boyfriend periodically tossed pieces of trail mix to see if the birds could find them (they could – and they brought friends).
Dispersed within the groupings were sprinkled a few pigeons (cousins visiting from New York, perhaps?)
Also, a one-legged pigeon landed near us, and did a great job of holding-her-own as they scavenged for food (we dubbed her Eileen).
Finally, our day at the beach came to a close, so we gathered our belongings. We then Tippi Hedrened our way through the birds who eyed our exit with an implied skepticism. I pictured them later that evening, with heads tucked under wings before going to sleep, who then recapped their day:
“Did you see when that big guy tried to shush Tony away from the chair? But then Millie swooped in and stole those chips anyway...
...humans – they are so cute sometimes.”
