PLOVERS and SANDERLINGS!

Semipalmated plover ©Kim Smith 2015Semipalmated Plover and Sanderling

Last week after presenting my Pollinator Garden program in Orleans and visiting the Nauset lighthouses, the next stopover was to my grandparent’s beach in Dennis, or I should say, the beach where my family summered as our grandparents are no longer living. It was close to sunset and I had the overwhelming wish to watch the sun go down from the same place where we perched atop the bluff and had watched the sunset thousands of times as children. It was more than a little dismaying upon arriving to see my Grandmother’s glorious seaside garden gone, replaced by grass, but even more so, to see that the great stairwell and wild rose-lined path to the beach, once enjoyed by all the neighbors, had been privatized. Despite all that and feeling very melancholy, I had a lovely walk along the shore, watched the spectacular sunset from the cliff’s edge, and came upon a gorgeous mixed flock of shore birds. They stayed awhile resting and feeding in the surf at the high tide line and none-too-shy, allowed for both filming and photographing in the fading rosy light.

Black-bellied Plover ©Kim Smith 2015JPG I believe these are Black-bellied Plovers in their winter plumage. Not only were they standing on one leg, they also run, or hop, along the beach at top speed, on one leg!

Sanderling Dennis Cape Cod ©Kim Smith 2015Sanderling

Dennis MA Cape Cod sunset -2 ©Kim Smith 2015

You can read an excerpt about my Grandmother’s Cape Cod garden in my book Oh Garden of Fresh Possibilities in the chapter titled “My Grandmother’s Gardens.”Plover cape Cod ©kim Smith 2015,Camouflaged!

More Photos HereSanderlings, plover ©Kim Smith 2015
Semipalmated Plover Dennis MA ©Kim Smith 2015,

Dennis MA Cape Cod sunset -3 ©Kim Smith 2015Dennis MA Cape Cod sunset ©Kim Smith 2015xx

1 thought on “PLOVERS and SANDERLINGS!

  1. bettiecart@aol.com

    Thanks as always for yet another wonderful post from you, Kim!

    Bettie

    Sent from my iPhone

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    Reply

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