Ganges, Salt Spring Island. BC
It was just before eight this morning and I was sipping my tea and lazily watching out the window of my little cottage. Like most mornings there were dozens of birds on the shore at the bottom of the garden. They were hungrily feasting on whatever it is the tide exposes as it slowly goes out over the course of the day. Many of the birds were pecking at the newly exposed beach while a few were out floating on the water, their heads thrust beneath it. I could see three types of gulls, white ones, the white and grey kind and those big dirty grey monsters, there were also some ducks and of course the swan that comes round every day. Cleverer folks than me could identify the specific types of birds but I haven’t the inclination to Google just now.
The birds are always clearly hungry and intensely focused on what they’re doing but every once in a while something startles the lot of them. A fishing boat leaving the safety of the harbour is the usual culprit. When the birds are startled they fly off seemingly as one, except the swan of course. It just paddles serenely away. I’ve noticed over the past week and a half that a solitary white and grey gull will usually lag behind statue like on the beach when everybody else flies away. Perhaps he’s guarding the feeding grounds til his buddies come back. They always come back, mere moments after flying off they return to resume feeding. By ten they’ve had their fill and the beach is mostly bird free until late afternoon.
It’s not only birds that are coming and going. I was walking down by the entrance to the public dock yesterday. Right next to a warning sign promoting life jacket use stating ‘kids don’t float’ was one proclaiming that living aboard a docked boat was prohibited. This might explain the ever changing number of boats moored at little orange or white buoys floating just outside the protected harbour. With the exception of a couple that have not moved since I arrived in Ganges the dozen or so boats moored within my near horizon change daily without my noticing. The boats are clearly not working boats, many are newer and well kept but there are a surprising number that seem to my less than nautical eye, somewhat well worn. I do wonder how much time is spent in those boats bailing out the sea each day.