Saturday October 6: It is a spectacular fall morning, the sky putting on its bright and bluest face. One of those days when you look south across to Block Island you imagine that Island’s Salt Pond stretches for miles, or that there are actually two islands, and that sandy cliffs are a stone’s throw…all illusion without binoculars.
I try at least a couple times a month to venture along the outer coast of West Harbor, rock hopping precariously when the tides are extremely low.
Today I spy 14 Harbor Seals clumped together on the Big & Little “Clumps” off to the north side towards Noank, CT. The low tide and warm boulders provide a perfect haul-out for the seals to bask on- in their familiar “banana” pose.
King Fishers are abundant this year-chattering while they escort me deeper into West Harbor. There were particularly strong winds this past week so I am curious to see what debris the blankets of eel grass have draped ashore. After an hour or so of surveying the field of old boat remains, buoys, plastic bottles, ropes, beer cans, Bic lighters, deflated birthday balloons, tangled ribbon, fishing line, lures, flip-flops, etc, etc. I decide to go home. So much trash-but alas a treasure……
8:21am:
Stretching from log to rock then to boulders, I must be positioned perfectly because I receive connectivity from my cell phone (I rarely do out in the field) and smile at a beautiful text sent from a loved one in Long Island.
