Oyster Lovers

We are having some of our first daylight minus tides of the year. We love to go out and walk the shoreline, take a good look around. We planned on walking to a new beach on Monday, a place where a lot of broken glass has been tumbled smooth by the water and sand. It's a five or six mile roundtrip. A nice beach hike, or would have been on a nice beach day. It was sunny and bright, but the wind whipped in off the Straits of Juan de Fuca. It pushed back at us as we trudged toward our destination. After about three-quarters of a mile, we gave up, turned around to set the wind at our backs, and headed to the car. We decided to try a more protected beach at Chetzamoka Park. A great place for a minus tide walk, where the pirate had found some fine oysters last year.

While we drive between destinations, our car radio is tuned to Progressive Talk Radio. In the morning we hear Air America's Thom Hartmann (what an incredibly interesting and erudite guy), and in the afternoons we get Big Eddie. Ed Schultz is not Air America, and don't you forget it. If the left has a forceful answer to Rush Limbaugh it must be Ed Schultz. When we listen to Ed we get to hear the insane arguments the right proffers, because unsuspecting rightys call in and try to out-argue him. Today we heard some guy trying to suggest that spying on Americans was okay because, "Hey, you just know the government isn't spying on you." Oh really? said Big Eddie, while our car filled with the same bemused reaction. I do recall that our government expelled simple dissent from their gatherings, based on tee-shirts and bumperstickers. And besides, unwarranted spying on us is illegal, and I shouldn't have to wonder if somehow I've been caught in their obsessive crosshairs, now should I?

Before we could hear all of Ed's tirade, we reached Chetzamoka Park where the pirate was amply rewarded in oysters for his journey, but he did have some competition for the first time. While he was scouting the oyster beds, I noticed what at first appeared to be a tall crow with some large orange thing in its mouth. When I brought the view finder to my eye, and took a closer look through the telephoto, I saw that the bright orange was actually the bird's bill, and not only that it had a red ring around its eyes and was standing on white legs. What an odd creature, a Black Oystercatcher. It loves mollusks.

We walked on and found a pair of Great Blue Herons. We've always seen herons alone, so we suspected that these two have been struck by Cupid's spring arrow. Everything seems to be pairing up for the compelling lust of spring. It's just the way it is.

After the pirate gathered his fill of oysters, we headed back to the car and turned on the radio. The world came pouring in.