Sea Heather

The shore south of Pretty Marsh was foggy and quiet this morning. It was the kind of atmosphere that amplifies even quiet sounds from across the water, like the voices of a couple kayakers across the bay, and the peeping of the sand pipers poking in the seaweed. Some osprey high overhead were keeping up a persistent, high pitched call and response. Maybe they were watching the patch of fish I could see disturbing the surface of the water, perhaps being harassed from something from below. Clumps of sea heather provided little spots of color amid all the dull greenish brown of the seaweed and algae covered rocks. Got to watch a couple of bald eagles fly across the water, perch in a high pine, and take off again as I approached. A big treat was getting a nice look at the first tern I've seen this summer. The erosion along one spot of the bank revealed what appears to be an old shell midden, and mussel shells washed from the bank had been carried down the shore and were piled in heaps in various sheltered nooks (see extra). The fog gradually progressed from a faint mist to what felt like actual rain, and I was rather damp by the time I got back to the car.