Sunday, August 23, 2009




Evolutionary Process

 
Darwin said it best, and I paraphrase: Get on the turnip truck or roll off and be lost.


For reasons that are very clear to me I still prefer the smell and feel of a finely crafted coffee table book, its pages creaking with delight as if beckoning the explorer to slow down and enjoy. I’ve only placed my nose up to a monitor once to get a whiff of a new e-book, and that on an older CRT screen. The sound that evolved was me cursing and swearing as I got a zap of static electricity through my right nostril that fully embedded within the grey matter. The result was fatal and lasting – it would seem I have climbed aboard the turnip truck.

And so, with this first post I certainly want to make it clear that it will not be my intent to offer words of philosophical wisdom and meanderings as I believe we often take life too seriously. We should loosen up and smell the daisy’s from the topside, there will be far too much time to lament and correct the woes of the world when we view that same daisy from the bottom side.

Hopefully, as this blog evolves, I will be able to share my photographic experiences and locations with you.

First up is the annual aerial ballet that occurs every late summer, usually peaking around 20-25 August along the mud encrusted shorelines of the Bay of Fundy. Although several species of shorebirds will be intermixed, the star attraction is the semipalmated sandpiper that will appear on the horizon in a long defensive formation that dances, twists and turns it way across the sky as only a gymnast can make a length of ribbon come to life.

By the thousands, and indeed tens-of-thousands, they will gravitate to the receding Fundy tide and newly exposed shoreline to feed on the resident mud shrimp in preparation for their 4000 kilometre nonstop flight over open water to South America.

Key locations to observe and photograph this incredible natural attraction are Mary’s Point and Cape Dorchester in New Brunswick, and Evangeline Beach in Nova Scotia.


Now that I have shared these locations with you I have but several requests: Stay off the beach itself so the birds will land (feeding is crucial for their survival), don’t leave any garbage behind, and enjoy one of the most enjoyable and naturally natural displays to be found in eastern Canada.

2 comments:

  1. Your prose is lovely; I can't wait to see how your blog evolves! - Nikki

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  2. Dale, glad to see that you've joined the blogosphere! Love that motion blur of the birds!
    cheers,

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