The brief moment each June when the beach pea blooms in the dune is an annual favorite. It’s not only gorgeous, but there is a haunting bittersweetness to it as well… because it’s as fleeting as this very same short period of the season when everything feels full of hope and possibility. This is the one, brief moment in time when the summer truly isn’t ending, mostly because it hasn’t even really begun.
There was actually another lovely plant down by the river on this special occasion. A vacationing mother and daughter happened to be walking by us, just as the banding was ending, and were curious enough to come over and ask “what kind of bird is that?”
It was a lucky day to visit the park for sure, as they got the rare opportunity to release Dadu back to wild, under Emily’s expert guidance.
Congratulations to Dadu, to Emily, and to Jennifer for the successful banding of another one of our top-shelf piping plovers. We’ve got the all the best birds in Plover Park. Sorry everybody else!
And now I gotta go. This reading makes me want to search the archive and find the top 10 worst of photos of fingernails in Plover Park history.
Don’t forget to get yourself all duded-up nest time you head out to Barnegat Light State Park. You never know what might happen, or whose blog you might wind up featured on.
And Bonus River Trivia (T-river-ia?): This is the time of year where the events cascade so overlapping-ly that I lose total control of the narrative and the ability to keep up with myself. Before I even got to share these photos, Dadu & Bangdoodle hatched their four eggs and are now thriving, having also planted themselves down by the river.
Say something kind