Saturday, July 12: St. Esprit Idyll

They know Cape Breton like the back of their hands, the twins. Today they showed us another of their favourite spots: a beach to rival the Pacific Rim National Park, lacking only the people, an improvement in the opinion of our group. We ambled along the beach for hours, happy to wait as Alan took careful close-up shots of every beach-flower, interesting cloud formation or bit of flotsam that we came across. Bob found a washed-up bait bag and filled it with interesting rocks, including one with imbedded clear quartz shining like a diamond in the sun. I found a mussel shell with coral on the outside and a short string of pearls on the interior. Every time we are out with Bob Nagel, the old songs burst out, so you can imagine the five of us walking down the beach singing “Got no diamonds, got no pearls…” Alan kept proposing games involving throwing beach rocks, then winning every game. Some bird highlights of the day were ten whimbrels on the beach (bachelors or early migrants?), spotting four (two different families) downy young spotted sandpipers, a pair of tree swallows feeding young in a light standard.

-- Jan