New Gull Arrives with Snow Storm

I declare this first snow storm of 2012 just about perfect.

It was thoughtful enough to come on a Saturday when I do not have to work; it was just enough to be pretty; and I was very content being home.

I am not boasting, but I really am the unofficial guardian of Smithtown Bay because on a day like today, I was down there checking on everything and there was not one other person to be seen. I am never off duty. I just want everyone else to relax and know I am on the job. I let nothing stop me. I slip and slid down the staircase to the beach, leaving my footprints in the new snow.

At least if I fall and kill myself, there will be an obvious path to my body for the police to follow – "There she is. Looks like she slipped and killed herself. What an idiot coming down here in the snow." Once they find out that I was the Guadian of Smithtown Bay and I was just doing my job, then of course they will feel badly.

But despite the danger, here's the Beach Report: Water was calm. No boats out. Not even one knucklehead who thought he should take his boat out on a day like today. Snow storm gently pushing down like a blanket, but life went on down there at the shore. The ducks sat in the water waiting it out.

That afternoon, the gulls were back in business eating their mussels and doing what gulls do. We mostly have herring gulls down here in Smithtown Bay, who have a white head and body and gray wings tipped in black. But today I noticed a new face. A gull with black wings. He was all alone. I believe he was a Great Black-backed gull (which is probably more than you want to know) or maybe a Lesser Black-backed gull. Which wouldn't make him lesser in my eyes.

I always say that I will come back in my next life as a sea gull, and so now I thinking, "Hmmm, black blacked gull is nice...or herring? So many choices!" It probably won't be up to me anyway to make that decision anyway.

The beach rocks caught my eye today, looking almost like an expensive mosaic floor! See photo.