Shore Birds

We are at Acadia National Park, on one of our favorite hikes, Wonderland.  This is an oceanfront beach that is all rock.  There are giant slabs of granite, piles of split stone and the best part: a cobble beach.  This beach is paved entirely in rounded stones, and fills a cove, with new stones pushing the older stones higher and higher up the hill. It’s tricky to navigate, but that is part of the fun.

We always make a trip to this spot when we visit Acadia.  I have a dream of placing a metal house here, and filling it with round stones as a temporary installation. After I  finish planning out my proposal for Artist in Residence, (which maybe someday I will get, you never know),  I head back towards the more square and rectangle part of the beach, close to the woodland trail that leads to the beach from the road. I spy some giant thistle flowers, deep purple and crawling with bees.  

 Emerging from the woods are three elderly people, outfitted with long hiking poles.They cautiously peer out onto the beach.  They look like three skittish sandpipers, or maybe the slower Willet . “They look so fragile”, is my thought as I turn back to photograph the flowers.

In my peripheral vision, I see the trio venture out onto the uneven rocks. One of the women topples backwards in slow motion. “Oh, Oh”  she cries out. She lands sitting, cradled within the big rectangular stones, like she is in a recliner. “I’m all right”.  She pats the large triangular stone that she is leaning against, as if she might like to stay and examine the rocks up close. Meanwhile her fellow shorebirds  flutter their wings, helpless to assist.

Though not together, two nearby women, rise in unison to offer help. “I’m fine, I just need to figure out how to get up”. She considers it. “I can’t get on my knees…”    The two women wordlessly walk over, each placing a hand under the fallen woman’s shoulders, lifting her up to standing like she weighs nothing at all.

“Oh. Oh, my” She exclaims, and tests her feet on the rocky ground, in wonder that it was so simple, while the two helpful women return to their groups. 

This all happens in a few minutes, but I keep picturing the three hikers peering out onto the treacherous landscape armed with long, thin hiking poles that will be of no assistance to them at all.

Sketchbook drawings from beach trips. I love trying to figure out how to capture the shore birds.