It’s taken me nearly until the end of September to post about the unexpected album of the summer – at least my summer. Maybe it’ll become the album of your autumn?

These short spaces between seasons – like the edges of watercolour paint bleeding into one another – increasingly catch my attention and imagination. Summer, fall, winter, spring: we hold these words so close, templates we can stamp over periods of time. But like everything in the real world, there is no clear border between anything. Perhaps the idea of (and desire for) borders is one of the defining ideas of our primate brains?

As you’ve noticed, without my gulls to check-up on my posting here is becoming more sporadic. So… let’s catch up.

Ring-billed Gull

Now that my nest monitoring has come to a close, I’m spending my Sundays at Jericho Beach Park. Yesterday I encountered a group of three Western Sandpipers (Calidris mauri) foraging on some rocks as the tide retreated. They didn’t pay me much mind and I was able to inch quite close to get some good photos of these fascinating and oh-so-tiny shorebirds.

Western Sandpipers

A close-up portrait showing the often distinctive rich chestnut colouration in their mantle.

Nearly all the nests are empty now, and this is likely the final post for the 2024 nesting season. It’s been just over two months since I spotted the first chicks of the year at Culinary Nest on June 23rd. I can’t help thinking back to something I read in Robert MacFarlane’s introduction to The Peregrine:

This is a book which sets the imagination aloft, and keeps it there for months and years afterwards.

Having witnessed these chicks grow and take wing, some part of me has flown away with them. Like continents moving at a geological time scale, every year brings the abyss between their world and mine a few millimeters closer. When I see them soaring in the winds above False Creek, I cannot help but stand and stare.

I’ve only got a few nests left to report on, so I spent more time than usual watching adult gulls.

Pyramid Nest

I was a surprised to see both fledglings resting close to their nest. Both started begging as a parent landed at the nest site.