Afternoon Fun

Well, we didn't quite make it into the water this afternoon, but we did make it to the edge of the ocean. It was almost low tide after our short walk down to the shore at the Skofield Preserve, a quiet piece of preserved land right on the Brunswick/Harpswell border, and the water was inaccessible. Too many mud flats. Still, there was a lovely breeze, bright blue skies and there was plenty of rocky shoreline to walk along, the ledges and packed clay covered in many sections with thousands upon thousands of broken clam and mussel shells.

"Look, Mama, a pretty shell!"

Along the shores

Exploring (Look at all those shells!)

Taking a break on the rocks

There were a few tidal pools to explore, one with a school of teeny tiny fish flitting about, another filled with mud-covered periwinkles and not much else, and one with periwinkles and two baby horseshoe crabs - probably 1 1/2 inches wide! Very cool. Ryan and I were enthralled, while Sam, well, she was more interested in picking up "pretty" shells, meaning fragment upon fragment of clam shells :-)

Baby horseshoe crab, and many periwinkles too!

We watched the seagulls fly up and drop clam shells on the rocks, saw a Great Blue Heron fly low along the water and settle in with the seagulls to look for a meal, and even an eagle, a juvenile, I'd think, by its coloring, at the water's edge, finally chased away by noisy, raucous seagulls who didn't want the eagle vying for the same meal :-)

We spent quite a while enjoying this little slice of paradise, marveling at the fact that we had it all to ourselves. Pretty much perfect. Well, perfect, at least, after we stopped to cool down with gelato on the way home :-)

Picture perfect view