Explorations

semiahmoooystercatchers

Our life here at the corner of the continental United States is filled with moments when we are aware that we have made a big move after a quarter of a century in the Black Hills of South Dakota. We loved our home and our life in South Dakota and left only upon our retirement to be closer to family and also to open up space for new leadership in the congregation we had served. It isn’t quite like Dorothy and Toto in OZ, but with a slight variation, there are frequent times when we say to one another, “I don’t believe we’re in Rapid City any longer.”

Yesterday we were watching black oystercatchers feed along the shore of the Semiahmoo Spit as we took our daily walk. There are plenty of birds that are new to us in this place and a few that we recognize from our home in the middle of the continent. We love seeing Bald Eagles and Great Blue Herons out her as much as we did when we lived in South Dakota. There are varieties of ducks on the waters around here that are similar to the ones we would see on the lakes of the Black Hills. The shorebirds, however, are quite different from the birds we knew in our former home. Among the strangest to us are the black oystercatchers. The birds are mostly black, with yellow eyes and a long orange beak. Once you have identified the birds, usually by their beaks, you begin to notice that their calls sound different from other birds as well. If you see a group of them together, you might imagine that they are telling jokes and responding with raucous laughter. Or, with a bit of imagination and a fresh reading of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, you might imagine them to be witches calling over their cauldron.

The main habitat for the oystercatchers is the intertidal zone, where the rising and falling tide exposes rocks covered in algae and seaweed and a wide range of animals, from crabs to sea stars. Seagulls like to look for food in the same space and they often focus on larger animals such as crabs and clams. Oystercatchers prefer smaller animals, but eat a wide variety of creatures that they can find including mussels, shore crabs, chitons, sea urchins, and whelks. One of their most consumed foods are limpets, snail-like creatures that have a muscular foot that holds them to the rocks and allows them to move around. The oystercatchers use their long beaks to dislodge the limpets and roll them over so they can get at the flesh underneath the shell.

Here is a fascinating thing about the oystercatchers: their beaks change shape over the course of their lives depending on what they are eating. Imagine being served in a seafood restaurant. You’ll get different utensils for cracking crab than you get for opening and consuming mussels and clams. The oystercatchers’ beaks change with their diets to give them what they need. You might expect this change to take a long time as a slow process of evolution, but that isn’t the case. The reason we see different shapes of beaks on birds in the same area is that they can change the shape of their beaks very quickly. Oystercatcher beaks grow very fast, up to an inch or more in a week. That’s well over four times as fast as our fingernails grow. The birds’ beaks are worn down through the process of obtaining food, often covered in shells, from among rocks. The growing beak shapes itself to the task at hand. The beak grows at night as the birds sleep and shapes itself to the food that has been consumed. Beaks can be used to stab or to hammer.

Unlike many other birds, oystercatchers take a long time to learn how to feed themselves. Hatchlings stay with parents and are fed by them for as long as four months, meaning that some of the birds we are seeing in December are still partially dependent upon their parents to help them learn how to find and obtain food. This time of the year it is common for several families to gather together, so if we see a few birds along the shore, we are likely to see others soon. The high-pitched shrieks and cackles are part of the process of communication between the birds.

birchbaysunsetagain
Like other places, we encounter fewer or more people on our walks depending on the weather. The birds are out in all kinds of weather. They need to feed constantly in order to survive. But people tend to stay indoors when it is cold or rainy. We get our share of blustery days around here with wind and rain. But there are also days with clear skies, though these days clear skies often mean colder temperatures. The last couple of days have been bright and sunny and we have had the luxury of taking our walks without raincoats, but we’ve needed hats and scarves and gloves to stay warm. The short days mean that we sometimes are treated to a beautiful sunset over the water in the late afternoon. The beautiful sunsets and the beginning of Christmas vacation have meant that we have encountered more people out to take a look. Some are walking along the shore. Others bring out lawn chairs to sit and watch the unfolding beauty of sky and sea. Dog walkers, like us, are out in all kinds of weather. We notice that there are days when the dogs seem to be having a better time than their human companions and when the sunset is particularly beautiful, the humans tend to move slower and look more often, sometimes confusing their canine walking partners.

Whether we are walking in the pine forests of the Black Hills or along the shore of the Pacific Ocean, we always find a lot to see and enjoy. Our lives are filled with gratitude for the health to walk and eyes to see. These days are filled with lots of new discoveries for us and plenty for which to give thanks.

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