A Morning at the Beach

I was able to get over to the Eastern Shore last week, and on Friday my father took us to the beach. We had to leave around 6:00 a.m. because of the tides. The Army Corp of Engineers will no longer dredge the mouth of Parker's Creek where Dad keeps his boat. The creek itself is deep enough, but if you go out or come in on the wrong tide you run a real risk of getting stuck. This is only one of the indignities Parker's Creek has suffered. A Perdue chicken processing plant is at its headwaters, and for years the poultry effluvia found its way into the waters, and it had to be closed to shellfish harvesting. In the past few years, the plant has been cleaning up its act (voluntary or otherwise) to the point where the water quality is the best it has been in years.

The early morning light on the creek was great for photography, and the cool-for-July weather lacked humidity and was uncharacteristically free of biting insects. It made for a perfect morning to take the boat to Metompkin Island.
One of us chose to a different way to get to the beach.
As always, the island was covered with treasures.

The beach is also where the Atlantic gives up her dead.

Although they were having a better day then the Turtle and Terrapin, these Blue Crabs seemed to have been lured into some kind of trap back at the dock.

By lunch, their day did not appear to be improving, but mine could not have been any better.