March 1: Captivated on Captiva

This afternoon Paul wanted to do some fishing, and a local fly-fishing guide recommended the beach on the Sanibel side of the bridge to Captiva. So while he froze his feet in the surf and caught nothing, I beachcombed on one of Florida's best shell beaches, then literally sat in the warm sand just a few yards away from resting groups of terns, gulls, and shorebirds. I couldn't stop snapping photos. The water was a brilliant turquoise, my feet were bare for the first time since last summer, and I got some great practice at identifying shorebirds as mixed flocks of willets, dunlins, knots, sanderlings, and Western sandpipers surrounded me. A Western sandpiper decided to curl up right next to me for a while, and later, while sorting through heaps of shells, turnstones practically walked over my hands while they too picked over the shells to find tiny crustaceans hiding underneath. Just before we left, a dolphin swam parallel to the beach, right past a guy on a boogie board. I think these few hours on the palm-lined beach were the most relaxed and happy I've been in months.

Here with sand, birds, shells,
roaring surf, passing dolphin,
I find perfect calm.