JulieLeung.com: a life told in tidepools

pictures and stories from the water’s edge

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Missing digital documentation

June 3rd, 2004 · No Comments

This (Wednesday) morning the girls and I shared the beach with a blue heron. We had turned around the corner on the trail and saw the bird wading in the water at low tide, the smooth shape and elongated neck making easy identification. I reached for my camera – and discovered the battery was low, enough for one quick picture without zoom.

heron.jpg

On the beach, we used a net and scope borrowed from the library to capture and view tiny sea creatures. In our sample of water we found a small animal, easily visible to the eye, at least half a centimeter in length, almost transparent, shaped like a shrimp, with big black eyes and arms that swam. We watched it for a while and then gently put it back into the sea, with only our minds to remember it.

Back at home for lunch, as we sat down to eat, I saw first the female pheasant and then the male marching past our window on our lawn. He was majestic in color, bright red, green, with white ring neck, and closer than I had seen him…but as I reached for my camera, I remembered that I didn’t have any battery.

Ah well, all of life was not meant to be stored and kept as digital documents…

Tags: island