WILDLIFE ALONG SPRING BEACHES

      Anyone sitting on a beach or a house deck by a beach along the Atlantic Ocean coastline from Georgia to New Jersey in April is likely to see flocks of laughing gulls, brown pelicans and double-crested cormorants winging over those beaches and ocean breakers sliding up the beaches.  Those people might also spot pods of bottle-nosed dolphins surfacing briefly for air just beyond the breakers, little groups of sanderlings, which are a kind of sandpiper, running up and down before wavelets on the beaches.  And those persons might notice an osprey or a few common terns fishing over the ocean.  All those seacoast creatures add more beauty and intrigue to the Atlantic shoreline in spring.

     Attractive and graceful in the air, laughing gulls are the icons of the Atlantic coast in summer.  They are the omnipresent, black-headed gulls that almost constantly call loudly, like people laughing. 

     Laughing gulls nest on the ground in salt marshes and scavenge any food everywhere along shores, including popcorn on boardwalks and beaches.  These gulls are entertaining to watch catching popcorn and other foods in their beaks in mid-air. 

     Migrating north in April, stately brown pelicans, in varying-sized lines, like squadrons of planes or the cars of trains, sweep low over beaches, breakers and house decks.  Rising, then dipping in line like roller-coaster cars, pelican flocks are thrilling to see close-up, each pompous-looking bird alternately flapping and soaring gracefully in unison with others of their groups, as if each gang is a single individual.  But most of all, the majestic pelicans, in stately, airborne lines, remind me of awe-inspiring, aerial ballets.

     But the pelicans' diving beak-first into the ocean to catch fish in their pouches is their most thrilling activity to witness.  Each bird climbs about 60 feet into the sky over the ocean.  When it spots fish, it dives to the water, folds its wings back at the last second, splashes into the ocean and snares its victim in its pouch.  Then the pelican squeezes the water from its pouch and swallows its prey.

     Lucky are the people who spot groups of bottle-nosed dolphins that rise briefly just beyond the breakers to get air.  These ocean mammals, too, are going north in April, eating fish along the way.

     Cute, little sanderlings resemble wind-up toys when running after spent, foaming wavelets sliding down sandy beaches.  Their black legs are a blur of motion as they race after those retreating wavelets to pick up and consume aquatic invertebrates.  These sandpipers are comical, and entertaining.

     Ospreys are fish-eating hawks that migrate north in April.  Some of them raise young in trees or human-erected platforms along channels in salt marshes and catch fish in the ocean, just beyond the breakers, and in back-water channels, harbors and bays.

     When hunting fish, ospreys float and hover into the wind on high and watch the water for victims near the surface.  When prey is spotted, each fish hawk dives head-first, but enters the water feet-first, with a splash.  Its eight sharp talons grip the victim.  Though ospreys' dives to catch a meal are not always successful, the birds themselves are always entertaining to watch hunting. 

     Common terns hover gracefully into the wind to watch for small fish at the waters' surfaces.  When prey is spotted, each entertaining tern abruptly dives beak-first into the water to grab its intended victim in its bill.                  

     All these ocean shoreline critters are attractive, and intriguing to experience along ocean beaches in spring.  They are physically adapted to their lifestyles and, therefore, entertaining to us in esthetic, inspiring ways.  They help make trips to the seacoast more enjoyable.