A Stretch of Island Foreshore

A constant charging and retreating, leaving behind the soaking sand, is the ever changing of the tide, pushing the sea against the land. And all along the changing shoreline, Pacific Gulls glide on patrol, seeking out the ocean bounties, of washed up departed souls. There’s flotsam and old cuttlebone; driftwood finally makes the shore. Stints and waders chase invertebrate stranded along the sandy floor. And up above high water mark, there is the victims of wild gales. Dead sea grass in drying windrows, meander below sand dunes in trails. New Zealand spinach thrives and spreads. Marram grass has stabilized the dunes, and here and there is native spinifex, among the burrows of communes. These communes arrive in early spring in thousands to the burrows each year, so it becomes a special time, with mutton birds returning here. And constant charging and retreating, leaves behind the soaking sand, in the ever changing of the tide, pushing the sea against the land.