| Thursday, May 6, 2021 | | Heavens to Betsy! | Heavens to Betsy!
Before I sat to write this blog, I did a little research on the origins of that expression. It first appeared in print in the mid-1800s, and was used in the context we think of it today, as an expression of astonishment or surprise. It’s the perfect title for this blog, since I have made two treks up to Carova in the past week—and the second trip held several happy surprises, one of which was all about Betsy! But I am getting ahead of my story.
What I hoped for and asked for was a chance to photograph a “frisky foal.” I love to watch the young of any species – universally they seem full of curiosity and joy that adults (especially adults of the human kind) have too-often forgotten. I have photographs of foals on the beach with their mothers or larger family groups, but in every case, they are strolling or resting. I’ve never been there at just the right time to witness their young playfulness—until this past Tuesday.
The week before, Phyllis Kroetsch and I drove up in mid-afternoon, timing our excursion with low tide. The beach was in better shape than the last time I drove it by myself, although more crowded. The sun was warm, and a mild west breeze had brought several harems of horses to the water’s edge—but no little ones.
On Tuesday, Ray Matthews and I went up, getting on the beach around 9:30 in the morning. We tried to count, and think we saw about 30 different horses in all, although it is possible we saw more, since we tried hard not to double count! At one point at least three harems were in close proximity, and there was a wee bit of scuffling on occasion but nothing major. We had not been on the beach long when we saw our first group of adults, and a little ways beyond them we had our first foal encounter. Ray estimated she was about 10 days old and a volunteer with the CWHF we spoke with confirmed her age and told us her name--Bridget. Of special interest to me is that she is a younger sister to Amelia, born this time last year. I photographed Amelia in the second week of May 2020 right before our beaches reopened. I was glad to make a photo showing the mother, Amelia as a yearling, and her new little sister. Bridget is a cutie, sticking close to Mom, with a curly-que tail you will see below.
Continuing our drive north, we spotted a group of horses in the dunes with a foal, and several adults trotted down to the water with the foal trotting alongside. Another couple of adults stayed behind to graze on the dune. I assumed the horse the foal was following was its mother, but shortly after she reached the others, the foal—whom we learned was Betsy—turned tail and raced back across the beach to the dunes. From there, she raced up and then down the dune face. She laid down for a couple minutes, scrambled up, walked up the dune with the horse who turned out to be her mother, and then ran down again – and again ran all by herself across the sand to the water, turned around, ran back. Eventually her mother gave up on grazing and the two ran to the water together. I got my wished-for frisky foal frolicking in abundance, with all that running back and forth, back and forth. All we had to do was stay put at our truck. (For new readers, I have invested in long telephoto lenses in order to make these images from an even greater distance than the law requires.) You will see some of Betsy’s racing form below too.
Tuesday was the ideal day to see horses by the water. We had a west breeze, flies were bothering the horses, and it was warm. Several horses rolled in the sand while we watched, and several others walked out into the water. I’m sure both the salt water and a sand bath helps with the flies.
At one point, someone pointed out a tiny hatchling turtle that turned out to be a land turtle on the beach sand – we made a couple photos to show how tiny it was and the person who found it carried it back to the dunes. I told the story to artist Liz Corsa who guessed it had been dropped by a bird to wind up in such an unlikely spot!
Phyllis and I saw the typical huge spring flocks of both Sanderlings and Terns, and the Sanderlings were still on the beach in large numbers this past Tuesday. I spotted a mature Bald Eagle that flew from well offshore across the beach and over the dune. Several Common Loons were floating offshore as well, and at one point, about a half-dozen Osprey were fishing near where I walked the beach under the harsh noontime sun. One was successful in nabbing lunch but then lost it a minute or so later. Oops!
We rode behind the dunes for a bit in the early afternoon but saw no more foals. On our way back south, I had Ray stop so I could check out what I thought was a beached Loon in dry sand. Sure enough, it was well above the high tide line from earlier in the day. Loons are the best swimmers and divers among all birds – but they cannot get airborne from dry land. They have to run on the water. They cannot even walk well on land, as their legs are set too far back for walking. I rescued a Loon years ago so I knew what to do and happily, Ray had an old towel in his truck he did not mind my borrowing.
First, I knew I needed to gain the Loon’s trust, so it would stay calm in my arms. So I walked up to it slowly and deliberately, talking to it the whole time, and told it my intention. I asked it to trust me, told it I was going to cover it with the towel and carry it to the water. Once I had the towel over the Loon, I scooped it up and kept talking to it. The first time I put it down, the water was still not quite deep enough, so we repeated the whole sequence and I was able to put the bird down where it could paddle. It quickly navigated the shallows, dove under a couple small wavelets (the ocean was calm that day as you will see) and quickly got itself to deeper water, where it rose up and flapped its wings. I was glad to see the wing-flapping. It may have had an injury under one wing (I wasn’t going to investigate but thought I saw something as I walked up), but hopefully it was able to swim and dive and feed itself and fly, once it got back to its proper place. I suspect it might have been hit come dusk/dark as it was right in the travel lane.
Overall, I would say, heavens to Betsy--this was a banner day! Pictures of these latest adventures are below. Enjoy!
|
| | 
click for larger image | Betsy followed this group to the beach -- which included an additional stallion besides her father. |
| | | | | | | |
posted by eturek at 10:17 PM |
Comments [1] |
|
|