Woke up today to a beautiful sunny day. This past Wednesday I hesitated to go out first thing in the morning sun and ended up missing out on the day's only decent weather. Sooo, pretty much straight from bed, I went out this morning armed with my camera. Below are a few photos I took along the way. It may look nice and cozy, but a fierce, cold wind was blowing. Winter is upon us, I'm afraid. Still a nice walk though, (even though I couldn't breathe for uncomfortably long because the wind was blowing straight up my nose).
Portrait of some feathered friends, (also known as 'Shite-Hawks' by Dan), and Whitstable's trademark "groynes". (Although I haven't personally heard any, surely there are many colorful jokes about Whitstable's groynes). So anyway, here are some shite-hawks on my groynes.(*** Okay, okay... I've been gently reprimanded by Dan for calling these lovely Black-Headed Gulls Shite-Hawks. Note: the Black-Headed Gulls in my photo do not have black heads! Apparently, they lose their black heads with their summer plumage. Well, actually, they don't lose their heads at all, just the black feathers on their heads. {See here for a fabulously appropriate photo representation - not taken by me by the way}. Okay, just to be clear, they DO shit, they just aren't Shite-Hawks by Dan's definition. The others - which are actually Herring Gulls "rip apart the bin bags" and are the "size of dogs". He's charitably giving me the benefit of the doubt for mistaking these comparatively petite birds because I wasn't aware that their heads turn white. Right. So as not to offend any Black-Headed Gulls out there, I'm truly sorry for calling you Shite-Hawks. Now go and shit on my groynes.)
A view of some beach huts from behind. My feet were soaking wet from trudging through the long-ish wet grass, but it was nice to see things from a slightly different angle than usual. I've walked by these huts many numbers of times now, but from the sidewalk up top or the walkway down below. I thought the clouds looked kind of freaky, and liked the long shadows on the lawn.
One beach hut's shuttered window. Just liked it.
wow!! that IS a fabulously appropriate photo representation of the Black Headed Gulls losing their black headedness.. now, from the photo of the barbershop quartet of Herring Gulls, wherein it is decidedly difficult to sense that these are "the size of dogs" based solely on a photo with nothing to look at in the way of perspective, my first reaction to this apparently English brute of a bird is that it looks near exactly like the common North American variety which most lovingly refer to as Sea Gulls, but which are more appropriately and less lovingly also referred to as Sky Rats as they are commonly found at your nearest Wal-Mart parking lot scavenging for dropped Mickey D fries.. just an observation, I do not intend to offend any Herring Gulls ..nor do I wish to offend any Black Headed Gulls by using them as a more or less size comparison to the N.American version of the canine-like Mega-Sky Rats of England ..and if said gulls are the professed "size of dogs" then I'm certainly a little scared at the prospect of a falling gull shite..
ReplyDeleteLet it be noted that I have seen massive gulls on the Atlantic Coast in North America as well. Their accents are different though.
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