Glitter by the Handfuls 

/ Jessica

Have you ever spent much time watching the birds at the beach? 

These past two weeks, as we’ve spent our days at the  Gulf of Mexico beaches, I’ve been paying attention to the birds. They are quite fascinating. 

At Dauphin Island, the pelicans seemed to hang out on the Mississippi Sound side quite often. I’m pretty sure if birds wore wrist watches, they would’ve been set at fish o’clock. 

Every afternoon they knew exactly when to dive down to catch fish for their lunch. 

One afternoon while we were across the street from our beach house, we saw people feeding seagulls from their deck.

Those birds seemed to be suspended as they ate the crumbs tossed mid air. 

I thought that was pretty cool, until a few afternoons later. I made my lunch and pulled a rocking chair to the deck to eat and watch the waves.

The next thing I knew, the seagulls started flying in, squawking at me, and got right in my face! They wanted my lunch!

Sorry fellas! 

I ran back inside. 

At Grand Isle, Louisiana, the house we stayed in faced the Gulf of Mexico. Every day the shrimp trawlers passed by and you wouldn’t believe all the birds that follow those shrimping boats! 

When I asked my husband if there was about a hundred birds behind one shrimp boat, he guessed that there was double or triple that amount. Can you imagine? 

Thursday morning we were packing and cleaning the house up for our departure from Grand Isle, and I took a break and walked to the beach.

As soon as I topped the dune, I heard what sounded like chit chat. There were tons of seagulls on my right, sitting at the water’s edge. 

On my left, more seagulls were flying in as far as I could see. They came and landed with the rest. 

Then, a lady walked by, right next to them. Man, those birds dispersed. It was something to see! She kept right on walkin’ and they kept right on flyin’. They went way out over the ocean. 

When she was gone, they all gathered back in the same exact spot they had been in before she came along. 

I’m pretty sure for the rest of my days, I’ll remember all those birds flying away at the same time. 

It was soooooo amazing. It looked like someone was standing on the beach throwing up glitter by the handfuls. 

37 thoughts on “Glitter by the Handfuls ”

  1. A very interesting post! I’ve been to dauphin island before and I LOVE the life I see there. If you would follow my blog, you can see some of the photos I took there! One of my favorite places!

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  3. Seagulls are so incredibly brazen. Here on Australian beaches they seem to be able to smell the fish and chips a mile off. And they’ll be there to get their fill if you give them even the slightest bit of encouragement … which we definitely don’t do!
    “Glitter by the handful” is such a great description. Love it. :)

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    • They are definitely interesting. We were at one beach and I was sitting in our truck with the windows down. A red winged black bird landed on the hood. Just sitting there, like he was waiting for something.

      Later I saw him get something off the ground in his beak. Suddenly, a sand piper was on his trail following him everywhere. Then more birds started following him. Seemed kind of competitive. But, I like to watch them to see how they live and interact. Can learn a lot. :)

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  8. Having grown up by the ocean, and having lived in Florida for a while, I know what you mean about the birds. Seagulls are so brazen, I could get them to eat from my hand in Florida!

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  9. Jessica, it’s frightening being attacked by seagulls and I’m glad you’re okay. They’re a wonderful sight en masse though and I love your phrase ‘glitter by the handfuls’. When we went out fishing with my grandfather, there would be seagulls all around and he would occasionally toss them some fish.I can’t believe you saw pelicans in the wild – fantastic. Lovely to follow you along on your holidays and your wonderful pictorial display as well. Hope you’re settling back home happily.

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    • Well, I wasn’t attacked, I was far away on the dune, just watching. It was a beautiful thing to see. I couldn’t believe she walked right into them! I would’ve walked around. Ha!

      Thank you for your kind words. Our trip has been one for the memory books. It was really fun sharing it with you guys. We are homeward bound at the moment. Heading north through Mississippi. We’re not real happy with the drop in temperature!

      Yesterday in Louisiana, it was 90 degrees. This morning in Jackson Mississippi it was 77 degrees. The farther north we get, the more the temperature drops.

      Weather forecast for home is high 50. Boo!! We’ve spent 2 weeks with air conditioner on and will have to turn the heater on when we get home! Ha!

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    • Oh my gosh, Annika! I JUST figured out what you meant!! I thought you meant I was attacked on the beach. Now I realize you probably mean when they got in my face for my lunch!

      I’m so sorry! I completely misunderstood. Please forgive me…

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      • Totally forgiven, Jessica..I guessed that was the confusion. We’ve eaten outside at a pizzeria on the islands and been attacked by the biggest seagulls I’ve ever seen – more like albatrosses! Very scary and we too took ourselves and the food indoors!

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        • Oh good! I hoped I hadn’t offended you! Whew!! :)

          Yikes on the pizzeria. Yes, it is quite frightening when they get in our faces and insist we share!

          Last night I had a different sort of thing happen with barn swallows. When we bought this house 7 years ago, there was a barn swallows nest in the outside front archway. They thought they owned the place and flew at us every time we used our front door!

          It took like two years, but we finally got all birds to stop building nests there.

          Well… While we were gone, I guess 2 barn swallows took up residence there again. While I was trying to shoo them out, they were diving down INTO MY HAIR. Ha. At least the possum was cordial as he took over our garage!

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