Keeping Watch!

I arose early the other morn...far too early to actually be out on the pier but I headed that way regardless.  The sun had not even begun to brighten the eastern sky with its usual reds and oranges.  Ms. Ez and I carefully made our way down the board path and onto the pier itself.  There, the moon over the water brightened things up a bit.  I could hear the splish-splash of mullet as they journeyed from the shallows out to deeper water.  Thousands of the fish were around the pier and under the light of the neighboring pier.  After a bit, the sky started to get a telltale glow and I knew soon the sun would be popping up over the horizon.  The coolness of the morn had laid a thin, wispy blanket of fog over the marsh.  A slight north wind was sending this over the Bay in low, feathery traces.

  I watched to water.  The mullet jumping left ripples but other than that it was calm.  Except in one place!  About halfway to the mouth of the Bayou, I could see some strange shape in the water.  It was sort of undulating up and down.  At first glance, I presumed this was an otter but I was soon dealt a blow of utter disgust.  Once the sun rose enough for me to identify the unknown object, I was purely aggravated at humanity!  There floating near my Bayou was an old tire!  How dare someone toss such trash in the water!  I was mad!  Without a boat, there was no way for me to reach this junk to remove it from the water before it sank to the bottom.  Things like this do so ruin an otherwise idyllic morning. My morning had turned from simple and beautiful to frustrating in a matter of minutes.

I turned to Ez and told her that we were heading back to the Little Bayou House.  It sickened me to see the old tire bobbing along the shoreline.  It was then that I saw a friend!  Across the way to my brother's pier, I could see a Belted Kingfisher eyeing my every move.  I suppose he was in hopes that I would catch a few minnows for his breakfast but this morn there were none to be found.  He swooped down and alit near me on the pier post and let out such a ruckus!  Ms. Ez leapt up and started to bark!  She knows better than to disturb the birds but for some reason the Kingfisher irritated her.  The bird took off to sit upon the tall antenna on one of my brother's boats.  There he sat..glaring at the two of us!  He glared at me for not serving him breakfast and at Ms. Ez for her noisy greeting!

I bid the mullet and the Kingfisher a sweet goodbye and headed up the hillside.  It was time for breakfast and a good, hot mug of coffee!