The Silver Lining...Maybe?

  Early this morning, Mark and I headed to the pier to do a bit of fishing. He was actually going to use the small skiff but I was staying behind on the pier.  I want to be able to head to the house if the fish are not biting. There is just far too much to do in the garden to sit lollygagging about if I am not catching lunch.  All was well with the morn.  It was a beautiful day opening and I was enjoying the slight northeast breeze...until...Mark opened the live-well of the boat and found that he had inadvertently left a few menhaden there overnight.  Not good...in fact, bad or even terrible!  The things had died and had become quite rank in the humid air.  Ugh!  It was bad enough that the boat smelled like a garbage heap but, then, he scooped said little dead fishies and tossed them into the water.  UGH to a greater extent!  Now the whole place smelled like a city dump!  STOP!  I called to him.  Move on away from the pier before you toss any more dead things!  He did and I thought all would return to normal.  It did not.  The minnows were quite swollen and they bobbed along the ripples like little buoys.  Each bounce released another malodorous spew of stench into the air. Double ugh!

  At the time I thought that I could not stand the reeking dead fish bobbers any more, a seagull came to my rescue.  Down swooped one bird and it scooped up a mushy, stinking-to-high-heaven minnow.  The bird was the envy of all gulls and terns that eat dead things floating on the surf.  Several squeals later, another gull dove to fetch its own putrid fish.  Well, at least they were cleaning the water (and the air).  One after another, the birds dove after the minnows giving me the perfect opportunity to snap a few closeup photographs.  

  Once I settled down enough to observe the pictures that I had taken, I realized that the stench that ruined my fishing trip was not all bad.  The rising sun as a backdrop and birds diving just a few feet from my camera lens provided a perfect setting for some excellent photographs. The morning turned out well,  I got great pictures and the birds feasted on putrid fish.  Sometimes things we deem as bad do have silver linings.  We just have to look for them.