“Edgar, wake up.   The day has begun and we get to go to the beach.”  whispered my baby sister to me.  Wow, at last we get to see that sparkling sea up close.   Mom said it was low tide early and we had to hustle if we wanted to get the tastiest morsels.

And then before I knew it we were off.  We flew up out of the trees and into the big sky.  Down below was this wide open space that moved and sparkled all at once.  It took my breath away.   I had this awful fear I would fall and not have a branch to land on.  (or crash onto).   Our little family of Dad, Mom, Uncle, Lizzie and I  swooped onto a piece of rocky ground that was close to the edge of the sparkle.

Our cousins and their families were close by.   Some of them were doing the begging cry to their parents which overshadowed the splashing sound I heard from the sparkling water.   What is water I had been asking my Uncle?  He said you cannot hold it and that confused me.  Now I know what he meant.  I went close to it and it lapped my toes.  It was cold and when I poked it with my beak it was salty tasting.

Mom was cawing at us to come over and see what she found.  Lizzie was being her usual bratty self and wanted to be waited on.   Over by Mom,  I saw she had found a wiggly thing and I ran over to see.  Not sure why but I just pecked at it and then gobbled it down.   It was salty like the sparkly and tasted good.   So, that was how I fed myself for the first time.

All of a sudden everyone was flying into the trees.   We followed along best we could and my heart was pumping so fast.   Once I got landed and looked back I saw flying over where we had been was that awful “Osprey” thing.  He dove into the sparkly and came up with a piece of silver in his mouth.   Uncle was wrong you can grab the water or at least the Osprey can.   Then I watched the thing wiggle and I realized that it wasn’t water but some poor little creature he was going to eat.   Then he was gone, flying away into the trees and out of sight.  Now I understood why Mom and Dad had gone so crazy over the Ospery the other day.

For the next couple of hours we played on the beach and had a wonderful time.  It was better than I had ever dreamed.  Just one thing got on my nerves – That would be my little sister who never shut up and started to drive not only me but Mom crazy.   Watch the little movie of her and you will understand what I mean.