Moby-Chick

            Call me Enabler.

            Everyone needs goals, and sometimes one of those goals rises to the level of a Quest. This is the story of Kim’s quest for Moby-Chick, the Snowy Plover. The quest took us through torrential rains, rapacious winds, a damaged boat, and a questionable meal at Outz’s Too.

            We’d planned a few stops at parks on the way to St. George Island, but the rain curtailed our plans. A surprise when we arrived: Barbara and Sandy, with their spouses, Mark and Randy, were staying in the same complex a few yards away.

            Despite a fruitless six-mile hike through biting cold (until the sun came out) and a damaged boat that made impossible a windy trip to St. Vincent’s Reserve, we found and conquered (photographed) Moby-Chick. We actually found a number of Snowy Plovers, 16 for sure because that’s how many different ones Kim photographed with bands on their legs.

Moby-Chick (note bands on leg)

            Finding them was only part of the challenge. Plover identification is not for the timid.  It was far, far easier for Ahab to recognize his white whale than for us to recognize the right plover.

            

            It’s easy to get wrapped up in The Hunt and neglect the Big Picture.

St. George Island State Park

            One of the advantages of the Quest is what you discover while you are questing. For us, that included these:

Oystercatchers Catching Oysters in an Oysterbed

Oystercatcher, Having Caught Oyster

Kestrel with Yummy Sand Skink

The Flying Buffleheads

            An advantage of this particular quest was Sandy’s introducing us to Southern Cooking – one example: breakfast of sausage gravy over biscuits, choice of two fritatas, bacon, and buttered grits. And then Barbara and Mark prepared a spaghetti dinner whose sauce, along with the salad, included everything but the kitchen sink. We each gained about 5 pounds in 4 days – this despite all the walking we did – which led to our next quest: to lose them.

            Best of all – even better than Moby-Chick – was the company we kept and the friendships we made and enriched on our journey.

Moby-Chick, Resting