"When Will We Ever Learn"

While Jackie was out on a shell collecting expedition, I had leaned back to rest my eyes.  When I opened them all I could think was, "Oh no, snow."  The white sands of the GULF ISLANDS NATIONAL SEASHORE are bright enough to fool the eye.   So it wasn't snow, and if it would have been, the 70 degrees would have melted it real quick-like.  The drive along this narrow spit of land was about 50 miles from the on-bridge to Fort Pickens, just south of Pensacola, FL., where we celebrated New Year's Eve with a couple of hot-toddies and a fine steaming plate of rice and vegetables.

The British Petroleum oil spill machinery that has collected the tar balls along this stretch of beach now sits idly, corralled, with hopes that it'll be hauled away before being needed again.  

Trivia:  What is the largest, most common mammal in these waters?  "The Bottlenose Dolphin."

Along the shore this Great Blue Heron skims the water in search of a meal.  In total, 16 different species of birds were threatened by the oil spill.  And still our thirst for fossil fuel continues to increase.  Pete Seeger wrote a song decades ago, "When Will We Ever Learn."  "Probably Never," is the sadly whispered answer. 

Some call him "Sea Rat" and others call him the "Nobel Sea Sentry."  Whatever you call him, the common Seagull and the cockroach  will be here long after we've overpopulated and poisoned ourselves into extinction. 
Happy New Year!