On the way home

A warm breeze whipped a spray of water from the crest of the wave before it curled and crashed, spreading a glistening sheet of water across the sand. He lifted his head and caught the comforting smell of the sea, something he had lived with all of his life. He relaxed his guard for a moment, enjoying the pleasure of resting his weary body. It had been a long journey and now he was hungry, very hungry and he urgently needed to find something to eat. He dug around in the sand and amongst the stones hoping to find a morsel of food. The bright red and blue wrapper trapped under a stone caught his eye and he cautiously moved across the beach towards it. He pulled up quickly when he first saw the girl and tried desperately to get away, but he was just too tired.

She looked at him and smiled. “Hey, how are you?” She ran towards him and put her hand out to touch him. He instinctively withdrew from her, not trusting any strangers and particularly not one who had the upper hand. Right now he was tired, hungry and vulnerable and he had to rest before completing his journey. She looked into his dark brown eyes and then at his brown and white coat, but as her eyes traveled down to his legs she saw something that looked wrong. “ Have you escaped from prison?” she asked. She’d seen a man on television once with a band around his ankle and she’d asked her parents why and they had said something about prison and bad, but she hadn’t really understood them.

He looked at her, moving his head from side to side and a stuttering sound escaped from him “kek”…. “ Are you hungry? I live just over there and I could get you something to eat if you just wait here for a minute”. She looked at him and for a moment he forgot to be frightened. He moved towards her and she clapped her hands and laughed with delight. The shock of her sudden movement caused him to run back across the sand.

“ Sorry, sorry I didn’t mean to scare you. Please come back” she cried out. He stopped and watched her from a distance. “ Look, just wait there and I’ll be back in a minute”. She ran across the beach and disappeared across the sand dunes. He moved back towards the bright red and blue wrapper and pulled it out from under the stone. He shook the crisp packet vigorously and some small flecks of pale gold fluttered out and into the breeze. He followed the food as it drifted to the ground and ate greedily.

The little girl flew through the back door into the house. Her mother looked at her happy face and felt her heart swell with love. She loved her daughter so much but she was a complex little girl and seemed a lot happier being on her own. She worried again about her decision to home school her. “How’s the beach today, are you having fun?” she asked. “ It’s great Mummy, can I have a peanut butter sandwich please, I’m so hungry.” The words fell out of her mouth in such a rush that her next breath became a gasp.

“ Slow down, slow down,” her mother laughed, “ what’s the hurry”. The girl was about to tell her mother about him but she thought of the words “bad” and “prison” and stopped. If she told her mother she wouldn’t let her go back to the beach and she so wanted to see him again. She skipped out of the kitchen and up to her bedroom. She grabbed her prized new camera, a much treasured birthday present, and ran back to the kitchen. “ I’m going to take some pictures of the beach while I eat my sandwich Mummy. Is that alright?” Her mother smiled as she looked into her seven year old daughter’s face. They lived in a remote area in the lighthouse keeper’s cottage and the beach was usually deserted. Access to the beach meant coming past their cottage so she didn’t have to worry about her little girl’s safety. “ Oh, and I need a piece of cake too please”.

At first she thought he had gone. She ran down to the water and felt her feet slip into the soft sand. She heard him before she saw him “ kek, kek….,” and turned around. “ There you are, oh, I’m so happy you’re still here”. She plopped down on the sand, took a bite of her sandwich and put the piece of cake next to her. “Oh no, its got sand on it now”, she picked up the cake and tried to brush the sand off. A shower of cake crumbs scattered across the sand and he moved cautiously towards them. She saw him pick up minute specks of food from the beach and broke a small piece of the cake and threw it towards him. He looked at her and then cocked his head in acknowledgement and began to eat in earnest.

She carefully picked up her camera, hoping that it wouldn’t frighten him, and pressed the button to turn it on. As she took the picture the click of the camera startled him and in a split second he was gone. The girl stared up into the sky and watched as the small bird flew high into the air and within seconds he had disappeared.

Later that day, long after the girl had returned home, another small wading bird swooped down and landed on the beach. She had been searching for her mate, and had followed him here. Something had driven her to leave her northern home alone but something even stronger had driven her to try and find her mate before continuing to fly south. The bird hopped across the beach and pecked at the cake crumbs left on the sand. The faint smell of the girl lingered on the food and curiously she felt no fear. She knew instinctively that her mate had been to this beach, had eaten with this girl and would now be flying to a southern destination. She ate and rested then flew high into the air and within seconds she also disappeared.

The following morning the girl and her father walked along the beach together, both carrying their cameras. He was amazed that she had seen a bird here that he had never seen himself. He had to believe it because she had taken a photo. There was no doubt that a Ruddy Turnstone had landed here, thousands of miles away from his normal habitat. He was an avid birdwatcher and loved to roam the cliffs around his lighthouse looking for nests and taking pictures. He hadn’t realized that his daughter was developing an interested in birds too. In fact he’d been so busy he hadn’t spent much time getting to know her at all. The little girl looked up at her father and smiled, she had never been happier.

A few days later the little wading bird arrived at the island where he would feed for the summer months. Thousands of miles south from where he had last been with his mate. He had hoped to catch up with her. He had even left his small group of companions to search for her, veering hundreds of miles off course. Why had she left before him? She had flown away after their first mating, when the chicks were quite small, and he had followed soon after. The memory of his journey was nearly forgotten but he remembered his mate.

Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away, a researcher in Southern Victoria looked at his computer screen and made a note on the pad next to him. He smiled to himself, pleased that the tracking device worked so well and that he could report even more interesting migratory information about this miniature solo transatlantic flier. Why on earth had the bird flown away from his companions and made a stop in that remote part of Australia?

At that instant, on another beach in Southern Victoria a small brown and white wading bird settled into her summer home. She had nearly forgotten her journey but she remembered her mate. She knew she would see him again next season when she flew north.

Several months later on a sunny afternoon, two small wading birds began their scheduled journey north, after leaving their different summer homes on the same day. Some days later, within ten minutes of each other, they arrived on the same beach that had given them safe haven on their journey south. They danced around together, chattering in delight at finding each other again. The months they had spent apart were instantly forgotten. In their newly constructed hide, the girl and her father watched on in rapturous wonder.