Comments | alycewilson: LJI Exhibit A, Week 4: The Laughing Gulls

alycewilson

LJI Exhibit A, Week 4: The Laughing Gulls

Feb 14, 2013 19:57

This is my entry this week for the Exhibit A competition of therealljidol. I invite you to read and vote for the many fine entries. This week's topic is "Ultra Deep Field."

( Let's give them something to laugh about. )

lj idol, lji, exhibit a, fiction

Comments 56

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alycewilson February 15 2013, 01:29:20 UTC

Thank you! It helps that I actually visited the wetlands a few times with my family while we were on a vacation together. The descriptions of the land was drawn from my own memories, although I have to credit my mom for describing a caught hawk as a sail.

I'm glad that your dislike of birds didn't scare you away. In much the same way, my mother hates spiders and yet loved "Charlotte's Web."

kathrynrose February 15 2013, 03:27:04 UTC

yay!

I nursed a red-tailed hawk back to health once after it had eaten poisoned meat. Had to let it go when it was well enough to fly around my bedroom. :)

alycewilson February 15 2013, 03:38:57 UTC

Wow! They're amazing animals. I saw one at a nature center near Penn State called Shaver's Creek, where they nurse injured animals back to health.

alycewilson February 15 2013, 03:39:42 UTC

Forgot to ask: do you have a background in animal care? How did you know what to do?

kathrynrose February 15 2013, 04:07:26 UTC

My dad was a farm boy, and he spent most of his free time either on a creek bank or in the woods with a hunting rifle. Every so often when I was little he'd bring home some injured something or other and we'd "doctor" it ( ... )

Thread 8

sweeny_todd February 15 2013, 03:49:49 UTC

how gorgeous!!

alycewilson February 15 2013, 04:00:30 UTC

Thank you! Happy Valentine's Day!

tatdatcm February 15 2013, 04:34:41 UTC

What a lovely story. I love the small signs in the beginning that show how fond Sam was of her. It was easy to imagine that growing into love as they spent more time together. I like the imagery of the gulls attacking him as the Nest Mover.

alycewilson February 15 2013, 05:13:58 UTC

Thanks! According to my mom, the gulls really did attack someone who was doing a similar study when she was a grad student. I've always found that to be funny.

halfshellvenus February 15 2013, 05:02:24 UTC

What a neat story! Apart from the lack of an EPA (which somewhat marks the era), it has a timeless feeling to it, and the emotions are really fresh. :)

alycewilson February 15 2013, 05:12:19 UTC

Thank you! I'll have to remember to share it with my mom and see what she thinks of what I did with the details she gave me. The lack of the EPA occurred to me, because when she told me about the gulls being the last ones in New Jersey at that time, I wondered how a developer could possibly get past that. Then I thought a minute and I was like, "Oh, riiiight."