Chesapeake Beach And Chicken Little

The sea looks like it is never going to end around me rising on the horizon before dipping away. The stars are bright and sparkling. And it’s cold. It’s Christmas time and Chesapeake Beach in late December makes me shiver. I walk along the boardwalk with my sister Zoya and my mother and father. The wood boards feel firm but also springy and we enjoy the place as we see it.

 What do I and my sister want to do? Play in the sand, of course, and touch the sea water that we can hear lapping against the rocks and the wooden beams of the boardwalk. After fifteen minutes, we see the gates leading to the sand, but they are closed and we cannot go in. My sister is disappointed. My father promises us that he will bring us here again. 

We continue on to the boardwalk and the pier, enjoying this special night!

Well, that was a couple of nights ago. Today, I brought my Canon 800D. I will take many pictures. We just enjoyed a great lunch at an Italian restaurant and are out walking in the sun. I am on the boardwalk again with my family. The water is so clear and beautiful, the sand is clean, it's great! 

And look at the seagulls! I love seagulls. We see water lapping over the rocks and I and my sister want sand! Just as we see the beach, we come across a park. There are pools of water and a running stream. 

My father says maybe there are fish there, and there are! What wonderful Koi carps! He says they are probably older than I am, which, I think you may have guessed, is 10. 

There is sculpture made of roots. One is shaped like a mermaid, she has been named Pearl by the artist. There is another shaped like a lion and he is named Cecil. 

There are small bridges across the small streams. After enjoying this little visit, we are on the way back to the beach. The sidewalk is narrow and we try to make space for people coming from behind. One lady gets off the sidewalk to go past us. We apologise and she turns and smiles at us.

She asks us if we would like to watch her call the birds. We say yes! We follow her. As she walks on the wooden floor next to the sealine, she starts to make whistling sounds. First there are no birds. Then, after a pause, one seagull comes, and another, and another, and another. And, just like that, seagulls come to her from everywhere. We are amazed. 

She feeds the seagulls. They seem nice. Wait a minute, there is a special bird. Oh, the lady tells us, it is a different species of seagull. Slowly, the food finishes and the gulls have other things to do and most of them leave. 

After that, we got into a conversation with the lady. She says she worked around the beach and fed ducks. One day, she met a seagull that she named Gully. She fed him and, after that, other seagulls too. Gully was shy, he did not like mixing up with a crowd of birds. He is here today after the main crowd of birds is gone. I think he is whiter than the other seagulls and is also a little bigger.

I and my father ask questions. We learn that her name is Susanne Littlestar, but is known as Chicken Little. Susanne has lived in Chesapeake Beach for four years. She was in Baltimore before that. She came here because her parents moved here. 

One thing that I loved about her is that she does a lot of stuff. She had been in the military! I think being in the military is a hard job. She is a volunteer firefighter. She has been a volunteer for over 20 years! She and her sister used to take part in competitive runs.

She is very easy to get along with. My father sits and looks out to the sea. My sister is playing in the sand and my mother is watching her. Chicken Little takes me to where the water meets the sand. She wants me to know that I can find shark teeth when there is a tide. 

I am amazed after she picks up prehistoric shark tooth after shark tooth. She shows me how and we collect 10 shark teeth from the sand. Now that we have moved to Chesapeake Beach, every time that my family goes to the beach, I search for teeth. 

I have collected Skate teeth plates, a Skate is a bit like the sting ray. I was very interested in these fossils. I researched about the kind of fish teeth and fossils that can be found in this area and I was surprised to find that a nine year old girl had found a huge megalodon tooth in Maryland.

My father, later, told me that there are 40 million old shark teeth that have been found in this area. There is even a hike we could not go on at the Bay Beach nearby. 

It used to take people below the cliffs that have layers upon layers of history collected over 80 million years of earth’s life. Nowadays the hiking trail is closed due to landslides. 

Time passes by so fast. Soon the sun has set and it is time to say goodbye to the sea, sand, and Chicken Little, aka Susanne. It was great that I got to be with her, she is such an inspiring person and so kind.

(Vidheha studies in Fourth Grade at Windy Hill Elementary School.)