River Flights for SMaP 289

The St. Lawrence river has been crucial to Canada’s cultural and economic development, a significance that spans the time of the first people who inhabited this region up to the subsequent waves that came from all over the world. The river flows from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes on a 1,197 km course. See my previous post for a few semi-coherent facts about it.

It’s a mighty river with strong flowing waters. I caught sight of a tour boat entering the stream and get dragged like a paper boat by the current.

The boat swiftly floated downstream, trying to right itself as it maneuvered the frisky rapids. Imagine being the captain, I thought. Gotta keep those wits about you without freaking out in aquatic despair, so everybody can have a great time watching the sunset.

The Mississippi River will always have its own way; no engineering skill can persuade it to do otherwise
Mark Twain

It was a beautiful evening along the St. Lawrence in Montreal, and the sky was putting on a show, while up in the air, the river gulls glided on the wind currents for no reason other than pure enjoyment, or so it seemed to me. To truly find out if gulls enjoy flying in the wind currents, a proper experimental design, framework, and instrumentation would be necessary. But try pitching that to a private company or research funding agency.

There are three types of freshwater gulls in this area: Ring-billed, American Herring, and Great Black-backed.

Along the beach walkway, the gulls were hanging out in great numbers. Perhaps they were waiting for the winds to calm down before heading out in search of snacks from distracted tourists.

For the #SMaP challenge, I chose the following image as my submission. The one above was a close second.

Chosen photo

Unfortunately, these gulls likely possess high levels of pollutants given their widely varied diet combined with contaminating compounds that accumulate in this massive industrial waterway. I hope we can keep those waters clean because the last thing we need snatching our French fries are polluted mutant gulls.

Thank you for visiting along the river shore.