Beautiful flat wide white beaches. Calm peaceful water. Sea birds of all types all around. Brown pelicans soaring gracefully above the water suddenly dive head first like a missile into the water while the laughing gulls laugh at them from the shore. Scan the water and watch the pair of dolphins break the surface as they cruise through the warm water while you relax in the sun digging your toes deep in the sand.

        Sound a little like paradise? Welcome to the Gulf of Mexico. There are many beautiful spots along the sandy shores of the Gulf, and scores of people have walked the miles of its beaches playing and swimming in its inviting waters. The thing is, somehow in all the years past, many people have missed the beaches of Mississippi and Alabama. Maybe that’s because most people associate a trip to the beach with Florida. For those who stumbled upon Gulf Shores, Dauphin Island, and the strip of land across coastal Mississippi, it has been a welcome surprise.

        Coastal Mississippi, though, is a bit different than coastal Alabama and Florida. Why? Because nature set up a natural boundary just off shore. There are barrier islands sitting about 11 miles south of the mainland.  Ship Island, Petit Bois Island, Cat Island and Horn Island are beautiful destinations by boat, but for residents here they provide excellent protection, too. As severe as Hurricane Katrina was, had the barrier islands not been there, it is believed that damage done would have been much worse.

        Aside from protection to the human residents, the barrier islands offer protection to the residents who live in the wild of the Mississippi Sound. The area between the islands and the shore is considered the Mississippi Sound - home to shrimp, flounder, sharks, horseshoe crabs, blue crabs, mullet, red drum, white trout, jellyfish, oysters and more. Coupled with the local bays and bayous, the Sound becomes the perfect environment for a nursery - an estuary. The brownish tinge you see in the waters of the Sound is caused by the influx of water from the mouth of the Mississippi River. This causes the bottom of the sound to take on a different look and feel than does the sandy bottom just a short distance east towards Alabama. You’ll also notice that the water in the sound is normally very calm and flat. In this setting, young creatures thrive and grow in preparation for many species to become mature enough to venture into the open seas in the Gulf of Mexico.

         With such a bounty of sea life come those who enjoy seafood - the birds. Brown pelicans abound, as do laughing gulls, herring gulls, ring-billed gulls, skimmers, least terns, royal terns, and Caspian terns. A drive down Highway 90 from Biloxi to Bay St. Louis, reveals groups of birds, sometimes numbering in the hundreds . Scores of black skimmers will rest on the beach with laughing gulls and terns waiting until the tide is low and dinner is easy to find.

        In the spring, least terns and black skimmers nest among the sea oats prompting local officials to erect a temporary barrier in those areas with signs reading, “Least Tern Nesting - Nest in Peace”. By late summer, the younger terns and skimmers join adults as do the young laughing gulls who differ from their elders in their color. Young laughing gulls are white with brown speckled feathers which will change to the familiar white, light gray and black pattern as they age.

        Mr. George Thatcher, author of “The Only Way Out”, “Beach Walks”, and “Scenes from the Beach”, lives in Gulfport and walks the beaches of Gulfport daily. The diary of his walks, printed in  The SunHerald,  south Mississippi’s newspaper, paints vivid pictures of horseshoe crabs coming ashore to lay eggs, stately great blue herons staring out over the sea, and tiny wildflowers that pop up seeking the warm sunlight. As I’m sure George Thatcher would tell you, no day and no walk is the same. Life abounds at the seashore.

        So often we are caught up in our own busy world, racing to the next destination, planning the next meeting or meal. In the rush of it all, what are we missing? The great egret, with skill and precision, catching a fast-moving fish and the tiny blue crab facing off against his little neighbor who gets too close to his home dug down in the sand.

        Won’t you take a break? Take a walk with your loved ones or a quiet walk alone down the many beaches here and see what surprises are in store for you. See what you’ve been missing all this time.