File:Oystercatchers (2980541319).jpg

Photographed on Porthloo, St Mary's, Isles of Scilly.

OYSTERCATCHER

The strand, a dark mirror In the half-light, Her footprints gleaming white And fading into grey, Filled by tidewater.

Spiny urchins strewn about; Crabs scuttle, building Fortresses of balled sand.

An early seagull wheels and cries; Brine dries where she Dipped her hand in water.

In her crooked arms She carries sea pies, Black gilliebrides, white patched, Red billed and limbed, Bright against a grey sea.

Sheldro and Scolder released, With piercing cries.

Bride has come.

Source material: The pied oystercatcher is known in Scotland as the Gillie Bride, or St Bride’s Lad, because of the legend that Bride came to Long Island carrying two of the birds. See C.E. Hare, Bird Lore, London, 952, p.131. “Sheld” means parti-coloured, as in “Shelduck”, and the alternative Orkney name “Scolder” refers to the distinctive alarm-call. Until comparatively recently, “Sea Pie” - a reference to the bird’s pied plumage - was the most commonly used name for the Oystercatcher. For another legend associating Bride with oystercatchers, see Donald A. Mackenzie, Wonder Tales from Scottish Myth and Legend, London (undated), p. 41: “On the seashore the first bird that chirped with joy [at the arrival of Bride] was the oystercatcher.” The oystercatcher was ever after called “The Page of Bride”.