After seeing the gull, I saved a little fish from dinner to take to it the next day. Didn’t. But the gull was still there, so I drove back, after dark, with little pieces of fish on a piece of wood, and some water. It jerked its head towards what I offered a couple times, but it was too dark to see if it was eating or not.

Yesterday I took a little canned tuna. The piece of wood was gone, but I found a piece of a plastic flowerpot, put the tuna on it, and edged it toward the bird … who didn’t seem to like the idea of that plastic thing so close to it.

So today:

that piece of plastic. No sign of the little depression the bird had made. No tuna, but there wouldn’t be; there are every day many dogs on the beach. No bird, no sign of bird. Anywhere.

Gone.