Deer do it. So do . . . whales, dragonflies, eels, and more . But the annual mermaid migration, I find, is as magical to me as it is to the young girl watching for the first time, taking photos, and one of the princesses of the sea came over and blew some sparkles all around.
When the mermaids migrate in, they bring entourages of music,
like samba, and
loud marching bands and
shrillest of pipes.
I noticed that the troubled vessel Grey Shark left town during the parade; I turned and looked out at the drizzly sea behind me, but preferred to take a closeup of the dogfish that stuck around.
The mermaids feted some old-timers like daddy-oh!
They brought in some commercial land folk with adaptations.
They even engaged in some unexpected commerce.
They commandeered a “fruits of the sea” sacrifice bearer.
Of course, there were some humans who felt they needed to “administer” the event, BUT
otherwise, the sea creatures just emerged, checked their makeup, and
and exuded their legendary grace
and cheeriness.
much to the delight of all the photographers or just admirers.
They stayed the day, rainy as it was, before taking flight until the next time.
I’ve missed only twice in the past decade: here are posts from 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 . . . and you can find more just by scrolling way down to the archives . . . lower left and searching June each year around the 21st.
All photos here by Will Van Dorp.
About lobster migrations, click here.
And about animals in parades, the NYTimes this morning had this great story on a swimming/patrolling beast from its Brazilian bureau chief . . .
tugster: a waterblog 
7 comments
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June 21, 2015 at 7:37 am
Rajiv
Nice! I especially like the picture on top
June 21, 2015 at 9:57 am
jdawgswords
awesome pics…sorta like fat Tuesday in new orleans
June 21, 2015 at 5:15 pm
glen
You just can’t beat the mermaids from Brooklyn and Queens! Its the attitude! Gotta attend next year!
June 21, 2015 at 6:43 pm
tugster
glen– i’m holding you to that. we will go there together next year. bring yr crew!!
June 21, 2015 at 8:58 pm
eastriver
Wonderful pix, Will – particularly like the woman with the shawl and the square-rigger “fascinator”. Think it’ll catch on amongst the royals in the UK?
June 22, 2015 at 5:30 am
tugster
“fascinator” is a word i didn’t know, had to look up. i like it. thx.
June 22, 2015 at 10:22 am
Jonathan Caswell
Reblogged this on By the Mighty Mumford and commented:
NOT MUCH PRESS ON THE SUMMER SOLSTICE…BUT FOR THIS! PARTY!!!!