By Bill Sargent

Smithsonian Magazine Osprey Courtship | Smithsonian Photo Contest | Smithsonian Magazine,

“Palm Sunday started with the cries of a pair of courting osprey wheeling and diving overhead.”

“Our species was approaching the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, but here was nature heralding a new day.”

“Tidepools glittered with the golden shards of the rising sun. But last night’s winds had rolled the dunes 30 feet back, burying the boardwalk under four feet of new sand.”

“The storm had also flattened the beach, which was gullied and strewn with piles of straw lifted off the neighboring marshes by the night’s ten-foot-high tides.”

“But the beach is now tranquil, and the tidepools reflect a more cobalt sky noticeably lacking the contrails of aircraft thundering toward the now-empty Logan airport.”

“A smattering of people walks along the shore in quiet awe of nature’s power to rework the land during a single storm.”

“It is shocking to look across the sound and see no one walking on Sandy Point. Massachusetts has closed its parks and beaches to ensure social distancing, and the storm had undermined another stalwart house on nearby Plum Island.”