Solar soaring

Woke early enough to go out for a morning run before the sun rose. Along the Snells Beach front to the far (northern) end. No dogs this morning, at least not on the beach. Very sedate pooches with their older owners walking along the path (known as Erceg's Way). A cloudy morning, and I doubted that there would be much of a sunrise, until right near the end the sky became golden above the dense cloud at the horizon.

Only a small number of herons, many ducks (especially at the southern end of the beach), and of course the ubiquitous gulls. No oystercatchers. Just at this point, and nowhere else along the full length of the beach, a number of gulls intermittently sailed into the air for no reason that I could see, and soared and swooped and circled, in the light from the rising sun.

They were not over the water, there were few pools, and any that were near here were shallow, and I doubt there was much food for them. They were not squabbling (unusually, as all the way along there were scraps and squawks); they were just circling, apparently blissed out.