Sunday, February 19, 2006
Today marks the return of the robin to Mystic. Large voracious flocks of them have descended on the berries and trees here. I tried counting them, but they were flitting to and fro in large numbers. At one point there were at least 25 stripping the remaining berries from the 4 or 5 small holly bushes along our front walk area.
We’ve always loved Robins, but ever since Idaho they have had a very special place in our hearts. They nested right outside our window and let us watch them raise two broods of chicks. In part it was all the more exciting as it was confirmation of our efforts to rehabilitate the backyard environment where we lived. We still have the time-lapse video we took. Two years of hard work paid off with the Robins, hummers, hummingbird moths and many others.
Like the Robins our activity here has been a bit sparse. Hopefully that will pick up a bit. We do have a couple of entries in the wings and we’ld like to catch aeveryone up on our doings over the late fall and winter. It’s been busy — some good, a little bad — basically life…Abundantly.
Friday, December 23, 2005
This image is from the night of the Winter Solstice, a shot for Yeimaya at Flickr. Collecting shots of sunrise and sunset on the equinox and solstice days. A great way to really visualize the travels in our sky as we spin and orbit…
That night and the night before Tammy, Johann and I watched the sun set in it’s glorious beauty as we were on our way back from Stonington. The first night we just pulled over on the side of the road. Tammy and Johann watched from the comfort of the car (it was bitterly cold out!) and I tried to get a picture as the sun set in a ball of glowing orange over the hills between Stonington and Mystic. The next day we timed our outing so we could be at Enders Island in time for the sunset on the solstice. Another beautiful sunset that lasted for well over 20 minutes. Totally different from the night before, and just as magnificent.
Tonight I was out trying to track down some chocolate chips without milk in them. As I pulled into the local A&P and looked to the southwest the sunset was beginning to spread through the sky. Although it would have been much better viewed from Enders Island, it was again magnificent. The light kissing the undersides of the clouds, revealing their structure in whole new ways and making them blush in pinks and reds. Other, higher clouds glowed bright yellow against the deepening blue sky as the horizon changed through a range of reds and purples. Shear beauty in rich palletes which no master painter could ever equal. Completely different from the night before, if any anything, even more magical.
The whole time I stood transfixed in front of A&P barely noticing the cars and people around me. A few asked if I was ok…some wondered what I was staring at… but none seemed to see the beauty as they hurried to and fro in their last minute rush. I feel sorry for them. Somehow I have always been transfixed by the sunset, a magical event that repeats nightly but is never the same. My favorites are the ones I see out west, but in the winter here there are some truely spectacular ones as well.
Sorry about the lack of updates…things have been a bit crazy around here lately.
Finally everything is off to Texas for the Show at the 1550 Gallery. We ended up sending 22 items, mostly scarves but also some bags and a pair of indigo shibori pants as well. When I wasn’t working on the show there was (is) school and then spending time with Johann. September is literally a blur. One festival, multiple trips to see parts of the whale trail, science experiments, just for fun outings, school, the show, giving Tammy time to sew…I didn’t get more than about 4 hours of sleep on any given night.
I think I’m going to sleep for a week!
Didn’t have much time for photography either, but luckily on Fridy I caught a few (almost 40!) herons and egrets gathered around a swampy pond during a break in the rain. Best of all there were three black crowned night herons!
The majestic cheetah from the Zoo in Providence, RI. It was a hot and humid day there and he was pacing restlessly. The screen and scratchud up plexi (scratched from the human side!) in the viewing area was a bit of a pain for photography, but I did get a couple of good shots. Surprising how many people were saying “oh, look at the pretty Leopard” especially when there were 2 signs proclaiming the species in 8 inch tall type in white on black. Oh well….
This shot ended up with a nice discussion about cheetahs as well as the role of zoos and aquariums. If you don’t have a flickr account I would be interested in hearing your views in the comments here.
The birds that have been at the Aquarium all summer are also making appearances at the Mystic Seaport… This Hyacinth Macaw is a rescued bird that has been rehabilitated and is now being trained to be used to humans again. A wonderful bird, he was being pretty vocal, calling out with a short beatiful call every few minutes. He was wonderful with Johann even though with his long tail feathers he is almost as big!
100% crop from a head shot. I really love the colors and textures on these birds!
This snowy egret displayed a wide range of behaviors during the 20 minutes or so I watched it hunt, at one point it started strutting across one of the pools. I thought it was just moving across the pool, but twice while strutting this way it with it’s head high, it quickly struck to the side, succeeding once in getting a fish.
Saturday, August 20, 2005
A juvenile common tern coming in for a landing on a small rock in the sound, forcing the adult that was occupying the rock off to find a new place to perch.
I spent an hour or so on one of the beaches down in Waterford the other day (the same place and day that the Mystic Whaler shot was taken). I just watched the sound and the shore birds along some of the rocks and jetties. The funny thing about many of these birds is that they see a place where another bird is “perched” and decide that it’s a nice spot to stop. Not that the rock itself is a nice spot - whether the rock is 20 square feet or a half a square foot - no, they decide to land in the exact couple of inches as one of the other birds.
The rock in this photo also was the site of this type of musical chairs game. Over the course of the hour I was there it must have been the temporary perch to at least 30 birds. Some left of their own accord to fly further down the beach, but most, like the adult in the photo, were “pushed” off by another bird landing. I watched cormarants, gulls and terns all displace each other, and even one female duck. It is often comical, especially if the “pushed off” one circles round and reclaims his spot. I watched one pair of cormorants (both juvenile double cresteds) play musical chairs like this with each other repeatedly on a piling in the Mystic estuary. They switched places about 10 times over the course of a 10-15 minute period.
Thursday, August 18, 2005
The Amistad Mystic Whaler sailing east up the Long Island Sound off the coast of Niantic… far off the coast of Niantic. This is a 100% crop from the 400mm. I like how it looks through the haze…sort of takes ya back in time…
I love it when the various sail ships are visible through haze, fog or mist on the estuary and on the sound. Away from the traffic and sounds of the go go fast world, seeing a sailing ship from another era emerge through the haze and mist almost makes me feel as if I have been trasported to a different time. A time when the pace was slower.
Originally I thought this was the schooner Mystic Whaler which operates out of Mystic doing daysails and charter sails in the Long Island Sound as well as sailing up and down the Atlantic coast for races and events. The more I looked at the photo though the more I realized that it couldn’t be her. This schooner has raked masts, and the Mystic Whaler doesn’t. Fortunately though I have ID’d the schooner in this photo…it is the Amistad, the recreation of the famous ship. The new Amistad was built here in Mystic at the Seaport and spends almost as much time here as she does in her home port of New Haven. She also regularly visits New London where her namesake was first put to port after being captured in US Waters.
This picture was taken about the time that it returned to Mystic from New Haven.
On my way to register for my classes I got distracted when I saw this Great Egret in one of the nearby inlets that come off the estuary. After parking nearby and coming back to a suitable place to take the picture, he was gone. A minute later I heard him strike the water near me and then this popped into my view finder. Surprised me to say the least. Of course by his expression I surprised him a bit too. Fortunately he did not find my presence offensive and continued to hunt fish in the inlet while I snapped a few more shots. Odd shaped duck isn’t it?
Scary news of the day is that Radio Open Source wants to interview me about bird photography, geotagging, flickr and associated stuff. Ack? I must not have sounded like a total moron when talking to their researcher then.
