Tropical Storm Hermine (2016)

9.2.16.4110 — 9.2.16 ~ juvenile laughing gull

Five days ago there were a lot of birds at the beach, perhaps getting ready for Tropical Storm Hermine… I had some fun trying to identify the different stages of life of the laughing gulls…

9.2.16.4126 — 9.2.16 ~ non-breeding adult? or first summer? laughing gull

9.2.16.4130 — 9.2.16 ~ non-breeding adult? or first summer? laughing gull

9.2.16.4144 — 9.2.16 ~ non-breeding adult? or first summer? laughing gull

We had a few gusts of wind which ruffled some feathers…

9.2.16.4154 — 9.2.16 ~ laughing gull with feathers puffed up from a gust of wind

I wondered if the cormorants would be staying out on their island during the storm…

9.2.16.4162 — 9.2.16 ~ cormorants on their exclusive off shore island

The baby great black-backed gull wondered if we would be handing out a french fry. Tim had unintentionally dropped one recently, renewing hopes for some of the younger birds…

9.2.16.4165 — 9.2.16 ~ juvenile great black-backed gull

My friend knows better — he’s content to visit with us. 🙂

9.2.16.4194 — 9.2.16 ~ my herring gull friend with the mangled foot

We also saw a great egret — they don’t often come this close, preferring their island in the middle of one of the salt ponds.

The swan’s pond has mostly dried up due to the drought…

Sharing the estuary by the sea wall, we were amazed to see eight snowy egrets feeding with the great egret, the swan and a flock of Canada geese!

9.2.16.4282 — 9.2.16 ~ swan and snowy egrets

9.2.16.4290 — 9.2.16 ~ great egret, snowy egrets and Canada goose

The calm before the storm… Hermine gave us mostly gale force winds and drizzle. Several branches and many leaves and twigs came off the trees, but no trees were uprooted in our vicinity. That was more than enough excitement for us!

9.2.164274 — 9.2.16 ~ swan and Canada geese

9.4.16.4310 — 9.4.16 ~ USS Truxtun found a safe harbor at Fort Trumbull Pier
New London, Connecticut

Tropical Storm Hermine is supposed to head out to sea south of us, sending us very little rain or wind. (Too bad because we could really use some rain here.) Of more concern is a predicted storm surge of 2-4 feet tomorrow and beach erosion. But Hermine delivered us quite a surprise yesterday, a huge guided-missile destroyer, seeking shelter from the storm.

Today we decided to take a water taxi across the river so I could get a picture of this huge warship. As it happened, three sailors from the ship were on the water taxi, too, and Tim got to talking with them while I was snapping pictures. After the storm passes they will be headed to the Gulf or the Med, which is sailor slang for the Mediterranean Sea. They are hoping for the Med because it is hotter than hell in the Gulf.

When Tim called their ship a boat they corrected him — they refer to it properly as a destroyer. We may think this vessel is huge but they said it is one of the smaller navy ships.

These fellows seemed so young, even younger than our own children. As we go about our busy lives, it’s so easy to forget that our nation is still at war, that so much is being sacrificed. Carry on sailors, and thank you for your service.

9.4.16.4330 — 9.4.16 ~ the USS Truxton dwarfs the Cross Sound Ferry
and New London Ledge Light