waterbirds – Page 13 – In the Woods

this moment, exactly as it is

10.16.17 ~ Nauset Beach, Orleans, Massachusetts

In October my sister and I spent a couple of nights at the Nauset Knoll Motor Lodge in Orleans on Cape Cod. The big draw was that the motel had a short path to Nauset Beach, a ten mile stretch of seashore facing the open Atlantic. We could hear the waves from our motel room. Pure joy!

Wildlife sightings: from the road we saw wild turkeys and a coyote; hopping across our path to the beach we saw a bunny; and at the beach we saw gulls of course, and a little plover running along the water’s edge, and a seal bobbing in the waves.

One afternoon we spent two hours meandering on the beach. Nothing but sand, sea and sky as far as our eyes could see. Beverly, the geologist, was collecting stones, and I was taking pictures. And contemplating the universe, the oneness of all things.

Being awake. Resting in the happening of this moment, exactly as it is. Relaxing the need to understand or to make things different than they are. Opening the heart. Just this — right here, right now.
~ Joan Tollifson
(Resting in the Happening of this Moment)

We already have everything we need. There is no need for self-improvement. All these trips that we lay on ourselves — the heavy-duty fearing that we’re bad and hoping that we’re good, the identities that we so dearly cling to, the rage, the jealousy and the addictions of all kinds — never touch our basic wealth. They are like clouds that temporarily block the sun. But all the time our warmth and brilliance are right here. This is who we really are. We are one blink of an eye away from being fully awake.
~ Pema Chödrön
(Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living)

Few places on the earth possess a nature so powerful and so unspoiled that it would remind anyone living in a concrete world that he once belonged to a pre-industrial civilization.
~ Liv Ullmann
(Changing)

It was windy and chilly and we were bundled up well. I even wore my mittens when I was not taking pictures. But eventually it was time to go back to our room and get ready for dinner. So back up the path to the motel. Our window was the one on the right in the white section of the building. There are only 12 rooms. A quiet, beautiful, windswept place to stay.

view of our room from the path leading to the beach
Nauset Knoll Motor Lodge, Orleans, Massachusetts

view from our room, a hill with a path through the brambles,
the parking lot and the beach are between the lawn and the water

I hope I will come back here again one day…

an old friend returns

7.22.17 ~ my gull friend at Eastern Point Beach

Guess who’s back? Monday evening at the beach I was sad that I still hadn’t seen my gull friend with the mangled foot. But Friday night I spotted him! He was up to his old tricks and promptly stole a foot-long hot dog from a woman sitting at one of the picnic tables. After devouring it on a rock nearby he flew away without evening stopping by to say hello.

But tonight (Saturday) he made up for it, flying right to the white post in front of us. He talked to us for quite a while as you can see from these pictures. Not sure what he’s got stuck on his beak — maybe a feather from another gull? Maybe he was complaining about it — he sure had a lot to say about something or other.

It was nice to see him looking so self-assured and sprightly. 🙂

We didn’t stay long. There was no sea breeze for some reason. Barely any waves. It was hazy and muggy and none of the sailboats had their sails up. The ocean has many moods.

dinnertime

7.17.17 ~ great egret at Eastern Point Beach

While Tim & I were eating our supper at the beach last night we noticed a great egret fishing for a meal. After we finished I decided to see how close I could get to him for some pictures. He didn’t seem to notice me at all, his attention was so focused on fish in the water.

Got it!

The fish put up a good struggle but the egret kept at it until he got the fish in the right position to gulp it down.

It was really over quite fast ~ my eye didn’t see as much as the “sports” setting on the camera was able to capture.

I’m amazed he didn’t drop the fish at some point!

Ready to swallow!

And then it was gone. Followed by a quick sip of water…

Since he was still studying the water I wondered if he was preparing for another strike or if he needed to wait a little to make room for more.

My sister and I saw a great egret fishing at the beach back in 2013, but I didn’t have my camera that morning. This is the first time I got a picture of one with a fish in its mouth! I’m still bubbling with excitement. 🙂

For 32 years the concession stand at our beach was run by Bob & Pat Garcia, but sadly, Pat died this past April. We miss them terribly! Their foot-long hot dogs were inexpensive and very high quality. We always had one with sauerkraut on it. Someone else is running the stand now and we’re doing our best to get used to the change. The hot dogs and sauerkraut are not nearly as good. But last night we sampled a handcrafted hamburger and decided we could live with that and continue our summer tradition, slightly altered.

I haven’t seen my gull friend with the mangled foot this year, so that is making me a little melancholy, as well. But having a chance to photograph the great egret catching his dinner brightened my mood considerably. 🙂

strawberry full moonlight

6.9.17 ~ Avery Pond ~ great egret by Timothy Rodgers

It looks like Tim has found a new way to unwind after work ~ taking more great pictures!

6.9.17 ~ Avery Point Light with full strawberry moon by Timothy Rodgers

Full strawberry moon! Signal to start gathering strawberries!

a point of connection

6.2.17 ~ Avery Pond, Groton, Connecticut
great egret by Timothy Rodgers

The camera is an excuse to be someplace you otherwise don’t belong. It gives me both a point of connection and a point of separation.
~ Susan Meiselas
(Whitney Museum of American Art: Handbook of the Collection)

black-crowned night heron (?) by Timothy Rodgers

One evening last week Tim took the camera down to the beach and the salt pond and came home with these beautiful shots! I’m pretty sure the bird above is a black-crowned night heron, but if I’m wrong I hope someone will correct me…

The swan, like the soul of the poet,
By the dull world is ill understood.
~ Heinrich Heine
(Early Poems, Evening Songs)

When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.
~ Ansel Adams
(3000 Astounding Quotes)

double-crested cormorant by Timothy Rodgers

Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.
~ Dorothea Lange
(Ancestors in the Attic: Making Family Memorabilia into History)

courting pair of double-crested cormorants by Timothy Rodgers

under-lighting

Early this morning we saw something beautiful that we had never seen before. Gulls flying overhead with the sun rays of dawn under-lighting their wings. It was as if they had shiny reflectors on the underside of their wings ~ breathtaking…

The patient (Tim) has had his last meal at his favorite restaurant and we’ve stocked up on clear liquids and chewing gum. Not looking forward to driving to the hospital in a snow storm tomorrow morning.

nature not dualistic

glaucousgull-usfws — glaucous gull by Art Sowls
Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska

Nature isn’t dualistic. It isn’t merely a collection of separate parts. It doesn’t throw anything away. It recycles everything. And it doesn’t operate out of a desire to improve things. While we fixate on the parts, nature acts out of the Whole.
~ Steve Hagen
(Buddhism Is Not What You Think: Finding Freedom Beyond Beliefs)

maritime heritage festival

9-9-16-4419 — 9.9.16 ~ the tugboat “Patricia Ann” leads the parade,
shooting celebratory sprays of water into the air

Last weekend we went to the Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival. The weather was terribly hot and unbearably humid, but we pressed on… You can see how hazy it was in the pictures. I love tall ship parades. After the parade we went home to recuperate in our air conditioning. When you can’t cool off standing by the sea it is just too hot.

9-9-16-4432 — 9.9.16 ~ pretty sure this is the schooner “Columbia”
home port Panama City, Florida

9-9-16-4463 — 9.9.16 ~ pretty sure this is the schooner “Brilliant”
home port Mystic, Connecticut

9-9-16-4473 — 9.9.16 ~ schooner “Mystic Whaler”
home port New London, Connecticut

9-9-16-4480 — 9.9.16 ~ spectators at Eastern Point Beach

9-9-16-4503 — 9.9.16 ~ pretty sure this is the schooner “Amistad”
home port New London, Connecticut

9-9-16-4556 — 9.9.16 ~ another spectator

Later on we went over to New London to take a dinner cruise on the Mystic Whaler. I have a bit of history with this schooner. Back in the early 1980s two of my aunts signed up for a two-night cruise to Block Island. But just before they were to leave, one aunt got sick and couldn’t make it. The other aunt insisted I go with her, which I did, very reluctantly. I had three small children and didn’t want to leave them for two nights!

The cruise was a mixture of very high and very low experiences. I loved the sailing and the meals grilled outside on the deck and the captain singing and playing his guitar when we were anchored for the night. I just wished I was there with my husband! Sadly, though, my period came early and heavy and it was a struggle to use the “head” (bathroom) correctly. And in the next cabin was a teenage boy and his mother. They were up most of the night, or so it seemed, as the mother pounded his back trying to loosen the stuff in his lungs. He had cystic fibrosis and his suffering tugged at my heart.

So one day Tim surprised me with tickets for the dinner cruise. The following pictures were taken from the ship…

9-9-16-4586 — 9.9.16 ~ New London Harbor Light

9-9-16-4607 — 9.9.16 ~ New London Ledge Light

9-9-16-4665 — 9.9.16 ~ Zbierski House at Eastern Point Beach (our beach!)
it looks so different from the mouth of the Thames River

9-9-16-4666 — 9.9.16 ~ Tyler House at Eastern Point Beach
the benches behind the fence with the white posts are where
Tim & I usually sit to have our supper in the summer

As it turned out this cruise had its share of negative aspects, too. It was still so hot outside that I never needed the jacket I brought, figuring it would be cool out on the water. And I wish we had been informed that most of the tickets were held by a raucous group of people celebrating a birthday. They brought their own drinks and things got lively very quickly. Someone even started choking on his food and luckily someone else was there to perform the Heimlich maneuver on him.

So much for romance at sea!

before the storm

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