Announcements, Horseneck Beach and Gooseberry Neck

Night Sky over the Dunes at Horseneck Beach

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I spent an evening at Horseneck Beach hoping to see the Aurora. The Aurora Did Not Show up, however, the night sky was great. Orion was shining bright above the dunes and the bathhouse. As we were packed up and ready to leave a couple of nice meteors flew across the sky.

Night Sky and Bathhouse at Horseneck Beach

Night Sky and Bathhouse at Horseneck Beach

Night Sky Looking toward Gooseberry

The next morning I went out to Gooseberry, first to catch the sunrise and then to look for the snowy owl. As we went from nautical dawn to civil dawn, at the horizon there was a nice band of red sky. I said to myself hopefully we are going to have a great sunrise. Nature however is fickle and suddenly the sky turned completely gray. Oh well, no sunrise. My friend who runs his huskies every morning having just finished their run, told me there was posted be a half-hour burst of snow and that could leave up to a half inch of snow on the ground. He also told me where he saw the snowy owl.

Nautical Dawn Looking East from Gooseberry

Civil Dawn Looking East from Gooseberry

The Sky and Horizon Looking East from Gooseberry Just Prior to White out

I put my camera and landscape lens away and started walking up toward the towers on Gooseberry. I was utilizing my Nikon D800 with the 70-200 mm lens plus a 1.7 converter. A light snow started, it was very dry and the air was clean. Arriving at the area with a owl was supposed to be, I could not find it. The snow became heavier on a walk down the east side of the beach and took a few scenics. There were a number of peeps feeding on the wrack line in the snow. And further down, I large number of gulls suddenly flew in the air swirled around and then re-landed. The gulls did this a number of times allowing me to take some semi-blur photographs. I also caught a first-year great black-backed gull preening.

Sea Ice on Rocks in the Snow

Gulls in Flight

Peeps Feeding in the Wrack Line in the Snow

Ice and Snow on Rocks and Ice Flows

First-year Great Black-backed Gull Fluffing Its Feathers after Preening

Although again I did not find the snowy owls, it was a great day again.

I want to remind people, if they are interested that I am leading a photo workshop starting at 6 AM at Gooseberry Sunday, January 12, hoping for a good sunrise and then see what else we can find at Gooseberry. Then we will continue on to photograph Allens Pond and finish up at the stone barn. The cost is $25 and can be  paid that day. We will meet at the parking lot at Gooseberry.

I have been using Topaz plug-ins, especially Clarity, as a part of my post-processing work in both Lightroom and Photoshop. I highly recommend these plug-ins.



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