Memorial Day at Allens Pond

Least Tern

On Memorial Day there was supposed to be a beach ramble at Allens Pond, however, the people that signed up did not show up so we took a walk anyway.  While we will waiting to see if the people would show up, I was standing outside the field station when I heard a a trilling sound, which I recognized as coming from from a gray tree frog.  So I looked around and on an old sawhorse was the gray tree frog with its throat swollen, because that is how they sing.  As we were starting to walk down toward the beach a strange truck appeared.  It turns out that they were going to sprayed herbicide on the edge of the fields to control some invasive plants.

Gray Tree Frog

On the side of the path to the beach Rosa rugosa were blooming, they are nice flower, however, they are considered invasive. Rosa rugosa is a species of rose native to eastern Asia, in northeastern China, Japan, Korea and southeastern Siberia, where it grows on the coast, often on sand dunes.

Rosa rugosa

One of the piping plovers were running along feeding, while the other one was hidden on the nest.

Piping Plover

A pair of least terns have set up housekeeping again on the beach and we wish them well and hope they will produce a brood and that predators will not bother them.

Least Tern on Nest

What is interesting as you visit the beach is the changes that occur on the beach because of the actions of  the storms and waves, acting on the beach.  Earlier this year, the beach was mostly all sand and now it is loaded with the cobbles.

The Beach January 1

The Beach.  One Month Ago

The Beach on Memorial Day

Perseids Meteor Shower, No; Little Visitor, Yes.

I held my workshop on photographing meteors Saturday night and hopefully we will going to be able to capture the Perseids meteor shower.  I hosted the workshop at the capstone Barn of Allens Pond Massachusetts Audubon Sanctuary, since it is out in the woods and there is less light interference from the surrounding cities.  Besides a PowerPoint presentation on photographing meteors, since there was time available until it beeped grateful viewing, I also gave some introductory tips on using Light Room 4.

However, the weather was against us, and it remained cloudy until around 1 AM when there was some breaks in the clouds.  Stars were visible, but no meteors were seen.  And again, the clouds came in so we quit.  The plan is to return Sunday night, and weather permitting try again.





While moving a tripod, low and behold, on the leg was out tiny visitor-a gray tree frog.  It apparently came in through the open door and climbed on the tripod leg.  I placed him on some leaves that were in a vase and took some photographs and then released the gray tree frog back to the outdoors, where it belongs.  It was a welcome visitor and gave us something different to photograph.



Despite not getting any photographs of meteors a good time was had by all