Memorial Day Beach Ramble

Doug explaining

Memorial day morning, my colleague Doug led a Beach ramble for Allens Pond Massachusetts Audubon Sanctuary.  There was a great turnout with at least 24+ adults and 3+ children, there were a family sitting on the beach, with chairs, and with their children building castles but once explained the regulations for the beach they actually joined our ramble.  Doug did his usual excellent job of explaining a number of the items that were found on the beach and elsewhere on the walk.  The older children had a great time finding items for Doug to explain about them.  My plan was to do some macro photography, which I did, but due to the large side of of the group I also did some education to people about what we found and what was located around the sanctuary.  My son and his girl did photograph a number of the bird species that we identified.

People on the ramble

people on the ramble

Buttercup with a Cuckoo Wasp

Beach Plum

Our Not so Friendly Plant-Poison Ivy

Glossy Ibis in Flight Taken by Jenna

Catbird

Common Eider

Tree Swallows Mating

Yellow Warbler

Snowy Egret

In all, I agree with Doug, this was our best ramble, and the number of people want to come on more rambles, and also do some volunteer work, plus a few wanted a basic photography course which I will set up later with the sanctuary.

Map of the walk

If anybody is interested in joining other programs that Allens Pond Sanctuary, has you can check on this site at http://www.massaudubon.org/get-outdoors/program-catalog#results:sanctuary=25

Hope to see you all on one of the summer rambles.




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A Long Morning at Gooseberry

Milky Way panorama at Gooseberry

Saturday, we spent a long morning at Gooseberry, from 3:15 AM until 7:30 AM.  It was a very clear night, with a brisk wind blowing in the Milky Way rising out of the Southwest and continuing overhead toward the Northeast.  The Milky Way presented different opportunities to photograph from various positions.  In fact, in some of the photographs, we even captured meteors and satellites.

Milky Way at Gooseberry

Milky Way at Gooseberry

Milky Way at Gooseberry

A few clouds started drifting in and as we waited for dawn to break, I took pictures of astronomical, nautical and civil dawn and then finally the sunrise.  We had some good color, but, if there were more clouds.  I think we would had had better color.  At the time of astronomical dawn, I was able to photograph the Big Dipper, Cassiopeia and Polaris.

Astronomical Dawn with the Big Dipper, Cassiopeia and Polaris

Nautical Dawn

Civil Dawn

sunrise

After sunrise, I utilize the golden light to take some landscapes along with different birds in flight.  What really made it interesting was the number of common loons flying overhead, which present the great subjects to photograph.

Landscape In the Golden Light

Common Loon in the Golden Light

Common Grackle's in the Golden Light

A wedge of swans flew from West to East and I was able to get one picture with the wings of the swans almost up and down.

Wedge of Mute Swans

Yellow warblers were flitting around and presented great subjects to photograph in a flowering tree.

Yellow Warbler in a Flowering Tree

Common Yellowthroat

To process the Milky Way photographs.  I utilized Collier's suggestion in his new book that I recently reviewed. http://photobee1.blogspot.com/2015/05/colliers-guide-to-night-photography-in.html



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Pictures of the Month

Here are my choices for pictures of the month for July 2013 and August 2012.

The July 2013 picture is a Yellow Warbler surrounded by Beach Roses.  The photograph was taken on Gooseberry Neck in Westport, Massachusetts.

The August 2012 picture is a Least Tern Chick being watch by an adult Least Tern.  The picture was taken at Horseneck Beach in Westport, Massachusetts.

Some of the Findings on Our Gooseberry Walk

Yellow Warbler in Rosa Ruguso

Now that I did my rant about the trash on Gooseberry, here are some of the pictures that I obtained during our walk.  The day was bright and sunny, with a cool breeze.  It started out in the high 60s and then ended up in the low 80s.  We saw about 40 different species of birds, many were on the wing, and migrating.  In fact, starting at sunrise, there has been a lot of different species of birds flying in from over the water.  The birds that landed were nervous and flighty, so it was hard to get pictures of many of them.  At one point, in the wrack, there were a number of Ruddy Turnstones, Semipalmated Sandpipers, Spotted Sandpiper, Semipalmated Plover and Some Sandelings.  Ospreys were flying overhead.  The blackberries was starting to turn.  Japanese honeysuckle, which is an invasive plant, was still in bloom.  As we were leaving down the Causeway, on the left out by the large rock, was a male black scoter and some common eiders, including a partially luestic eider, which at first glance thought maybe an immature king eider, but after looking at its picture on the computer, confirmed that was a common eider.

Robin with prey in its beak

Carolina Locust blends in well with the rock

Partial Luestic Common Eider

Herring Gull

Spotted Sandpiper

Ruddy Turnstone in the wrack

Balanced Rock Art

Japanese Honeysuckle  an invasive plant, but is pretty

Willet

Yellow Warbler

A Morning at Daniel Webster Massachusetts Audubon Sanctuary

Yellow Warbler with Inchworm

As I mentioned in my last blog, I went out photographing and traveled down to Daniel Webster Massachusetts Audubon Sanctuary.  When we left the house, there was cloudy and a little windy and, when we arrived at the sanctuary, it was drizzling, windy, and the temperatures were in the low 40s.  During the morning intermittently it cleared up on an off.  The main problem most of the time was the birds would just flying back and forth and not landing anywhere for decent photos.  We were set up in the morning blind.  However, by waiting long enough a few birds did honor us by coming in and letting us take their picture.

Yellow warblers were flitting back and forth and landing in the bushes capturing inchworm caterpillars.

Yellow Warbler with Inchworm

Tree swallows were flitting back and forth in one landed in front of us, and was preening.

Tree Swallow Preening

A Spotted Sandpiper made its appearance flying from rock to rock.

Spotted Sandpiper

Spotted Sandpiper in Flight

Normally, the logs a loaded with painted turtles sunning themselves, but today only one made its appearance.

Painted Turtle Climbing the Log

Walking back to the car, a male bobolink was on the top of the grasses seeing in its boisterous song.  I took this picture at eye level with the bobolink.

Bobolink Singing

Although there was not a lot of different photo opportunities, we made the best of what was there.  Other people joined us and the blind and we had good discussions about birding, photography, equipment's, so all in all, it was a good morning