(Note: A post I was drafting in August of 2011…the thread of thought is gone, but the Vaudeville of the Air lives on….) When I was a kid, Admiral Donald MacMillan, skipper of the schooner Bowdoin, made at least two lecture stops at Beloit College to recount his explorations in the Arctic. He described in
Tern operating from the fishing pier at Colt State Park, Bristol, RI
Not going to try to play the naturalist here, just reporting: Mom made two passes and attempted to land where Dad was roosting, Dad wasn’t having any of it. Junior watched. The full sequence is at http://flic.kr/p/a6zLq5 and following.
Expectations were pretty low this morning: A gray dawn with low clouds. I walked down the farm road trying to avoid scaring off the wildlife from their usual places but it didn’t make any difference, there was no one out but me. Turning to take the obligatory morning shot (there are hundreds in my portfolio)
Suddenly, an osprey appeared in the woods behind the salt marsh. After a couple of passes it became clear that nesting material was being gathered. We’ve been watching the nests, but this was my first sighting of the year.
Thought I’d spotted a pretty good-sized bird in the treetops (I was on the lookout for a hawk), but it turned out to be this little guy who seemed very pleased with himself, stuffing his face with tree blossoms. He was sixty feet off the ground in the skinny branches – and a 12 mile
On the second day of the New Year, it dawned foggy. My wife questioned the sanity of going out to take pictures in the fog, which is a challenge of sorts. I’ve had the picture above on my computer desktop for a while and – while not vibrant and cheery – it is soothing. And
…but a real fan of sunrise. Upper end of Bristol (RI) harbor, July 30, 2010.
Two geese calling incessantly approaching from the shadows across the Mill Gut, falling silent and flying ten feet overhead and ten feet to the east, then resuming their calling as they skimmed the surface of the bay lit by the glow from the sky. A beautiful set of changing sunrise colors, a bright half moon
I was out walking about three hours before my New Orleans running buddies reported for the Rex Run – beautiful woods in the dark with the snow making things visible. Sounded like a couple of tons of geese on the Mill Gut, squawking in the night. Snow falling in various quantities, from fitful flakes to
Cabbages and kings 
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