Hi All! I know I sometimes sound like a broken record on these posts, but some things really make me smile ;) Oh, for those who are not ancient, vinyl records would sometimes get scratches which made them skip. Sometimes that old album would repeat the same partial phrase over and over and over and over until you moved the tone arm. I know, back when the brontosaurus roamed… Anyway, that is what a “broken record” is…
I spent the weekend on Cape Cod. Saturday was a beautiful day, though it started very windy. I took a long walk in the woods in the morning, where the high winds didn’t matter. I did an equally long walk on the beach in the afternoon. The wind was not coming off of the water, so it was easy. But I also noticed that it had died down quite a bit.
Yesterday I posted some of the photos I took at the end of May and through June. There were tons of photos, but I was missing the osprey. Well, here they are!
Anyway, as I said yesterday, I am planning three posts:
As some of you know, I had on order of 1200 recent photos to dig through. Others may remember that I bought a new super-telephoto zoom lens in May. Because of the large numbers involved, I decided to split it into three posts:
Quick background: After the initial photos I posted in May, I did some walk around in New Hampshire and a long weekend on Cape Cod over Memorial Day weekend (last weekend in May). This was a time I was doing a lot of testing and experimenting. I took about 400 photos. I then spent two weeks on Cape Cod, with a bit of time off, in the middle of June. I spent a lot of time on the kayak taking photos and a few walks in the salt marshes and woods. This came in at about 800 photos.
Hi All! This week was pretty good over here. I spent the weekend on Cape Cod and the weather, while on the cool side, was pretty good on Saturday. Cool, but I still spent some time on the beach and (brr) even went in the water. This is where the smile comes in.
West Dennis Beach is a very popular beach and is pretty long. I ran down there on Saturday morning and noticed that they had the main beach closed off most of the day, opening it from 8 – 5. The residence beach was still open. Also, the last half of the access road was closed to car traffic and the dunes surrounded by ropes.
It is piping plover nesting season, and some have chicks in those dunes, so…
Anyway, I was on the residence beach in the early afternoon. It is far from the protected dunes, so I wasn’t thinking about plovers. Also, though there were a lot of people on the main beach, the residence beach was empty. I took a walk and then went in to swim in the cold water (the water was actually almost as warm as the air,but the air was cool…)
When I came out of the water, I walked up, reached down for my towel, only to have something skitter out from underfoot.
A piping plover.
It hunkered down in a nearby divot (almost invisible), so I backed up a few steps as I dried. It got up and wandered a little farther off. As I was watching I saw another movement. A little puff came out of the dunes and greeted the plover. As I was watching the baby, some people walked by and stopped right behind me. I turned and there was a third plover just behind me. It skittered by and then hunkered down in some nearby dried sea grass where it was invisible if you didn’t know it was there.
After the people walked away leaving an empty beach, the baby went down to the water’s edge. The first plover, who I think was the father, hung out not far from me while the other, which I call the mother, stayed hidden.
I laid down on my towel and watched them. After a while the chick came back up, but pretty far down the beach. The father went down to greet it as it came up closer to the dunes. I looked away for a moment and lost them, but I still saw the momma.
I was pretty dry by then, so I took off leaving the little plovers to enjoy the almost empty beach on their own.
Here is a photo of a baby plover I took several years ago. The adults are small and the chicks are tiny.
So that was my smile for the week, hanging on the beach with a plover family.
What made you smile?
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Come on, I’m sure you smiled at least once last week. Why don’t you share it? I hope you can join in!
Here is list of “rules” and guiding ideas. If you don’t have time to read it right now, just remember that this is an exercise to spread positivity. Don’t smile about the misfortune of others. Don’t smile in a way to excludes others. Make sure a 12 year old can read it.
To join in, write a post to share your smile and then leave a comment on this post with a link to your smile. Or, if you prefer, do a pingback to this post (pingback = have a link from your post to this one) (Note – pingbacks have been very inconsistent – please leave a comment :) ). You can post any time until next Sunday evening (to be simple, I will say midnight GMT, which is 7 PM Sunday for me). Note – I am no longer compiling the smiles into a weekly post as I used to – Sorry, I do not have time.
The other day I posted several photos of the snowy owls that I saw last week. I had a few people suggest that I put up more photos. OK, here are a whole bunch! I hope you enjoy. (Click on photo to get better detail).
I spent a lot of time walking on West Dennis beach last week. It isn’t my favorite beach, but it is very close. I was a bit surprised by the numbers of people walking despite the cool and damp weather, but that was fine – I can share ;)
I always start off at the far eastern point of the beach and turn back at different places depending on my mood. On Wednesday, despite my late start (I worked all day), I decided to walk down to the jetty by the river’s mouth. I had noticed a lot of people in one spot, many with cameras, just a little beyond where I’d turned back the day before and so I decided to investigate.
Yep, there was a snowy owl in the dunes. It was pretty dark by then, but I watched it for a few minutes before it flew off.
Hello and Welcome! Come on over, sit over there and I’ll get you a nice strong dark roast, a cuppa tea or other beverage. It is a little cool, but the sun feels great and there is no wind. Yesterday was a bit on the ugly side and a storm passed through, but other than that, it has been a gorgeous week. Sorry I am a little behind, but I just returned from a long paddle on the kayak. Oh, where are we? Some of you may recognize the photo at the top as begin from Cape Cod.
I drove down from new Hampshire on Sunday evening and came into a cold house – it was 48 F (9 C) inside of the house! It was a few degrees warmer outside, even at 10 PM. Yeah, so I made the best of it, slept in the cold, and got up and worked in the morning. In the cold. Brrrr. I took a few hours off of work at the end of the day and ran out to buy a thermocoupler for the heater. Back home and it took just a few minutes to fix. And I have heat!
Hello and Welcome! Come on over and sit down. It’s still a little chilly, but we are out of the wind here and it is sunny, so pleasant. I’ll get you a very strong dark roast, a cuppa tea or a hot cocoa. The wind is nasty, but it’s a beautiful day! Oh, were are we? Some of you may recognize that photo at the top as coming from Cape Cod.
I drove down Wednesday night, as typical. I got early, showered had breakfast and wanted to go watch the sun rise, but decided to start my work day first. Well, I do wish I had gotten to the landing 15 minutes earlier, but it was still gorgeous! This is over what is called the Grand Cove.
After work I went for a long walk in the woods and then went down for a walk on the beach. At the end of the walk I took a photo of the setting sun, to go along with that morning’s rising sun.
Friday was even nicer that Thursday – a beautiful spring day! I did a few short walks during the day when work would let me, then a long run after work. I did my typical Cape run, which goes from my house, down to West Dennis Beach, and then along the beach (on a road/parking area) for about a mile and a half (about 2 km), then back. It’s a great run. After showering, I spent about 45 minutes at the two landings near my house and took this sunset photo over the Bass River.
It was a great evening!
I attempted a walk on my favorite beach this morning, but… First, I was turned back by a huge dune across the road with a truck stuck halfway over it! I went to another beach, climbed over the 6 foot/2 m tall dune that had grown over night, and out to the water. It was windy. Uhm, that word does not do it justice. I have been out during a hurricane, and it was windier today. No early morning beach walk ;)
So, I have often said that I have “Covid-long hair”. What do I mean by that? Not a good picture (phone selfies are rarely good for anyone because of the massive distortion), and you can’t see how far down my back it goes, but…
Anyway, are you looking a bit different because of Covid?
Before I came down, I went through some old photos so I could clear the memory card. I like this one from the full moon we had a couple of weeks (or so) ago.
That’s about it for my week. I did write a lot but blog little (for me), I exercised and ran, I had massage, I did dog play the first half of the week and all of the typical.
And I plan to get out as much as possible today! Yeah, I can easily avoid the wind – I just won’t try Chapin Beach again!
Thanks for stopping by! If you have a coffee share, I will try to visit, but no promises – I plan on being outside all day, and I have to drive back to New Hampshire.
Last week was stressful. It wasn’t just what you are thinking. Work was tough. There was a mis-delivery that was not fun. Etc. But this weekend more than made up for it!
I spent the entire weekend on Cape Cod. It was unseasonably warm, and was sunny. I did a long walk on my favorite beach both Saturday and Sunday, rolling up my pant-legs and wading in the (frigid) water.
Hello and Welcome! Come on over and I’ll get you a large mug of super strong dark roast, a cuppa tea or some other beverage. It is relatively warm out, though super windy. Back here, behind the house, next to the barn, is protected and not too bad. Where are we? Some may recognize that Edward Gorey mug as being from Cape Cod.
I drove down here to “The Cape” on Wednesday evening. I had to work Thursday, but that got me up in time to walk to one of the landings and watch the sun rise.
Trent's World (the Blog) 