Joe

Joe catches me taking a shot of him while a fishing boat rumbles just off shore.

Solitude on the Sound

Solitude on the Sound


Cry of Distant Gulls




The Calm on Peconic Bay




Fall Comes to the Apple Orchard



For many more Sky Watch Friday photos from around the world, click here.

Tuesday Morning

Tuesday morning was unseasonably warm for November at 62 degrees. There was no perceptible wind, no sound other than the gentle lap of wavelets, nothing but the changing light in the sky to the east. Nature colored these skies and needed no help from me. I was the only one there but I didn't feel alone.











For more wonderful Sky Watch Friday photos, click here.

Autumn Comes to Dam Pond Maritime Reserve

Dam Pond Maritime Reserve, an area of 36 acres in East Marion, is best known for birders during early spring, mid fall, and winter migration as a place to see over-wintering land birds and water fowl. There is salt scrub and grass, hardwoods and now a grassland restoration project. It is a wonderful shallow tide pond that exits into Orient Harbor. A very narrow sandbar is all that separates the pond from Long Island Sound, yet it has been there through storms and tides as long as anyone can remember. It's a unique spot... well worth a visit.

Lights Enroute to Gardener's Island and the Race

Recently we put the boat in at Greenport Harbor and headed due east to do some fly casting on and beyond the Plum and Gardiners Islands flats. The day was a bit hazy and the air had a little bite to it. We were hoping to catch blue fish, striped bass and false albacore (little tunny) but the weather from the northeast two days earlier had put them down and only the "albies" were spotted under a flock of gulls hitting the water to eat the scraps left by the marauding fish. I fought one briefly before it managed to get unhooked, a risk I take by using only barbless hooks which do almost no damage to the fish I want to release. Only their egos are hurt. The day was not a total loss however. I had my camera and squeezed off a few shots of the light houses we passed along the way and enjoyed the companionship of my boat mates and an excellent packed lunch to be eaten at slack tide waiting for the change to incoming.


Long Beach Bar Light (Bug Light)




Little Gull Light




Plum Island Light




Orient Point Light (the Coffee Pot)




Plum Gut at slack tide with the Coffee Pot to the extreme left and Plum Light on the right. The water goes through this two mile wide gut with depths from 60 to 200 - 300 feet. My brother Bruce would remember a white knuckle passage we made several years ago. Click here for a video made from a powered sailboat fighting the current.



For more photos and commentary about this area and north to Connecticut see Matthew Housekeepers excellent blog "Soundbounder".