July 4, 2012 at the Beach

Anticipating another hot day, we once again decided to make an early start, and got down to be beach at 8 AM sharp(ish).. It was already getting warm, but a slight north breeze kept it tolerable at least on the way up.

Something I'd never seen before; a mass flight of dragonflies.  Over about 5 minutes, there must have been hundreds flying north along the beach.  I've never heard of that.  You can see a few blurry ones in the photo with the crow.

The crow?  It had just been mobbed by a Mockingbird.  It's carrying something away; baby Mockingbird maybe?

 A Mom and kids out for an early walk and dip on the Bay









Skye saved one of her "special" kisses for the baby.

A Morning Glory, that's either native or escaped cultivation to the cliffs.  There's a lot of Morning Glories so I won't pretend to know, or even care much either way.

Trumpet Vine, a native to the Southeastern US, but widely planted elsewhere.  Sometime welcomed, sometimes not.  Hummingbirds like them.

-Wear gloves when handling trumpet vine. Some people will get a rash from handling the foliage, so it's better to err on the cautious side.

-Some modern cultivars are suppose to be less invasive than the trumpet vine found in the ditches and growing wild.

-Do not use a tree as a pole for the trumpet vine to climb. Eventually it will strangle the tree. Use an actual pole or fence instead and again, prune in spring or fall, or even during mild winters.

Baby, It's Hot Outside...

Another 90+ F day.  Still and muggy, too.  We met Joel around 8 AM, but even by then the heat was getting obnoxious.  Still, we managed the usual distance.

Joel was among the lucky who got their power back within one day.

 Sea Nettle probability still 100%.

 Red trying to beat the heat.

Oh, mom, it's just so hot!

Another Morning After

As you may know, if you have power, the mid-Atlantic states including Maryland and Washington DC were hit by powerful thunderstorms last night.  Winds of up to 80 mph were reported, there was widespread damage, at least four deaths, and a millions of people without electric power this morning. 

My own experience was that at about 11:00 PM, I walked Skye.  The night was hot and muggy, but air was totally still, but we could hear and see lightening in the distance.

Within 5 minutes, the winds went from zero to astonishing.  You can see it in the wind data from Cove Point (just down the beach a few miles).  Sustained winds on the water jumped from about 10 to 35 knots sustained, with 55 knot gusts. 

 It was a very impressive thunderstorm, with lots of lightening, but I didn't see or hear any very close.  We also received about a half inch of much needed rain.

Things are much calmer this morning.  On our way to and from the beach we saw lots of downed twigs, and a few major branches, but no trees down on houses.  As of now, SMECO reports approximately 5,000 homes out of power.  We are among the fortunate to have it.  Joel isn't.  But we met him anyway at 8:00 AM, in an effort to beat the heat.

 We were pretty successful; we managed the usual walk, north about 1.5 miles, and back, and only got a little sweat in the old eyeballs...

As post storm days usually are, it was gorgeously clear, and a bit breezy, enough to offset the gathering heat.  It was already 92 F at 9:30 AM this morning.

The dogs found this male Box Turtle being washed around by the surf.  Since Boxers aren't aquatic, I suspect he got washed into the Bay in a gully washer last night, and was trying to figure his way out.  After taking his picture, I put him back up by the Kudzu.  Now it's all up to him.

Joel found this nice Mako Shark's tooth literally in my footsteps; I must have been concentrating on something else.

I found this large Snaggletooth lower tooth a few minutes later.

Welp, the Sea Nettle probability is 100%, and I didn't even need a million dollar oceanographic buoy to tell you that.  All I had to do was look at the beach.

Sunday Beach Report - June 24, 2012

A pretty nice day at the beach again, but the heat and humidity are trying to creep back in.

We had a visitor from the north on the beach today. 

Skye and Red checked him out, and pronounced him safe.  Red even tried to invite him off for a swim, but we decided to keep him dry in case some kid came back for him.

The Ospreys were not as pervasive today; I saw a couple a a distance, but this eagle was out hunting, which might discourage the Ospreys, since an eagle would rather steal from Ospreys than do it's own work any day.  There's a lesson there...

It's the height of Wineberry season.  Wineberry (Rubus phoenicolasius), is a raspberry native to Asia, which has become a widespread invasive in the US.  They like road edges, and disturbed areas like the cliffs.  They're edible, and good, but not really as good as regular raspberries.

An unusually elaborate driftwood structure.  A sun shelter (throw a blanket over it and it becomes shade)?  Or a fake jail?

The girls dipping their toes, and more, in the water.  Fossil collecting was slow, but slightly better than yesterday; nothing picture worthy, however.

Joel and Red discuss dogs with a family down at the beach.

Fine Day at the Beach 6/3/12

I just wish the weather could stay like this all summer.  Sunny, but with puffy clouds (yes, they have a scientific name; screw it). Mid 70s, breezy but not windy.  This is actually a picture from the end of the walk, when Skye decided she'd rather go back down the beach with Red and Joel than go home.  Either that, or she was confused.  She's not saying.

 A perfect day for a father-son kayaking expedition.

 Or professional shark's tooth hunting.  He had scuba gear, but now he's pulling the anchor, either to go to a new site, or give for the day.

 I found lot's of shark's teeth, unfortunately all small.  This is some kind of bone with a distinctive shape; it may be part of a jaw.  I'd like to figure it out; if you know, send a line.

 A perfect day for a sail.

 A small school of bait fish (likely Menhaden, but maybe Bay Anchovy) in shallow water.

 A good day for a sand castle.

Or maybe just a pet or head rub followed by a treat.

Beach Report: June 2, 2012

 An early beach walk this morning, because we had a 10 o'clock meeting.  At the beach we were greeted by a troop of Bay Scouts and their families, helping another scout with his Eagle Scout project, transplanting beach grasses from our natural dunes on the north beach to some recently rebuilt dunes on the south beach.

 Joel and Red remembered to come early. 

We had a large storm in Maryland last night, tornado watches, even a couple touch down, though no where near us. However, as a result the wind was up this morning and from the north, and the Bay was choppy and muddy.

Skye checks out a log that she has checked out a hundred times before.  But you never know, maybe there will be something exciting there this time!

A sheet of crusty algae growing on the cliff face.  These are fueled by the nutrients which get into the groundwater from the numerous septic tanks in our community.  The water seeps through the sand, but hits a clay layer and moves sideways until it come out at the top of the clay on the cliff.

A "wild" rose grows in English Ivy on the cliffs where soil permits.  Both are non-native invasive species.  This rose is clearly a domesticated rose gone wild, as it has the many extra petals that have been added to the basic rose design of 5 petals by gardeners breeding for "showiness."

Oh My, What a Morning at the Beach

Oh my, what a morning!  Sunny, warm, but not too warm, not too humid and just the right amount of breeze.  Weather doesn't get any better than this.

Skye decided that these sun bathers needed checking out.













The water has warmed up to comfortable wading temperatures.  We waded around looking for shark's teeth, but it wasn't really good day for us.











However, Joel brought the big one he found last week for our viewing pleasure.  This is a once a year grade tooth, a fine specimen of what we call the extinct Mako, but which is likely a precursor to the modern Great White Shark.




A good day for a ride on a jet ski.

Or to paddle around in the shallows while silly dad looks for sharks teeth

 Or to paddle around in a kayak.













The flower of the day.  I still haven't figured out what this is.  It's a shrub with leaves like a Black Locust, but a very different flower.

I also took a picture with a flash, and it looked very different, because the flash brought out the purple in the flower, and somehow diminished the orange.

Sunday, May 6 Beach Report

Today was not a repeat of yesterday's good sunbathing weather. It had cooled to the high 50's, and the area was blanketed by clouds.  Looking southeast across the Bay to Taylor's Island, the sky fairly glowers.

Looking north, it didn't look a whole lot better.  The Bay was a bit choppy, but not horrible.

We met Joel and Red on time.  Red found this nice stinky fish to pull out of the surf.  Fortunately, he was persuaded from making a meal out of it.

There were a few of these beetles washed up on the beach.  This one was battered, but still crawling.  What amazing colors!

Salsify, or Goat's Beard (Tragopogon sp., probably dubius).

Some kind of Milkweed (Asclepias) that is quite common on the dunes.

Pollination in this genus is accomplished in an unusual manner. Pollen is grouped into complex structures called pollinia (or "pollen sacs"), rather than being individual grains or tetrads, as is typical for most plants. The feet or mouthparts of flower visiting insects such as bees, wasps and butterflies, slip into one of the five slits in each flower formed by adjacent anthers.

The bases of the pollinia then mechanically attach to the insect, pulling a pair of pollen sacs free when the pollinator flies off. Pollination is effected by the reverse procedure in which one of the pollinia becomes trapped within the anther slit.

While editing the picture above, I accidentally hit the "threshhold" control in GIMP. I kind of liked the effect. I played with it for a minutes, and decided to keep this one....