Butterflies at the Beach

And yet another steamy morning at the beach.  It was already well into its way into the 80s as we got to the beach.  However, a nice southwest wind, helped quite a bit without making the Bay rough.

Just one of those weird things.  In a couple of places we foundlarge numbers of Bay Anchovy (Anchoa mitchilli), washed up and being sun dried at the high tide mark.  Pushed up and stranded by predators?  Avoiding low oxygen?  I can't see an obvious reason.

Bay anchovy are one of the most abundant fish in the Bay, and form huge schools that often look like rain on the water, and are often called rain minnows.

A father and son out enjoying an inflatable kayak.

 Butterflies!  There were lots of Eastern Tiger Swallowtails on the beach today, and I do mean on the beach, as they seemed to be "puddling"; finding damp spots on the sand to sip water from.  All were yellow phase except...

 ...this one.  We must have seen over 20 swallowtails, today, and this was the only dark one.  It's marked very much like the one I photographed at home in the woods yesterday, which makes me feel a lot better about my tentative ID of it as a dark Eastern Tiger Swallowtail.

After I disturbed this one, she went over to the Coltsfoot to rest, and gave me another great shot.

It's hot! Can we go home now?

Last July Beach Report, 2012

Only one beach report this weekend; with Alex and Kelly staying yesterday morning on their way back from the Left Coast, we didn't get ready until it was way too hot and muggy.

It was a pretty nice morning; a bit of a front last night left us a lot cooler (in the high 70s) and less humid, with a decent NE breeze.  The breeze set up a nice "wave" over the cliffs, and the Ospreys and Eagles were out taking advantage of it.




A young Eagle, in a sort of mottled plumage.  It was all up and down the cliffs all morning  I wasted a lot of pixels trying to get a decent picture of this bird.  This one isn't great, and I stepped all over the brightness and contrast to bring out the pattern.  He might be this years fledgeling.

A family preparing for a jaunt out in their little inflatable boat, equipped with an electric trolling motor.

 And out on the bay.

A woman hunting fossils with a and held strainer.  It looked like it should be a good day, with lots of shell hash exposed, but Georgia and I found very few.

I did find this fossil fish vertebra though, which is pretty rare, so it wasn't a total wash.

Skye was feeling pretty energetic, after a day off from competing with a smaller and more energetic bitch...

 She even managed a run now and then.

An Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly in flight.












The probability of Sea Nettles is still 100%.












A Great Blue Heron trying to find a bid to eat on a beach full of people.  Feeling squeezed between us and the oncoming walkers, it flew away a few seconds after this.









By the time we were done with the walk, the beach was starting to get busy.

Concert Review: Lynyrd Skynyrd!

In the shade of the water tower

I apologize for the slow blogging lately, but hey, life happens, too.  The reason I slacked off kast night was that Georgia and I went to the Lynyrd Skynyrd concert at the St. Leonard Volunteer Fire Department.  The fire department, which serves our area has a number of concerts during the summer, which are their major fund raisers.  They're mostly very country types of acts, but we go to one or two a year, just for fun, and to help the fund raising.

Click on the pics to embiggen.

One of the fun things at concerts is people watching.  Skynyrd concerts (this is our second) bring out a different crowd. Lots of old geezers in funny clothing.  Oh wait; that's us...  And lots of young people too.  I was so flattered to get my wrist band so I could buy a $5 beer.

Drake White and his band opened for Skynyrd.  Mostly young people, Drake White (the acoustic guitar second from the left) is a wanna be Hank Williams Jr.  It was OK, but the violinist on the right was the star IMHO.

Rick from Pawn Stars seems to be their drummer.  But they seemed to be having fun, and everybody in St. Leonard was drinking beer so it was OK.

By the time they finished their fairly short set, the sun was setting over the ranks of porta-potties, and the buses carrying Skynyrd was pulling into the lot.

As you're probably aware, Skynyrd is pretty much reformed from remnants of the original band after a number of deaths, including a plane crash in 1977 which killed and crippled some of the original members, including the founding lead singer  Ronnie Van Zandt.

Skynyrd  was, well Skynard.  They sounded pretty much like the original recordings but conveyed a lot of energy.  It must be hard to do some days...

When the band reformed in 1987, Ronnie's brother Johnny took over the role, and does a pretty good job of looking and sounding like his older brother.

Gary Rossington is the only founding member still with the group.  One of three guitartists, I would say he is the least flamboyant.  Perhaps he has less to prove.

Not quite a founding member, but close, Rickey Medlocke grew up with the original cast, and played and sang with the band some in the 70's.  He had his own band 'Blackfoot' which played from the late 60s to the early 90s.  He is, in fact, a Blackfoot Indian Native American.  He joined Skynyrd in 1996.

Mark Matejka, the third guitarist, joined the band in 1996, after 'Hot Apple Pie", 'The Charlie Daniels Band' and 'Sons of the Desert'.

Michael Cartellone, drummer for the band since 1999, and formerly of 'Damn Yankees' and 'Accept'.

Peter Keys (Peter Pisarczyk) joined Skynyrd in 2009 as keyboardist, following the death of Billy Powell, an almost founder, having arisen from the roadie ranks in 1972. 

The twirling girls.  Back up vocalists and visual highlights.  I can't figure out their names, oh wait, from the Skynyrd site itself:

Honkettes:
Dale Krantz Rossington- Backing Vocals
Carol Chase- Backing Vocals 

Anyway, it was a good night.  Beer was drunk, music was listened to, and money was raised for the local fire department.

Your Friday Flipping Monkey Dacker Post

It's not much, but it's pretty...

Forced Perspecitve

I didn't know that's what it is called, but it makes sense:

See the other 50 examples.  Have to think about trying a few of these.

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.

Fishing Report June 19, 2012

Trevor and I left the harbor about 6:30 PM, hoping for a little luck fishing.  We had only been fishing a while when these two ships appeared in the distance.  I don't know for sure, but I think the tall ship is Cisne Branco, from Rio de Janero, Brazil, at least the flag matches...

I don't know what the naval vessel was, but it was fast; it passed the tall ship in a minute, and sent a huge wake over to our side of the bay.

Location X

  Fishing, well, stunk.  We found a bunch of small Striped Bass, and we could have caught hundreds had we anchored, but we only found a couple of keeper sized fish on top water gear near shore and both of them threw the hook.  Oh well; next time.  Trevor also almost had a single Atlantic Croaker on a blood worm, but it too threw the hook just before it made it in the boat.

We did, however, have a very impressive sunset.  I had a hard time choosing the best shot....

Wow, It Really Works

Wildlife camera catches Austrian politician having sex in the woods

An Austrian politician is in line to get up to £16,000 in compensation after a hidden camera used for snapping wildlife photographed him having sexual intercourse in a forest. The politician, who has not been named, will get the money if a court rules the photographs violated his privacy.

Carefully concealed, placed well away from areas frequented by people and packing motion sensors the camera was designed to record the wildlife of the forest in the Austrian region of Carinthia. Infrared technology also gives it the ability to shoot in the dark but instead of deer and other grazing animals the camera caught the politician’s physical liaison.

Legal experts said the camera contravenes Austrian laws restricting the use of surveillance cameras. Hans Zeger, president of Argen Daten, an NGO specialising in data protection, said official permission was needed to place the camera, and “at the very least is should have been marked with signs so visitors could adjust their behaviour and avoid the monitored areas.”

But the Carinthia Hunting Society, the organisation which placed the camera, defended the use of the spying equipment. “I cannot say for sure how many cameras are in operation in forests in Carinthia as they do not have to be registered to us,” said Freydis Burgstaller-Gredenegger, the society’s manager. “We have never had any problems with the cameras up until now.”

What I'm curious about is how the politician found out he was on candid camera.  And whether they have any other good footage...

To Catch a Poacher

Department of Natural Resources increases use of radar, camera 

To better monitor the Chesapeake Bay and reduce poaching, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources is moving toward enhanced and increased surveillance.

Later this year, the Maritime Law Enforcement Information Network is scheduled to go online. The network, which will consist of camera and radar units, is part of an initiative to upgrade the Maryland Natural Resources Police's fleets."This will give us 24/7 surveillance of areas in the Chesapeake and it provides us with information about what's going on out in maritime waters," said Lt. Art Windemuth, NRP spokesman. "It allows us to better protect our maritime structure that is so vital to the state's economic success."

When fishing "Location X", I always assume that I'm on camera.

Yet another gorgeous day at the beach.  The weather is warm, in the 80 F range, with a slight breeze, and hardly a cloud in the sky.  By the time we got down there, several groups had already arrived.

This neighbor was playing fetch with the dog.  Well, the dog was playing fetch, while she played throw.

 After yesterday, I was on the watch for butterflies.  The usual little white jobs (that's about my level of taxonomic sophistication with them) were all over the little milkweed plants up in dunes.

 Then this one, a Zebra Swallowtail, (Protographium marcellus), landed right at my feet where it was probably sipping the salt water off the sand, and allowed me to photograph it repeatedly.  Unfortunately, it never opened its wings to the allow me to get a perfect shot.  The caterpillar for these butterflies live on Paw Paw trees:

This butterfly rarely strays far from its host plant, pawpaw, and is found in habitats where the trees grow. Such habitats include deciduous woodlands, southern pine woodlands, prairies, and savannas. The Zebra Swallowtail does poorly in developed areas, and prefers intact habitats.

It was a pretty high tide, and a poor day for fossils, which is sad, because Long Beach is having it's biannual fossil day today, and they are having a beach walk, well, about now as I write this. 










It's hard on a Siberian Husky who still has most of her winter coat (she hates to brushed), but at least she can take a dip to coll off.

There was a large group of 'yakkers out today.  We heard that Calvert County and the Chestnut Land Trust were sponsoring a paddle from Scientists Cliffs to Flag Ponds Park.  We talked to a couple of them who put in briefly at Calvert Beach.

No, the crab boat isn't that close to them, it's an artifact of the zoom lens that makes it seem that way.

 Just a pretty beach picture

And another.