| Sunday, September 28, 2014 | | Summer's End | The sun is out (finally); the winds have abated (finally); I have a new CenturyLink modem and can once again blog (finally); and I have some unscheduled time today to spend in the company of some Confusing Fall Warblers (finally)!
I can hardly believe two months have gone by since I began to deal with my computer issues at home. In that time, most of the osprey have left for warmer weather, although I did see one today in Duck. Fall warblers have begun to pass through on their annual migration and the town boardwalk at Duck is a splendid place to see many examples of these migrants. My memory of August is filled with wind and my September recollections hold little sun. I’m sure we had lovely, still August days and (perhaps) a few lovely, still September ones, but the last two months of summer could have “cool, damp, gray” scrawled across most of their pages as an accurate summary. Weatherunderground’s weather history confirms; last year in August and September combined, we had about 8” of rain. This year, we’ve had nearly 21”! We barely cracked 90 degrees in August once or twice, definitely cooler than our average summer. This weekend is the first without whipping nor’east winds in weeks.
That said, I do have some adventures to share. One downside about not blogging more often is that the mind forgets where the feet have been. That is one reason I photograph—to remember; the image connects me back to that moment and the full sensory experience.
At the end of August I attended a Loggerhead Turtle release in Nags Head. Having before seen only the Green Sea Turtle release, I was unprepared for how comparatively large (and heavy) the Loggerhead would be. One volunteer easily carried each Green Turtle to the water in June, but it took four folks to lift Loggerhead “Vortex” out of his tub and place him on the sand. Severely injured upon arrival at the NC Aquarium, Vortex had a poor prognosis for survival. But Vortex received excellent, innovative care for over a year and recovered enough to be released. I could not help but notice the way the turtle kept making eye contact with the volunteers who had been his caregivers over the past year. When they put him down on the sand, he paused, laying his head down before beginning the laborious crawl forward back to his ocean home. Folks interested in his full story can read about Vortex on the NEST website (nestonline.org) and can track Vortex’s journey via seaturtle.org Just type Vortex in the search engine for a record of his travels. Pluto, the little Green Sea Turtle I reported on in June, can be tracked as well; his transmitter is working now.
We had friends visit in mid-August who had never seen the colonial Spanish mustangs of Carova, so although we generally avoid the busiest part of the summer, we trekked north on Sunday during their stay. It was hot and the beach was crowded, but we spied one harem of horses at the water, much to the thrill of our friends (the wife owned a horse in her teen years, so seeing wild horses was a special treat). I’ve been able to read the OBC message boards even though I have not been able to access the blog, and thought regular readers might get a chuckle, as I did in real time, out of the horse photograph I chose to share from that day.
I walked out onto Nags Head pier one afternoon; the ocean was too rough for dolphin but we did see a school of false albacore jumping just beyond reach of the fishermen’s ability to cast. A flock of mixed terns was keeping the fish company.
After years of saying “no” to requests for private photography instruction or workshops, I finally said “yes.” That “yes” provided me with a new friend and two full days of photography, nearly unheard of in our busier season. (I think I am going to practice saying yes more often, ha!) We had challenging conditions: high winds which kept birds hidden, and on our second day, gray, gloomy skies for much of our time together. But we managed. Along the way we tramped the beaches of Pea Island near the refurbished Coast Guard Station, flirted with a couple of cooperative Ghost Crabs, and spotted willets at sunrise. A little taste of our excursions is included below as well. The second day we drove around the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge; no bear in sight there, but we spent some concentrated time with a monarch butterfly and blooming fall wildflowers.
As I finish writing this, I glance at the clock. I have six minutes to change into cargo pants, throw laundry in the dryer, and head out the door for my afternoon warbler quest. Hopefully there will be colorful songbirds to share next time. Until then, enjoy!
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click for larger image | Vortex weighed nearly 79 lbs when released! He was rescued in May, 2013 in Beaufort and transported to the NC Aquarium on Roanoke Island for intensive care. |
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click for larger image | Home at last! Once Vortex reached water deep enough to really move his flippers, he was home free. |
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click for larger image | This scene cracked me up. These two were headed from the ocean back to the dunes, but first they had to check out the cooler under the canopy. |
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click for larger image | If you look, you can see two false albacore jumping at once. The school stayed in approximately the same position, which the guys fishing at the end of the pier said was unusual. |
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click for larger image | This is the surf late in August from a beach access in Frisco. Since the coast takes a sharp bend at Buxton, the weather and wave break is often different on the lower end of Hatteras than it is in Nags Head. |
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click for larger image | I call this Windblown, and I bet you can see why. We had nearly two solid weeks of high northeast winds in September. |
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click for larger image | Here's the sunrise Friday morning a week ago. Most of the color and intensity happened before the sun actually rose above the cloud layer on the horizon. |
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click for larger image | This Monarch butterfly showed signs of wear on its wings. When we first spied it, the butterfly was interested in a pile of bear scat that contained some small seeds (I was interested, too). |
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click for larger image | Here's the Ghost Crab that let us get so close. I did not notice until I downloaded the image, and then I spied the heart! I call the image, Heart on my Sleeve. It's no secret I love them. |
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posted by eturek at 10:24 PM |
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| Monday, September 15, 2014 | | Computer Issues With Blog... | This is really a "non-blog" -- it is an apology and explanation for my long-suffering readers. Since late July, I have had an odd glitch on all my home computers that is creating an automatic redirect every time I try to get on my blog. All computers in our house--even my iPad--are affected. I've run down many different troubleshooting paths in the last six weeks. My latest attempt to solve the problem was to order a new router for the house, which should arrive this week. Believe me, I miss posting and uploading as much as I hope you miss reading and viewing. I'm actually typing this via my internet at the gallery, but this is not a conducive space for actually creating a blog.
Hopefully this will solve the problem (nothing else we have tried has worked) and I will be back posting soon!
Eve |
posted by eturek at 12:24 PM |
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