Tag Archives: New England

Halloween at the Yang’s – BOO!

Autumn, black cat, Cemeteries, Gothic, Halloween, Hallpween Decorations, massachusetts, New England, , , , , ,
It wouldn’t be Halloween on my street without our yearly decorations for the holiday.  Some of you friends are far away and can’t enjoy the view.  So, If you’d like to pay a call on – the Yang fam-i-ly, make a virtual stop right here. Turn right up our driveway!  See the number and your official greeter?

 

 

 

Just keep driving right past the lamp post, where another welcoming spook will let you know that you’re in the right place.  Aren’t those white mums lovely?  They go perfectly with the ghost’s robes, don’t they?

 

 

 

 

Pull into your parking space and enjoy a greeting from these lovely ladies.  They just love the camera! I guess the redhead is a little shy.

 

 

 

 

Don’t forget to wave to the dancing ghosts.  They adore the fall foliage colors. Maybe they’ll let you join in their little circle – for ETERNITY!
Of course, there are lots of other friends to see at the Yang House of Haunts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And we mustn’t forget that sweet little front-yard cemetery, full of delightful souls to meet, eh?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wonder what witty little jest these two are sharing?

 

 

 

 

 

Then, as you leave after night falls, things get a bit shadier, as it were.

BOO!

 

 

 

 

Phasing in from another dimension, no doubt.  The Old Ones send their regards.

Here’s another ghostie making some interdimensional  night moves. That old devil moon glows ominously in the background.

 

 

 

 

 

Ready to join in the dance, yet?

 

 

 

 

 

Some other darkling friends.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Y’all come back now.

 

 

 

 

 

Remember, Natasha says that monsters need love, too.

 

The Secret Place of Fall Foliage

Autumn, CT, Fall, Foliage, Nature, New England, , , , ,
Every season, Yang and I try take a hike at what we call “The Secret Place.”  It’s really not so very secret, since we usually run into a few hikers or kayakers there.  Still, it feels secret to us.  Anyway, we made our fall visit a couple of weeks back, hoping to see some beautiful foliage and do a little birding.  We’ve seen quite a few warblers, aquatic fowl, and even eagles over the years here.  You can see Yang is well prepared with his fancy-schmanzy camera.

 

After our breakfast of bagels and good pumpkin spice coffee (invented by George Crabtree in the early 20th century), we drove over to our destination.  The colors looked promising, as you can see from the tunnel of trees extending before us.

 

 

Though the Secret Place may not have been at it’s peak, we found all kinds of beautiful colors.

Reds

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oranges

 

 

 

 

A beautiful mixture

I especially love how the colors hug the shore and complement the pale blue waters of the reservoir and sky.

 

 

 

 

 

Aren’t these berries cool, as well. Perfect autumn decor?!

 

However, with the recent rains, the reservoir had flooded over part the abandoned asphalt road that is the trail. So  we couldn’t take the direct route to the dam at the end of the trail. Gorgeous colors, though, right?

Yang and I were not daunted.  We knew of a dirt trail in the woods that would circle around the flooded road and, with luck, bring us to an unflooded portion of the road by the dam.  En route, we came across this wonderfully haunted looking dead tree.

 

 

 

 

The trail looped through the woods and lo and behold! Dry asphalt and the bridge where we would usually  chill to watch turtles in the summer and water fowl or raptors most of the year!

Unfortunately, we didn’t see any warblers (out of season), raptors, Whimbrels, Yellow Legs, fancy ducks, or even Cormorants.  We did see a couple of Mallards and a gull or two.  We even heard a Kingfisher, but couldn’t catch sight of that proud, crested avian dive-bomber. I did get a nice shot of Yang amidst all the autumn color, though.

So, I hope that you can enjoy your own “secret places” in their fall glory.  If you can’t get out, maybe you can share in  mine.  I’ll leave you with this scarlet beauty below.

Adieu, Summer, Adieu

birds, frog, gardens, Goldfinch, goldfinches, Nature, New England, Red bellied Woodpecker, Redbellied Woodpecker, rosebreasted grosbeak, summer, wood peckers, , , , , , , , , ,
I had planned to do this farewell -to- summer blog much earlier, but since the heat and humidity of the first couple of weeks of September seemed to embody summer hanging on by the claws, I figured I’d better wait.  So, now that crisp fall breezes, pellucid blue skies, and incipient flares of leaf color are taking over, I guess it’s time.

June started us off nicely.  I filled our window boxes and other planters with bright colors that “flowered,” if you will, abundantly.

 

The mound beside the fish pond had gorgeous Irises and Marigolds, beautifully complementing blue with light orange.

 

 

 

 

We had some nice fancy Irises in the front yard, as well.  Interestingly, we did not have as many blooms as usual.  Perhaps the May frost nipped a few?

 

 

 

 

 

The sea-rose bushes in the back yard climbing up the slope had tons of gorgeous pink blossoms.  Here’s a shy little bee hiding among the petals.

 

 

 

July was fun for beasts, birds, and flower.  One morning when I went to rinse out the cat-food cans before putting them in the recyclables, I found this fellow chilling in a bucket that had filled with water.  For a few days, this was his private pool, with the high grass surrounding making up his stomping, rather, hopping grounds.  Yang was careful not to mow around where the frog hung out.

 

 

Yang put up a new bird feeder that is sheltered by a globe cage.  The little birds loved it!  Here you can see the Goldfinches mobbing the feeder.  I think that sparrow must have worn a yellow feather to sneak in.  Of course if you’re a larger bird and a Redbellied Woodpecker, you can still grab a snack.  If you click on the photo and look carefully, you can see our friend Red using his looong woodpecker’s tongue to grab some food.

 

A Rosebreasted Grosbeak was just able to sneak in there, himself – though he and the Orioles faded away unusually early, in later July.

 

The butterfly bush near the house attracted quite a crew.  Here, you can see one of the several Tiger Swallow Tails who daily dined on the shrub.  We also got some hummingbirds, Wolf Moths, and Bees dropping by for a nectar treat.

 

Usually, our rose from China only gives us one bloom, but this year it gave us two at the same time.  Neat, huh?

 

 

August brought us continued Goldfinch mobbing, and the flowers began to fade a bit.  We had lots of Morning Glories, which I forgot to photograph!  This year, we had orchid, magenta, purple, pink, blue, blue/white, and the white moon flowers.

 

I did remember to photograph the Ghost Pipes that sprang up!  I remembered we had them once before during a rainy summer years back. Consequently, I predicted we might see more this year.  Boy, was I right!  I’ve never had so many!

 

So, on to Autumn! 

Backyard Birdwatching Is the Best!

birds, cardinal bird, catbirds, chickadee, Goldfinch, goldfinches, Indigo Bunting, Redbellied Woodpecker, rosebreasted grosbeak, rosebrested grosbeak, spring, summer, , , , , , , , , ,
As you may have extrapolated from many of my posts, Yang and I are great bird watchers.  We’ve traveled all over the Northeast (and to Canada, China, England, and France in the past) to sight all kinds of befeathered critters.  My count for species this year is now a whopping 93!  However, I can’t help agreeing with him that we often see a greater numbers of birds and species on our bird feeders thnt we do on our trips to woods, fields, rivers, and oceans!  Maybe this blog will lead you to agree.

Many of our regular spring and summer visitors have made their appearances here.  I can report that I’ve seen one Hummingbird, lots of Goldfinches and House Finches, Red-winged Blackbirds (male and female), and Cardinals by the score.  Our Chickadees and Titmice have briefly been on haiatus, brooding their babes, but they are now back at work snagging black-oil sunflower seeds.  It’s also so much fun to see Mommy and Daddy (mostly Daddy) Cardinals bringing their kids to the feeders now that the little tykes can fly.  Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of these guys, but I do have quite a few of some of my other feathered favorites.

One of my favorite species are the Rosebreasted Grosbeaks.  Usually, we get the females first, then the males; however, it was the opposite this year.  We had at least one male, finally, on a feeder.  Then, tragedy struck:  we found him dead on the ground under a tree.  Yang and I were heartbroken.  These guys were like our pals.  Still, our hearts mended a bit two week later when we found another male chomping on sunflower seeds.  Then we saw a female.  Then we saw two males at the same time!  There could be up to thirty males on that feeder as long as they didn’t all show up together!  By the way, the males are quite aggressive.  They don’t take guff from each other and not from Grackles, Blue Jays, or Mourning Doves.  The females can be tough cookies as well.  Anyway, I’m glad they are back.  Below is a shot of the males in a more pacific mod. I guess they can stand each other when multiple  tubes of seeds separate them.

 

Another of our beloved colorful visitors is the Baltimore Oriole.  After long waiting, we saw one toward the end of May, then nothing!  Many an orange might have withered away if not for other birds. So, we almost gave up hope of seeing another Oriole – until in the middle of June Orioles reappeared!  We saw a male several days in a row, then a female for a couple of days, then a week later:  a juvenile.  It’s been a couple of weeks and – nothing!  Of course, who knows what shows up when Yang and I are away, but we haven’t seen any Orioles since.  I guess this was just a stopover on their way to their real summer grounds.  Well, at least we saw a few of them!  And the oranges did not go to waste.

We have discovered that Catbirds adore orange pulp!  When there’s no suet to be had (and even when there is!) our catbird couple come by to snack on the orange halves we have set out.  They must keep up their strength, since they have a nest with babies on our property.

Mr. Redbellied Woodpecker thinks the oranges are pretty cool stuff, too.  You can see him having a grand time chowing down on pulp.  Maybe the Orioles are afraid to go for the oranges with these guys around!

One idea that Yang came up with to thwart the squirrels from stealing food from the birds (and breaking our feeders) was to buy a tube feeder inside a globed cage.  It also had the advantage of preventing the big bully birds like Grackles, Doves, and Jays from keeping the little birds from food.  it works. Of course, medium size birds like the Rosebreasted Grosbeak and the female Redwinged Blackbirds can get in, without being bullies.  Tough luck male Red Wings!  Birds with long beaks also have a shot – like the Redbellied Woodpecker.  The House finches try to out-aggress the Goldfinches, but the latter either hold their own or just wait and dive in when the coast is clear.  Titmice and Chickadees are too fast for anyone to harass them!

 

 

 

So, you can see, we’ve seen a healthy variety of avian visitors right outside out windows.  Bring on the Scarlet Tanagers, the Pileated Woodpeckers, and the Indigo Buntings!  It wouldn’t be the first time one of them has shown up at chez Yang.

 

 

Spring Excursions

Blue Winged Warbler, Bluff Point, Connecticut, CT, ducklings, Ducks, Greater Yellow Legs, Green Heron, massachusetts, Nature, New England, snapping turtle, , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Well, you haven’t seen any blogs in a while because this spring has been so busy.  Yang and I have had more than a few excursions, so I have plenty to report.  Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of pictures because we were too busy enjoying the wonderful scenery or sighting extraordinary critters.  So, let’s get started.  To get a really good look at the photos, be sure to click on them.

While I was busy educating myself on Medieval and Renaissance literature, history, philosophy, and culture at the Keene State College Medieval and Renaissance forum, Yang was chugging up Mt. Monadnock.  This was an extraordinary day with the temperature surging to 85 degrees. Still, you can hear the wind whipping through the trees in this video. 

Nevertheless, Yang almost made it to the top of the mountain.   As you can see from these photos, the view was gorgeous. However, this is my favorite shot.

 

Later on, we were off on our bicycles and checked out the extension of the Fairhaven trail to Mattapoisett, MA.  The day was warm and sunny.   We were lucky enough to catch some sightings of neat shore birds.  We saw this Greater Yellowlegs.  You can’t actually see how yellow his legs are because he’s in pretty deep water.  These birds are tall.  This spring, we’ve also seen these guys in Connecticut and in western Mass.  They love the shore on a lake or the ocean.

We also saw a Great Egret.  Sorry, no picture.  But his legs and feet are something:  long black gams finished with big lumpy bright yellow tootsies!  Like clown shoes!  We do have several pictures of a particularly gorgeous bird:  Green Heron.  His colors  are gorgeous – green/blue crest and back, chesnut neck, white stripes from his eyes to the back of his head, splashes of white  dripping down a beautiful chestnut front.

 

 

 

 

Bluff Point is near Mystic in Connecticut.  So, after a nifty lunch of croissant sandwiches and (for me) coffee latte, we drove over for a new walk.  You start out along the shore, on the edge of the woods, then the trail can lead you into the woods where Carolina Wrens call out to you and songbirds tease you.  One trail veers back toward the shore where  you can walk or swim (not when we went, though!), then along a rise that becomes the point at the end of a peninsula.  Lots of water birds like Cormorants sport in the waves, while I saw three Guillemots fly past, which Yang missed because he was looking out to sea with his binoculars.  Bluff Point is beautiful place for a hike and even a picnic.

 

 

 

 

We made it to the trail we call “The Secret Place,” even though it’s not so very secret since we usually see at least one person walking there – and that day we saw a few kayaks on the reservoir.  Anyway, I’ve blogged on this spot before:  click here.  On this Sunday, after bagels at the best bagels I know, Bagel Time, we saw some cool birds.  Here’s a shot of a Golden Crowned Kinglet.  These guys are so high up, it’s hard to get a really good picture.  Last year, we saw Ruby Crowned Kinglets like nobody’s business, but no Golden Crowneds.  So, yay!  we finally got to see the Golden Crowned.  We also saw one of Yang’s favorites, the Eastern Kingbird. Thank goodness these guys LOVE to sit on top of dead trees and stand out against the sky.  They are extremely bold and vocal.  You can see from his ‘tude, how he got the “King” in his name.  Yang also got this great shot of the Kingbord soaring through the blue, below.

And wouldn’t you know, here’s another Yellowlegs.  I’m not sure if it’s the Greater of the Lesser, but it’s definitely a Yellowlegs. To get a really good look, be sure to click on the photo.

We also saw a Mamma Mallard with her ducklings.  At one point, the kids swam into and around the Yellowlegs.  He was all, “What in Sam Hill?!”  But he kept on trucking in his direction and the kids kept trucking in their own. We saw Pappa Mallard fly off squawking, leaving Mom alone with the kids – and on Mother’s Day, too!

Finally, we did sight an extraordinary  first-ever bird for both of us:  a Blue-Winged Warbler.  Of course, we were unable to get a good shot of him, so I’ll include a professional photo of one.  this guy was a brilliant yellow, almost with a hint of orange; his wings were a blue-grey.  His color reminded me of the yellow warbler.  It was cool to hear him serenade us whole heartedly from atop a towering Maple. This photo perfectly captures exactly how he looked as he sang.  Click here for more info on this bird from the Cornell Lab “All About Birds,” also the source of this image

 

Finally, here’s a tale of Yang’s heroism.  We were walking on the Blackstone River Trail in Worcester, when from our vantage point on a bridge, Yang spotted a Gamera-sized snapping turtle flailing away on its back.  Yang’s first thought was to flip the turtle.  My first thought was for him not to have any limbs snapped off.  He figured on getting a a branch to use as a lever.  I figured to tell him to make sure the branch was thick and looong.  He managed to get down to the river bank, and it took him three thick long branches (because two of them snapped under 100lbs. of turtle), but he did it.  So enjoy the shots of the turtle he rescued.

 

So, that’s all for now – and I haven’t even reported on everything!

 

 

Halibut Point Feathered Friends

American Black Duck, birds, Cape Cod, Ducks, Eider ducks, Great Scaup, Halibut Point, Harlequin Duck, Long Tail Duck, Loon, massachusetts, New England, Rockport, scoter, Seal, , , , , , , , , , , ,
Two Fridays back, Yang and I happened to be on the North Shore, so we stayed overnight in order to make an early visit to Halibut Point State Park.  We’d been meaning to get there since November, after hearing about all the cool water fowl hanging out there.  Unfortunately, the opportunity hadn’t come up before this.  So, after our breakfast of bagels and cream cheese (yum!), we headed out to the state park.  We were not disappointed.  In the quarry, we spotted a Scaup, Black Ducks, and Mallards.  When we headed for the ocean, we got an even bigger treat.  Here you see me peering out at the ocean’s wonderland – or wonderwater- of ducks. Isn’t that point beautiful?

At first, we  saw only a couple of pairs of Harlequin Ducks, looking absolutely adorable.  All the FB bird groups to which I belonged extolled the plenitude of Harlequins out here.  So, we were happy to spot this couple chilling along.

 

 

 

 

Mrs. Harley seems to be finding a snack while her husband looks on.

Neat as this sighting was, things got MUCH better.  Looking all around and out to sea, we saw flocks of Harlequins diving, chilling, and looking good.  There were so many that we couldn’t always get them all in one picture.  I would say we saw several flocks ranging from 9-15 Harlequins.  And that’s not counting the friendly-neighbor Long-tail Ducks who joined the party.  Counting the ducks was never easy, because, all of a sudden, the whole kit and kaboodle would take a dive on a hunt for food.  So, Yang had to time his shots carefully to catch them.  I guess it’s true that these ducks love rough waters, because that’s exactly what they got here and in the other place we saw them, Sachuest Point, RI.  This was the biggest contingent of Harleys that I had seen. Though the ducks are hard to pick out in these pictures, if you just click on them you will get a better look.

Then we saw this Loon way off above the group of Harlequins.  It’s the white figure in the upper left corner.

Wouldn’t you know, we also saw plenty of flocks of Scoters. 

 

 

 

Here’s a closeup of a female Scoter.  I believe these are all Black Scoters.

 

 

When we moved onto the harbor at Rockport, Yang also got a shot of a male Eider Duck.  Usually we see big flocks of these guys, especially at Cape Cod (check out this older blog).  Today, we saw this guy all by his lonesome.

 

 

 

 

Then, finally, what should we espy on the other side of the point in the harbor in Rockport?  We thought we it was a brown female eider – except, Yang said that once the critter dived  he could see her  walking under water.  Huh?  Then “she” came up.

 

Yup, a seal!  So I hope this critter can be a “seal” of approval for today’s blog.

 

 

She Can Do It! And so Can Janet and I!

1940s mystery, A Moment After Dark, Always Play the Dark Horse, Bait and Switch, Bait and Switch, Dark Passage, Film Actors, Film Noir, Janet Raye Stevens, Jessica Minton, Joan Bennett, Letter from a Dead Man, Lisa Lieberman, Long Time, Lynn Bari, Lynnfield Library, massachusetts, My Sweet, mystery, Nocturne, Sharon Healy Yang, Sharon Yang, Smart-Talking Gals, suspense, Time Cop, World War II, writing, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I first met sister-author Janet Raye Stevens when my friend Lisa Lieberman (another mystery author) asked me to join her and Janet to do a ZOOM program on the importance of clothing and fashion in the development of our mid-century mysteries.  This was my initial chance to read Janet’s Beryl Blue time cop series and her stand alone, A Moment After Dark.  I was hooked.

Janet and I both love the 1940s, especially the era’s sharp and challenging mysteries, which inspire our own writing.  We are especially taken by the “smart-talking gals” populating 1930s-40s mysteries, neither femme fatale not babyish innocent:  a woman who has been around, learned the ropes, but has not lost her integrity.

We loved the sharp wit and clever cracks of the likes of Joan Bennett, Claire Trevor (when they were playing on the side of the angels), Lynn Bari, Lauren Bacall, Ella Raines and many others.  We especially loved how they were usually the ones who set the noir’s anti-heroes straight, pulled together and made sense of the disparate threads of clues, and weren’t above skirting conventions and the law to see fairness prevail.  So, it should come as no surprise to anyone who knows us and our smart talking heroines Jessica Minton (me) and Beryl Blue and A Moment After Dark’s Addie Brandt (Janet) that we put together our heads and came up with a presentation:  “She Can Do It!  Real/‘Reel’ Women and Mid-Century Mysteries.”

We did our initial run at the Lynnfield Library, thanks to the go-ahead from Assistant Library Director Marita Klements. Our space was a loft area in the former schoolhouse, now library, where we set up a multi-media show.  We started by introducing the fact that with the war, women now had opportunities to put their considerable talents to work in factories, in the air, in battlefield hospitals, etc.

However, you can’t talk about the influence of movie smart-talking gals without showing some clips, can you?  For fun, we showed a clip from a 1938 Nancy Drew movies, where a teenage Nancy not only recognizes a kidnapping and tracks kidnappers in her car, only thwarted when her car has a flat – which she changes herself without missing a beat. Sisters were doing it for themselves in 1938, and we talked about how the wave of independence continued through the 1940s, in real and reel life.

Janet and I broke down the presentation into three sections, first showing a clip (talking about it a little), then showing its influence on our development of our heroines by each doing a related reading from her own text that reflected what went on in the scene.  Murder suspect Lynn Bari’s snappy but cool exchange with detective George Raft in Nocturne illustrated a woman with substance, unintimidated by authority. Dark Passage’s Lauren Bacall revealed a gal resourcefully rescuing Humphrey Bogart from persecution by unjust law.  Finally, Anne Shirley, in Murder, My Sweet, showed our gal calling out both men and women who misjudge or threaten her. After reading related, short excerpts from our books, Janet and I explained how these smart-talking gals influenced our heroines

We had a lot of fun, watching our audience get into our writings as we read. (It’s always great when people laugh in the right places!)  It was just as neat to see them enjoy the smart-talking gals tell it like it is, be unflummoxed by adversity – on the screen or on our pages.  We also got thoughtful questions about our research, background on the films and the actresses, and the influence of these films on women’s changed roles during and after the war.

So, if you think this evening sounded like fun, get in touch with Janet (janetrayestevens@gmail.com) or me (syang@worcester.edu) and maybe we can make an appearance at a library, senior center, or other venue near you.

(P.S. Yang made my suit based on an actual 1940s suit that I own!)

 

 

 

 

Gooseberry Island Redux – or Reducks?

birds, Ducks, horned grebe, Long Tail Duck, Loon, massachusetts, Nature, New England, Oldsquaw Duck, scoter, Uncategorized, winter, , , , , , , , ,
Yang and I returned to Gooseberry island on a sunny day for a change last Saturday – celebrating my birthday over the weekend.  This time, no fog and plenty of sunshine.  Also, plenty of water fowl!

One of the first sightings I want to discuss are the shore birds.  since we could actually get to the shore this time, we walked along the beach and saw a flock of shore birds whip around in tight and angular formation.  When we came around some rocks, we got a good look at these cuties.  I was surprised to find that we had a mix of Dunlins and Sanderlings together.  This time, I didn’t mistake their tummies for seaside rocks, so perfectly had they blended in with sand and sea-smoothed stones, when I saw them in December.  The Dunlins are brownish on top, with  buff tummies and long, slightly curved beaks.  The Sanderlings are grey on top with white tummies and shorter and straight beaks.  They were fun to watch scurrying about in search of dinner, all while seeming quite at home with one another. These images might look tiny here, but if you click on the pictures to enlarge them, you can see the birds much more clearly.

Apparently, the pickings were getting kind of slim, for Yang managed to snap a shot of some of these guys taking it on the wing for better dining.

We also saw plenty of birds in the water that day. With perfect visibility and trusty binoculars, we could sight dozens of Long-tailed ducks near the shore and way out in the bay.  Yang got some neat pictures of a few near us.  This male is a handsome specimen.  You can even see a little of his long tail in these photos.  Apparently, these ducks can dive as deep as 95 feet and can stay under water longer than any of the  diving ducks.  Wouldn’t Lloyd Bridges be impressed?  Yang took these pictures as we we heading toward the island along the causeway.

 

 

 

Coming back along the causeway, we found this Long-tail extremely close to shore.  I think it’s a nonbreeding female, but sometimes they are difficult to distinguish from an immature male.  I didn’t see a long tail on this duck, so I’m going to take a flyer and say this is a female.  She was quite unimpressed by the humans walking by.  She also didn’t seem to be much worried about the rocks towards which the surrounding waves  were shoving her.  Still, she did just fine for herself, bold duckess!

Another aquatic bird of which we saw tons were Scoters.  We saw Black Scoters, White-winged Scoters, and Surf Scoters.  Again dozens and dozens throughout the bay.  Yang was only able to photograph some of the Surf Scoters, but he got some good shots.  As we were coming back along the causeway, there was a trio: a male, a female, and an immature male (I believe). the female is brown with a white spot on either side of her head.  The males all have that unique pink beak with a white spot on the forehead, white on either side of the beak,  and one on the back of the head.  You can see that one of the males doesn’t have the white spots on his face.  We wondered if he were a Black or White-winged Scoter; however, neither type has a white patch on the back of the head like this fellow.  So maybe the younger males take time to get all their patches in?

You can see from this shot that the Scoters weren’t alone.  Here’s a  Loon photo bombing the Scoters.  We noticed him hanging out with this group from another species.  We also have a nice picture of the Loon by him= or herself.  I believe this is a Common Loon in winter plumage, but if I’m wrong, feel free to set me straight.

Another, smaller, diving water bird joined the show.  A horned grebe!  We saw one or two popping up (and back down again) amongst the various flocks of Scoters and Long-tails. Again, let me know if I misidentified the type of Grebe.

Last but not least, here comes the Bufflehead!  Usually there are big flocks of these guys around in the winter, but today, this chap seems to be swimming solo.  Well, it’s a big ocean and there’s room for everybody.  So where are the Harlequins?

Happy Harlequin Hunting: Only Shooting with a Camera!

birds, Deer, Ducks, Eider ducks, Harlequin Duck, mergansers, Nature, New England, , , , , , , , ,
For the past month, I’ve been seeing nothing but posts about all the Harlequin Ducks flocking down the coast of Massachusetts from Plum Island to Westhaven.  Never having seen one, I was eager to make a sighting.  Three trips to the coastal waters, and I was still a Harlequin virgin.  That is until Yang and I visited Sachuest (don’t ask me to pronounce it) in Rhode Island.  Of course, my prayers for a sighting weren’t answered at once.

We went down to a cove and saw two huge flocks of Buffleheads bobbing and diving in the waves.  They are adorable with their big white spots on the sides of their heads that look like ear muffs.  But no Harleys!  Then, coming back to the parking lot, to start the trail leading around the other side of the point, we saw four deer grazing nonchalantly in the marsh field.  Beautiful in their heavy winter coats – but not ducks.

 

We later even found a family of Eider Ducks, one adult male, one juvenile male and two females – joined by a Bufflehead, who popped up out of nowhere – but no Harlequins.

So, we made our way down onto a rocky beach after we spied some Lesser Scaups ( a first sighting, ever!),  some Surf Scoters, and a female Redbreasted Merganser, but no …wait!  What’s that black and white thing bobbing and diving out there? 

See the tiny white and black thing in the middle of the screen?  It was clearer and bigger with the binoculars.  I said to Yang, “It’s, wait , I think it’s, yes!  It’s a male Harlequin.”  Now before you say, “Hey, I can’t see a darned thing, wait, big deal,” it gets better.  After watching this guy and some Redbreasted Mergansers for a while, we moved on  – and came across another Harlequin chilling with some Scaups.  A little later, we came across a lone pair of Harlequins.  These shots are better, but not our top prizes.  I just love this one of the male flapping at us.  Camera shy or a show off?  You judge.

 

 

 

 

It’s really interesting to me that when the males look at you head on, with the light colored beak and the white stripe on their face, they appear more white-faced than they actually are.  When we got to another spot, Yang got some gorgeous shots that show off all their glorious markings. So, here you go with a set of photos of another  Harley pair from much closer up.

Here’s the male by himself.  Take a gander at that gorgeous splash of chestnut on his side, the way the white stripes demarcate the patches of black, and look carefully for that line of chestnut down the back of his head.

 

 

 

Here is the pair together.    Sometimes they point those short but sharp tails upward. Notice how the female has those lovely three white spots on the side of her head.  

 

 

I think they must have had an argument.  Yang and I noticed that the female did most of the diving/hunting.  Maybe she got sick of her hubbie posing for the papparazzi when she was doing all the work. Anyway, they briefly went separate ways.

Well, deers, er, dears, that’s all for now.

Return to Riverside Cemetery: Autumn Leaves Bursting with Color

Autumn, Cemeteries, Connecticut, CT, Fall, Foliage, Gothic, Halloween, mausoleum, New England, tomb stones, Uncategorized, Waterbury, , , , , , , , , , , ,
This past October. we returned to the Riverside Cemetery in Waterbury with hopes of seeing the statuary complemented by gorgeous fall colors.  Yang and I were not disappointed!

The entrance was serene and gracious, with background colors hinting at the beauty we would find beyond.

The highlight that these fall colors brought t o the monuments was deliciously melancholy.  The leaves behind this woman leaning on a cross brought forth the saffron beauty of autumn.

 

 

 

 

 

Then there was the flame of orange encompassing this melancholy dame, flaring against the shadows of a of grey autumn day.

 

 

 

 

 

Or there was this lone, proud figure fronting a brilliant crimson of oak trees.

I loved this shot from behind of the woman gazing out over the rolling hills of autumn glory.

I think this deer must feel at home, encompassed by the gorgeous green morphing to yellow-gold of fall.

Likewise, this pensive young woman is lost in deep thought while greens turn to flame and yellow-green.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was especially enchanted by so many trees that combined various colors as their leaves slowly shut down the ports to chlorophyll and let their true hues burst froth in brilliant glory.

Green and Gold

 

 

 

 

 

Orange and Red, like a flame reaching heavenward.

And then, some trees seemed to  us gifted with four colors at once!

Well, maybe that’s a Japanese maple photo bombing the sugar maple.

Just gazing across the cemetery, you see slopes rolling with gorgeous fall glory:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The trees were so gorgeous, Yang decided to stick one in his back pack to carry it home.

Just kidding:  optical illusion.

 

I particularly loved this sage woman’s pensive and imposing presence, her blue-green copper complementing the reds and greens of the trees behind her.

And that, my friends, is all she wrote.