Duxbury Beach, Snowy Owls

This morning I drove Greg Gale and Tom Nelson out to Duxbury Beach in hopes of showing them a Snowy Owl (neither had seen one before in the wild), and we were very lucky, spotting three (possibly four) of them.  It was as cold as I have been, the wind chill factor must have been 10 below.
But it was great to see them. 
Here are a few pictures, plus some recent yard shots. My three-year old grandchild Alex watched the feeder and saw Goldfinch, Bluebirds, Red-bellied woodpecker, Downy, Blue jay, Junco, Chipping sparrow, and Cardinal, all in the space of about 15 minutes.

Greg freezing his $%&@ off

The Oak Point Art Club hosts Coffee and Donut

What a very cool morning!  Some wonderful art, fairly good coffee, great bagels, and meeting new people.
Organized by Allen Bradford, the Commandant of the Art Club, members showed up early and set up samples of their work.
Here is shots of the morning.  I hope I got a sample of everyone who brought art, and I apologize if the color isn't exactly as they wished, it was fluorescent lighting, but my camera does its best to compromise.  That and Corel Paint Shop.

"John Fitzgerald Kennedy"
by
John Schmidt 

"Beacon Hill Summer Lunch"
by
Janet Ilmonen

Water Color
by
Allen Bradford 

Allen directing traffic

"Slay Head, Ireland"
by
Tom O'Connor

"Kate Kearney's Cottage"
by
Tom O'Connor

"Where the heck are those donuts?!"

"Your Move" (Paris)
by
Joanne Fitzgerald

"Sonny Rollins"
by
Norma Brown

John Crutchfield
(What a masterpiece!)

"Rainbow Bird"
by
Linda Singer

"Over the Rainbow"
by 
Shirley Commesso

"Gryfalcon"
 by
Bob Weikel

Bob Weikel

Below are my four photos in the show:  Both the bird photos were taken at Marshfield's Daniel Webster Farm,
using a Canon 7D and a Canon f5.6L 400mm Lens.  The other two are scans of slides taken many years ago, probably with Fujifilm Velvia film, and a Nikon SLR

"Northern Harrier"
by
A. Douglas Wauchope

"Green Heron"
by A. Douglas Wauchope

"Lake Peyto, Canadian Rockies"
by
A. Douglas Wauchope

"Reims Cathedral, France"
by
A. Douglas Wauchope

I hope you enjoyed these.  What talent we Oak Point seniors have, and thanks very much to
Allen Bradford for his organizational skills, and his enthusiasm for letting the rest of Oak Point know
about the Art Club.

Block Island

I drove to Point Judith this AM and took the ferry to Block Island in hopes of seeing some unusual far-out-in-the-ocean type alcids, but no such luck.   It was a blazingly beautiful day, but about 10 degrees, and with the wind chill, below 0.  I thoroughly enjoyed my day on the ocean, met some very friendly people, and came home beyond tired.  Here are the resulting pictures, not anything new, but great sunshine.

The docks at Point Judith

Coming into Block Island, the famous Harborside Inn, and the New Shoreham House Inn

The guaranteed sighting in every N.E. port of the Common Loon.
Look at that wonderful bill.

This may give you an idea of how cold it was.

A great Cormorant

Surf Scoters

Old Squaws

White-winged Scoters

The Point Judith Lighthouse

The fishing trawler "Virginia Marise"

Photos I love

I've been very fortunate to be in some great places and get some photographs I love.  Once in a while, I go back into the files for memories and tonight this is what I came up with.  I hope you enjoy the selections.

This is that momentous moment when the U.S.S. Constitution, the oldest ship in the navy, and perhaps the  oldest
commissioned ship sailing in the world, sailed in Boston Harbor for the first time in over 100 years under its own
sail power.  It was under way for about 15 minutes, with no tug connected. Wow!  And I happened to be on the
Harbor Express ferry headed into Boston at that very moment.

Only one in four visitors to Alaska gets to see Mt. McKinley (Mt. Denali).  It is usually hidden by its own weather system.  
Don and I saw it the day before by plane, but this morning we were leaving Denali NP. and this was our final gift from the park. 

And, a bit later, just outside the bus!

Sperwink Trail, near Trinity, Newfoundland. One to the most inspiring and awesome
hikes Susan and I have ever taken together. 

And we finally made it to Niagara Falls!  You know what Oscar Wilde said about Niagara Falls?  That it was the
newly wedded bride's second biggest disappointment!
He was certainly wrong about one thing.

Taughannock Falls, the longest single uninterrupted fall of water on the East Coast.
This in is the lakes region of New York, and what a thrill to come across it, not knowing of
its existence.  This held true for Watkins Glen, a remarkable state park we knew nothing about, and
discovered it on the way back from Niagara Falls, and our stay in the wine district. A trail that wound through several miles of canyon, with dozens of waterfalls. If you are in the area, don't miss it.

This is still, so far, my best shot of a Snowy Owl.  I keep hoping to get one of him flying toward me, eyes like
lasers looking at me.  But I still love this shot, taken on Duxbury Beach.  There have been as many as seven of these magnificent creatures on Duxbury Beach in one day.

This is the Devil's Courthouse, on the Blue Ridge Parkway above Brevard, NC.
I climb this every time I visit my twin in Brevard.  It is a place you can guarantee  hearing, but almost never seeing,
a Winter Wren.  One of our great family stories is of our mother getting lost in these mountains, almost giving up, and then hearing one of those wrens, with their drunk piccolo sounds, and believing it was God telling her to try again.  And she did. And Dad found her.

This is St. Phillips Church in Atlanta.  This is the last pipe organ I helped my father install, and it was also the largest we ever installed.  The organ, Aeolian-Skinner, has gone through some changes, but I believe had been restored to its original glory.  There are a number of great recordings that have been make here, including the Poulenc Concerto for Organ, Strings and Tympani.

This is Looking Glass Rock, one of the great sights on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  This is from Pounding Mill Overlook, just south of the Rt.276 crossover above Brevard, NC.  This is the place where both Mom and Dad's ashes have been scattered.  Like "The Bucket List", it is a spot for an eternal view of the mountains they both loved so well.

One of the many great shoreline walks Susan and I have taken.  Her favorite thing in life is a walk on the beach, and this on was on Fogo Island, Newfoundland/

This photo was one of the most magical moments in my life.  I grew up listening to my father's huge collection of pipe organ recordings, and a series he had became my favorite, recordings by Marcel Dupre at St. Sulpice, Paris.  The recordings, all on Mercury "Living Presence" featured a photo of the organ on the front cover of each record,  and I knew every feature of that case.  In 1997 Susan and I went to Paris for the first time, and I got up  the first morning, sick with jet lag, but I was just too anxious to get my first photos of  Paris.  I saw this huge church, walked into the nave, and looking back, recognized the organ!  What a first photo!

Gettysburg, Pa, the field below the stone wall where Pickett's charge took place. The great Southern historian, Shelby Foote, said that every Southern boy ever born since the Civil War wishes he could have walked up that hill into the grapeshot, the highpoint of valour, and the highpoint of the Confederacy.

And, one shot of Tuscany. Ah, what wines.  Even the cheapest of table wines somehow taste better in this sunlight.  The loveliest stone villages in the world.  Well, France has a few, too.  But Monte Benichi was the best.  A long winding climb through olive groves, vineyards, and stone walls.  Paradise.