April 25 - From Plovers to Poets (Busy Day)

Looking North

Coffee of the Day: Tanzania Peaberry
Bird of the Day: long tailed duck
Weird Wrack Item of the Week: that plastic kiddie car is still here!
Invisi-bird Status: Refuge beach: 16 pairs. Sandy Point: 2 pairs. Number actually seen by me: 3.

Wave Breaking Behind Driftwood

What a gorgeous day! I worked a shorter shift - left at 11AM - because I had committed to photograph the Spoken Word Olympics (Party) aka SWOP in Lowell. It was a very good for plovers and poets and long tailed ducks and big waves.  There were tons of long tailed ducks enjoying the waves.

Still Here

I managed to use my Jedi mind control powers to turn back two dogs who were about to trespass on the refuge. They turned back before I even spoke to their human.

Still Here

Trash-wise, I was somewhat surprised to see that pink plastic kiddie car still here in the same spot. The plastic hatch-cover-like thing was still on the beach too but not in the same spot. The gull wing was still here but not surrounded by wrack. 

Still Here

The view was unbelievable. I could see the White Island Light Station clearly from the beach. I've seen hazy loomings of various Isles of Shoals landmarks before, but this was a clean crisp view of the light station and it was not floating above the horizon the way a looming does.

South

A couple of piping plovers foraged along the water line, but I didn't see any mating behavior.  They were a little further south than the last time I was watching them. I guess the pickings weren't as good nearer the boundary.

Shells

I was kind of reluctant to leave the beauty of the beach for the beauty of the young people doing poetry, but took off nonetheless. Despite leaving early, I still barely made it to Lowell on time. I-495 was having one of those I-495 days: an accident in Amesbury, a car in the median just south of Amesbury, construction in Lawrence, construction in Andover.... and so on.

National Poetry Month

The young people were great. The event was fun. Photographing the young poets in their writing workshops and on stage in competition was a good challenge for me. The main thing I learned is that it's a lot easier to visually convey the act of writing when the kids are using pen and paper than when they're using their phones to write. I mean an intent face staring at screen with thumbs positioned for typing could mean anything.  Must explore that theme more at some point.