Forgotten Photo Friday, The Birds and the Bees

We made it to another Friday. Here are some more shots of Yellow-billed Cardinals in palm trees taken in Kona, Hawaii.

Moo Cows

Just some fun shots of some moo cows today.

Brown Creeper

I don’t think that there is a lens on this planet that is long enough to photograph Brown Creepers. These are highly cropped shots that I took in Dogtown Saturday.

Cat Eyes

The trip is over, the catch has been off-loaded but the work isn’t done yet. It’s time to tend to the nets.

The T

The T roars through Dogtown headed to Rockport.

First bug and flower of the year

I took a walk in Dogtown yesterday and came across quite a few of these burrows. They are being made by bees.

The bee backs out of the hole as it pushes the sand with its legs.

In other news, I spied the first Bluets of the season!

Saturday Evening Creature Feature, Great Black-backed Gull

Tonight I’m featuring a photo study of the Great Black-backed Gull. First up is a hybrid shot of the gull with fishing boats.

The Great Black-backed gull is our largest gull in Massachusetts with a length of 30 inches (76cm) and a wing span of 65 inches (165cm).

We have breading Great-Black Backed gulls here in Gloucester. This adult is showing great promise.

Fluffing up the feathers must feel good.

And all the features of an adult. A real Cock-of-the-Rock.

The sun was at a low angle, hitting the feathers just perfect to give the black texture without totally blowing out the whites.

Forgotten Photo Friday, Come sail with the Ardelle

For this week’s forgotten photo, I’m not digging too deep. This is a photo I took last summer that I though I’d share with you today and use it to introduce you to an interesting blog.

I keep an eye on Boat Building with Burnham. Harold Burnham keeps alive the wooden boat craft in Essex, Massachusetts. It is always interesting to see what is going on there. Harold’s last major project was the Schooner Pinky Ardelle.

The Ardelle is at home in Essex right now, but soon she will be coming back to Gloucester for the summer season. If you go to the Schooner Ardelle website, you will see something familiar. Harold and Laurie have chosen one of my submitted photos to be on their home page and on their brochures!

Harold will be setting sail on Gloucester Harbor all summer long and you’re cordially invited. Harold’s current project is helping with the restoration of the Schooner Adventure.

Just because the sun has gone down…

It doesn’t mean you job is done.

A couple walking on Dogbar Breakwater

Scamper over to Pirate’s Lane

The sun is gone, this is the last shot of the day.

I could have kept shooting, but the dinner bell was ringing.

Be fearless with the light.

North Shore Arts Association at Dusk

If you’re in Gloucester during the arts season, this is a worthwhile stop. Just off of East Main Street on Pirate’s Lane.

The end of a perfect day

Standing at the end of Pirates Lane looking over past Rocky Neck, the sun sets over Fort Square. The end of a perfect day. To the left is the schooner Highlander Sea which has been hanging out in Gloucester for the winter.

Eastern Point Light photo study

When I started to think about the text for this post, the thought came to mind of starting it with, “It’s always pleasant to go for a stroll on Dogbar Breakwater.” Well, that isn’t always the truth. It can be rather nasty out there. But that was not the case yesterday. It was a pleasant 45F, calm and sunny.

This is the typical picture that one would get, shooting straight down the breakwater to the light. But unless we were doing a study in brown grass, this shot is not very interesting. Let’s see if we can play a bit. The sun is going down, maybe we can get some colors.

As the sun sets, the shorter wavelengths get scattered out by the dust and water vapor that the light travels through. The result is the color temperature gets warmer, meaning that the colors shift towards the yellows and reds. The artist's concept of color perception of red being warmer and blue being colder just adds a layer of confusion to my universe.

You see, I was trained as a physicist. In physics, the blue end of the spectrum has a higher temperature and the red end of the spectrum represents a cooler temperature. Here’s why. When you heat an object to the point is starts glowing it will start emitting predominately red light. If you keep heating it up, it starts glowing more towards the yellow and then as it gets hotter, it is starts glowing white. But if you look at the intensity of the colors, as it heats up the brightest color peak shifts from red (cool to a physicist) to blue (hot to a physicist). If you have an light bulb on a dimmer switch, you can observe this for yourself. In a dark room, bump up the dimmer switch until the filament starts to glow, them back it off a bit. You’ll see it glow cherry red. Then increase the voltage, and it will shift towards yellow.

In astronomy, we classify stars by color temperature. You may have heard of a Red Dwarf, which is a small, cool star. Our star, the sun, is a medium sized star and emits predominately in the yellow. There are some massive, hot stars that emit predominately blue.

So anyway, the blue light gets scattered and the red light passes through. It has to do with the size of the wavelength of the light and what is between the sun and the observer. The light is scattered by stuff that is the same size as the wave length. Longer wavelengths pass through. Thus the direct light is more red (such as the that shining on the tower above) and the indirect light (the light from the sky above) scatters down and is more blue.

So what’s this got to do with this photo shoot? Uh, nothing.

I’m just apologizing up just in case you end up riding in a car with me and ask me adjust the air conditioning because it is too hot and I turn the dial towards the red. I think like a physicist, not like an artist. Red is cool, blue is hot. Just sayin’.

Glaucous Gull on Dogbar Breakwater

I took a drive to Eastern Point yesterday and ran into a Glaucous Gull. This second year gull sticks out like a sore thumb. Not only is it missing wing marks and is predominately white, but the gull is quite large compared to these Herring Gulls.

Here is a comparison shot with the Glaucous on the right and Herring Gulls on the left.

You’ll know this one we you see it. Easy-peasy.

Saturday Evening Creature Feature, Yellow-Fronted Canary

Tonight we go back to Hawaii to take a look at the Yellow-fronted Canary. This is another introduced species brought into Hawaii in the 1960s. I found my first one on a lava flow along the ocean’s edge.

The Yellow-fronted Canary’s home is in Africa south of the Sahara Desert. It is a popular bird in Aviculturist circles where it is know as the Green Singing Finch.

They are found on O’ahu and Hawaii in the drier habitats. I found these along a golf course near Kona, not far from the ocean. This is a real Cock-of-the-rock pose.

They are gregarious and have a pleasant voice.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to all my Irish friends out there.