The Big Dipper
Can you spot the Big Dipper just above the horizon between the trees? It can be hard to believe in the midsummer heat but birds are already migrating south for the winter both during the day (various swallows to Eastern Kingbirds to Blue-gray Gnatcatchers) and the night (Red-eyed Vireos to Indigo Buntings to Black-billed Cuckoos). Those nocturnal species use various methods to help them move around our planet – some may use a coastline, others the Earth’s magnetic field, and like people, certain birds gaze at the stars. Various species take in the night sky as a map, just as we...
Read MoreUSCGC Juniper (WLB 201)
This is the United States Coast Guard Cutter Juniper off Stratford Point in Stratford, Connecticut on Thursday, August 20 near 14:30. There are often many great sightings from this point sticking out into Long Island Sound, birds to boats, but this 225-foot vessel was a terrific find and good example of the unappreciated work that helps preserve and protect our waters in a multitude of ways. The U.S. Coast Guard says, “USCGC JUNIPER (WLB 201) is the lead ship of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Seagoing Buoy Tenders. She is outfitted with some of the most advanced technological and navigational...
Read MoreDredging in Lake Erie
This past weekend while out at Barcelona Harbor, I witnessed some of the ongoing work being done to deepen the waterways within Lake Erie for the purposes of maintaining navigation channels for federal, commercial and recreational boats. Through the past few years, the channels have filled in significantly with sediments and debris from the increasingly intensifying storms, such as Superstorm Sandy, and the rate of erosion taking place within the area’s streams feeding into the great lake. With the growing risk of shoreline flooding and safety issues arising for boaters, it was...
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