Return of the Egrets!

Yes! They are definitely back. A large shadow swooped past as Bella and I walked on the wetlands beach this morning.

And then several large herons were seen...

At least one possum has been adventuring on the beach. Small rodent feet, and a large heavy tail, leaving their mark in the sand.

And I smelled a skunk.

Biker birds!

The grackles are back! Returned this weekend... all shiny black-blue with cheeky eyes. Now no-one else can get to the bird feeder.

Settling in

Now she has found her bed and her Kong, (so far, not very interested in the Kong).

Bella arrives in Mastic Beach

This is Bella, on her very first walk to the marina. She is a two-and-a-half year old great dane, and she moved in this afternoon. So far, she has quickly learned to go up and down stairs, and has started to explore the neighbourhood and meet the neighbours. She has not met any deer yet, and is staying away from Muffin, who has made herself almost as big as the couch and is growling softly. I'm sure they will soon be used to each other!

If you are wondering where Fury is, she has moved back to California with Karli, and is enjoying the sunshine back in her old home town!!!

Saturday road trip: Long Island Sound

The waters of the sound were very clear, very blue. Steps down from the lighthouse and from the private homes along the cliff. The beach was so quiet and peaceful; easy to understand why it was once (still is?) a sacred place.

The water lapped gently and there was no sound.

The sign asking not-to-litter has been ignored; someone's garbage bags, fast-food wrappers and soiled diapers were scattered, inaccessible, down the cliff.

What makes it easier to throw garbage over a cliff than to leave it for the garbage truck???

Saturday road trip: Horton Point Lighthouse

Horton Point has a relatively small lighthouse close to the cliff's edge north of Southold, looking out over the Long Island Sound. It wasn't open when we visted; have to wait for Memorial Day to come back and see inside. The grounds are beautifully simple and the trees must look nice in summer.

Saturday road trip: Greenport

We stopped in Greenport for brunch at a village-center cafe. All-day breakfast, lentil soup and ice cream. I went for the soup and it was tepid but delicious.

The shops are cute and arty. A small ceramic owl, simple but decorative, caught my eye, but the decimal point on the price tag was in the wrong place, so it stayed in its place on the shelf.

I tried to capture the colour and atmosphere of the rusting shipyard building, but didn't quite achieve it. Something about rust and boats and harbours makes it all real and not just a tourist show.

Saturday road trip: ospreys

We saw the first osprey nesting pole at Orient Point, but also saw several others around the North Fork. This one was piled high with nest, made with twigs and sticks and some bright blue shiny ribbon, the sort you tie to birthday balloons or gifts or flowers.

It seemed strange to me that these were for ospreys. I thought for a moment that I was back in Poland, and these were nests for storks. Storks build nests on roofs and flagpoles; put a cartwheel on the roof of your barn for the bociani.

I would like to see storks once again.

Saturday road trip: Orient Point

We started Saturday morning by driving all the way out on the North Fork to Orient Point. I enjoyed seeing all the farmland and the newly-tidy grape vines: neat piles of trimmings stacked at the roadside, vines, young and old, ready to start pushing out leaves. The old-America farmhouses, the tractors on show, the front porches and gables.

Orient Point itself is a ferry terminal. A small parking lot, a ticket office, and a ferry to take cars and foot passengers. Trucks too, though the ferry seemed too small for the big-rig we passed on the road.

Just next to the ferry terminal is Orient Point Beach. It stretches and curves, stones, pebbles and shells, not sand. It's pretty but somewhat marred by tacky plastic structures.

It is Friday, at last

Funny how the colours right now on Long Island resemble those in California in August

Just imagine

Next time you are driving through Mastic Beach, or Mastic, or Shirley... just imagine that all the chain-link fences you see have been replaced by white picket fences or low rows of tidy hedges.

Doesn't it look pretty now!

And then... all the left-lying leaves and litter have been cleaned away (leaves to the compost heap, of course).

Wow! We are now living in Bellport Village or the Hamptons!

It really, really won't take much!

.... and then, more sunrise

Early sun through the phragmites.

I have applied for a wetlands permit to trim the winter-dry phragmites from close to the house. They promised they could process the permit within a week... several weeks later, I am still waiting. By the time it's approved, they will be growing green again, doing their watery job, and will be out of bounds.

Moon-rise

In case you were becoming bored with the pictures of the sun rising, here's the other guy, instead.

Taken a couple of days ago, just before sunrise.

Muffin's ear

This is Muffin's right ear, six days after The Fight. I suspect that she fought a raccoon and not another cat: the injury was infected immediately. This is the second time she has had Stinky Ear as a result of a night-time fight; first time was a couple of years ago in Sacramento. Both times resulted in a rapid trip to the vet, and antibiotics. Big difference--and improvement--this time was the antibiotics injection, which cost more but saved me the skin that would have been lost forcing pills or liquids down her throat. And cleaning the carpet, once she found somewhere to regurgitate them.

I should fit her with an earring...

Why does my cat think she is a dog? She was growling out the doors within half an hour of returning from the vets at "something" that had ventured onto the deck.

Furry deer

Arrived home yesterday evening to find two deer in the front garden. The larger one was just a blur, as he or she dashed off into the undergrowth. The second one, a large baby, jumped into the trees and then found some young grass, which was much more interesting than any human or vehicle close by.

I was able to watch for a few minutes, to get out of the truck and to hold a one-sided conversation with the deer about which plants I would prefer not to be eaten. Close enough to check that it was grass being devoured, and not the newly-emerging English bluebells (which if not eaten will probably be trampled but maybe in twenty years time, there will be a nice show!)

The deer was incredibly furry. No spots--already grown out of those--but a very thick and warm coat. Must have been the long, cold winter that did that.

First Sunday of spring....

... and it is a beautiful morning. Powder-blue sky, sunlight on water, redwinged blackbirds crackling in the dry reeds. A stiff, cool breeze raising small waves on the bay. Wind chimes gently sounding.

The geese are singing in the night now, and flying two-by-two. I thought I saw a returning egret the other day, but I think I was mistaken--there are quite a few swans around, and I think it was one of them, over in a pond in the wetlands.

It is spring! Officially!

At least the birds were announcing it this afternoon, even though the skies were cool and grey, and Jade reported snow in the city. Karli, however, reported sunburn from Sacramento!

Smiling at smilax

One of the nasty things about smilax is that it is the first thing to turn green, and start growing, after winter.

One of the nice things about smilax is that it is the first thing to turn green, and start growing, after winter. Because you can see it.

My best anti-smilax weapon is the cordless hedgecutter. It slices through the stuff like butter. I cut it very low to the ground, then through the vines higher up, then chop it all to bits. It soon dries and turns into smilax dust. And over time, it grows less and less vigorously.

I've found trees and bushes that are only held together by the briar: smilax has strangled all the life out of them, the tree or branch has become dead and dry, but the nasty green barbed wire has grown stronger and tighter and held the dead branch in place. As the vines are cut and dry , you risk having dead wood fall on your head!

I am not so dumb as to think I can prevent the stuff from coming back. However, if it's kept low, the deer seem to help as the shoots are more tender than a fifty-foot vine with spines/thorns/prickles/hooks/knives or whateve you want to call them. And the native, non-invasive plants will grow stronger and take back more of their rightful habitat.

At least, I hope so!

Beautiful beach

A touch of... can it be... spring???

The red-winged blackbirds are back, in force. The osprey swings low and hovers over the wetlands; a pair of long-necked Canada geese poke their heads up from their hidden pond to look over the reeds; and the sun warms our faces.

The snow-melt is a musical background, falling inside the downspout and running off onto the soggy grass.

I see a daffodil's leaves, and the dormant dogwood has swollen buds.

That's what the snow is for!

... to make the signs stand out!

It's not spring, yet

We received quite a few inches of snow overnight. About six inches stacked up on the deck rail, where it is exposed to the wind. It's piled up against the doors of the house, yet the driveway is blown clear. Snowploughs were doing the rounds before dawn, and again just after.

The wind is howling, the snow pure white against an elephant-grey sky.

I intend to stay inside today...

Waiting for the storm...

Will this be the last, but biggest, storm of the winter?

A Nor'easter is heading our way, and is expected to be an "all-snow event". Warning in place from now until 6pm tomorrow... warning meaning "imminent", not "it might happen".

10 to 14 inches of "soft, powdery snow" is forecast. I wonder how accurate that will be?