July 31, 2007 by OrientSee.

The fog still blanketed the marsh and on the overlook I found two feathers tangled together. It was the tiniest spot of color on the bleached floorboards but it was arresting. The birds enjoy sitting here because it is less visited by the two legs who are making life hell for the piping plover who nested on Revere Beach nearby. The result can be something like “Kilroy was here”. The bird(s) left a little bit of movable graffiti for me to find and enjoy.

Ciao!

-Jorge

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July 30, 2007 by OrientSee.

It seems that the robins are everywhere. The redwings have nearly disappeared and in their place are the young robins like this one enjoying lunch. Some places along my usual path have become virtual robin cities. The new generation has climbed to the middle of the stage while the other has moved stage right, exeunt. It’s only natural but it is hard to realize that something is going until it has gone. I wonder what else I have missed that is gone. Soheil tells me that the shorebirds are disappearing and his opinion is not the only one that says the same thing. Some seem to be already gone (Hudsonian Godwits). Numbers are falling for other species as well. The sad thing is that I never really got to know them.

Ciao!

-Jorge

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July 29, 2007 by OrientSee.

This is a Downy Woodpecker. He is busy looking for food and quarreling with his mate who was in the next tree. There was a lot of display and bickering between eating. His red cap is a little worse for wear by this time of the year. Woodpeckers were a big discovery for me. After all, I live next to a major airport next to the ocean and next to a marsh. I just never expected to see a woodpecker unless I was in the “woods”, a real wild place. Then I began to appreciate the gift of living next to Belle Isle Marsh and connecting with nature. I expected to see herons when I first started looking but never a woodpecker. I guess that I’ll have to start keeping a look out for penguins next.

Ciao!

-Jorge

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July 28, 2007 by OrientSee.

We just got home to find that a enormous thunderstorm had passed and rained so hard that a storm drain washed out and nearly trapped a car. There was a great deal of rubble washed down the hill past our house. It was shocking to see our placid neighborhood with a huge hole in the middle of the street. No trees came down just a sudden torrent of rain. We always forget the last hurricane or blizzard until something like this happens again. Our grip on this earth is more tentative than we would like to admit.

Ciao!

-Jorge

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July 27, 2007 by OrientSee.

Monarch. Now every butterfly is posing. They all just want their moment of web glory. Until this week none of the butterflies would hold still long enough for me to catch an image. Now it’s almost too easy. A moment’s delight taken now will mean much more later on when everything turns cold. I guess that I’m storing these up for December when the monotonous winter landscape prevails. Already it has been a real delight to page back day by day through the sights and experiences of this year. This is what a journal is for. It’s a better way to look back than using my error prone memory. I didn’t expect to enjoy this particular aspect of my project of chronicling a year by the sea but I am. I hope that you too are glad to be along.

Ciao!

-Jorge

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July 26, 2007 by OrientSee.

A convention. 1 Great Blue Heron, 4 Great Egrets (1 outside the frame), 9 Snowy Egrets and 1 Glossy Ibis (down in the ditch). At first I wasn’t expecting much today but then I looked beneath a tree limb out across towards the T train yard and saw this gathering. It took my breath away. I was less than 50 yards away from them all. I plopped down and just watched. The blue knew I was there and slowly edged away but the rest of them could have cared less. This is why I go out into the marsh. Every once in a while there is something so amazing that it doesn’t seem possible. The moon is almost full and the marsh is bursting with energy. Whatever it was, this was a small treasure to see.

Ciao!

-Jorge

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July 25, 2007 by OrientSee.

Ripe. The whole marsh is ripe. The grasses are waving their seed heads everywhere. The little berries are dark with the promise of sweet juice. Along one side of the marsh are all kinds of fruit trees including these pears. There’s peaches, apples, apricots and pears. Some one thought to plant fruit trees on public ground and this is the result. The birds have been feeding on the apples already. Everything is eating everything else. It’s the height of summer and very soon the migrants will start passing through on their southward journies. Yes, fall is coming.

Ciao!

-Jorge

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July 24, 2007 by OrientSee.

This young robin is on a very bad place, the ground. Instead of flying off when I approached, it scurried off under the brush. It made no attempt to fly. Although there were some other robins around, this one will get no support if a cat attacks. Perhaps it fell out of the nest too soon or it may have some developmental problem but life is remorseless in the marsh. It will probably not survive much longer. There is no room for sentimentality if you live in the wild. Although there is plenty of evidence for species cooperating or at least tolerating each other, cats, rats and coyotes have young to feed as well. Some are simply not going to make it. It’s a hard lesson for humans to live with.

Ciao!

-Jorge

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July 23, 2007 by OrientSee.

Stylish in slimming black. The basic outfit for every occasion. Usually I have terrible luck getting images of butterflies. This flutterby didn’t flutter by. It stayed put and allowed me to take this shot.  It’s the unexpected quality of such a moment that can make it so delightful. Watch some stranger smile as the train pulls out of the station. See a toddler find a “treasure”. There can be a context to an image that it makes one savor a moment.

Ciao!

-Jorge

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July 22, 2007 by OrientSee.

Joyous news. After false hopes and resignation, it happened.  Belle Isle Marsh officially has a new family. The Ospreys came through and there is at least one chick. The Pandion haliaetus family is doing well. Both parents are active and feeding the youngster. You can see the chick to the right in the nest. Before and after photos definitely show the small chick popping up and down. I’ve been watching them for months and today I got an excited phone call from Soheil (the master birder and historian of Belle Isle birds). It’s just wonderful.

Ciao!

-Jorge

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