Beach Report 11/24/24 - The Buffies are Back!

The first thing we saw when we got out of the car at the parking lot was a small raft of Bufflehead ducks bobbing around the south jetty. I think I saw them a couple of days ago but my phone pictures were inconclusive, so I brought the camera with the long lens today. 

Butterfly season is all but over, but this slightly worse for wear Common Buckeye was still soaking up the sun in the dunes. 

A gorgeous fall day, sunny, still, and with temperatures in the upper 50s.

The tide was on it's way down, but not very low, and the beach was not particularly forthcoming with shark's teeth, only 10 teeth between us.

A Bald Eagle looking out on the Bay from atop a tree atop the Cliff at Matoaka. Probably longing for the good old days a month ago when there were Ospreys to rob and eagerly awaiting their return. 

Rain Forest in the Rain

We took a boat ride in the rain forest in the rain today. Conditions for photography we abysmal, but I tried.

Beach Report 10/15/24

We had our first night below 50 F since spring, and today was pretty chilly, in the upper 50s. The sun was in and out but mostly out.

It was a pretty high tide, and pretty sandy but it was calm enough that I got well up the beach, so I only found 7 teeth.

A few young Ospreys are still hanging around, and fishing for the peanut bunker (small Menhaden) that teem off the beach. They need to move on.

The GBH's seem to be everywhere, too. This one and another got into a spat over the best fishing spot.

Beach Report 10/14/24

Yesterday, the Bay was calm and relatively warm.

Today, 10 F cooler (about 60) and blowing 20 from the north. The tide was high, so we had to stay on our end of the beach.

Lots of sand, few teeth (2).

It's shedding season for Horseshoe Crabs. These are empty of the original occupants, and washed up on the beach.

Beach Report 10/5/24

A fine fall day, with temperatures creeping up near 75 F. You can barely make out on of the Ospreys still here (or visiting from the north on its way south).

 A big wind came up around 9 AM this morning, and the tide was high, surf was rough, the beach was sandy, and fossil hunting tough. We managed 9 sharks teeth, a drum tooth, and 1 lousy crab claw.

A local trying to master his sail kite for kite boarding. We watched a while, but he never got it up while we were there.

Brown Boobies Make Maryland Stop

The Baltimore Banner, Rare brown boobies bewitch Baltimore birders

All over the Maryland Birding Facebook page, birders were sharing photos of the elegant, tropical birds with the cartoonish feet and the white, penguin-like bellies. There were more than a dozen brown boobies, settling into Chesapeake Bay buoys as if moving into a condo, their yellow beaks popping out of the penthouse suite.

They had been here since the summer, always on the same buoys, far from their tropical homes in the Caribbean and South America. As a longtime chronicler of the Chesapeake Bay, I get excited about rare birds and how and why they arrive here. But often, I hear about a rare bird somewhere and go to find it and it’s not there. These birds were not only staying put; they were unfazed. Long lenses
leaning out of charter boats, large ships barreling through the channel, cormorants competing for fish — nothing seemed to bother them. They were the chillest, coolest birds I had ever seen.

I didn’t have to say much more than “brown booby” to generate interest in the newsroom. Saying the name made me giggle like a 13-year-old, but the booby comes by it honestly. Officially Sula leucogaster, the booby takes its moniker from the Spanish word “bobo,” which translates as foolish or half-witted. It comes from the birds’ tendency to stay in one place for a long time, often on a ship’s bow, the easier for the crew to catch it and eat it.

Oh yeah, totally going there: 

Beach Reports 9/26/24

Today was a bookend of yesterday, mid 70s, overcast, and only moderately windy.

At mid tide, going down, the beach was mostly sandy. 

Across the Bay. Marine Traffic identifies it as CG Eagle, a Coast Guard training ship with an interesting history:

Eagle commenced its existence in Nazi Germany as Horst Wessel, a ship of the Gorch Fock class. Horst Wessel was an improvement on the original design. She was larger in dimension and her spars were all steel, unlike Gorch Fock's wooden yards. SSS Horst Wessel began life as Schiff ("ship") 508 at Blohm & Voss in Hamburg, Germany in 1936. . . She was the second ship in the class to be built, following the class namesake Gorch Fock. Rudolf Hess gave the speech at her launch in the presence of Adolf Hitler, and Horst Wessel's mother christened the new ship with a bottle of champagne.

Not a lot of teeth, 13 in all, but I thought I'd showcase this cute little Snaggletooth.

The Ospreys are still around. We're not sure about the Hummingbirds. We didn't see the female at the feeder this morning.

Update: Afternoon Hummingbird sighting.

Beach Report 9/23/24

A couple of cormorants (probably Double Crested Cormorants on the south jetty

Today was totally overcast, and even raining a bit much of the time, but the bay was still and glassy. The tide was officially low, but not very, and the beach was mostly sand.

A Great Blue Heron held the posing post today. Gerald Winegrad has a nice puff piece on them today in the Annapolis Capital Gazette, Treasure the remarkable great blue heron. 

A very nice Physogaleus contortus tooth. This shark is thought to be a relative of the modern Tiger Shark, but, we're really not sure. 

Hmmm. 

A pretty nice 1 inch White Shark (Carcharodon hastalis). By far the best of 10 teeth, plus a drum and a porgy teeth, and a crab claw.

The Great Blue Herons were out in numbers today.

I was wrong a few days ago, the Ospreys, at least the young of the year, are still here. This one was diving on the abundant peanut bunker (small Menhaden) in the shallows.

Success! They have a very high success rate.

This Great Blue Heron went up the beach to avoid me, and encountered a dried Menhaden up on the beach (a few seem to wash up, for some reason). It took the fish down to the water and dipped it in; maybe an attempt to soften it up before eating it.

Oh yeah, the Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds are still here, at least some females. This one is fattening up for the long trek to Mexico or Central America for the winter.

Beach Report 9/8/24

Definitely a fallish day, with temperatures in the low 60 under mostly blue skies. A bit of north wind initially, but that mostly died over the course of the walk.

One of the local Great Blue Heron's hoping I'll walk by without breaking his concentration on fishing. We worked it out. 

I haven't done much with butterflies this year, but this one is worthy, a Viceroy, a Monarch mimic (or maybe they mimic each other) in the Kudzu, which, by the way is blooming, and making a delightful grape soda smell.

The best of 13 teeth, a nice Lemon Shark.

Beach Report 9/6/24

Another fine weather day, partly sunny, low 70s, light wind.

The tide was low, but high, if that makes sense. (At the low period of tide, astronomically, but well above the astronomically predicted height).  The beach was very gravelly.

Which meant lots of teeth. Georgia found the best, this 1 3/16 inch White Shark tooth.

My best was this 7/8 inch White Shark tooth, a nicely slanted one, from the side of the mouth. All in all we found 37 shark's teeth, and a couple of drum teeth.

One of the GBHs hanging around the harbor has been reported to be threatening people who come to near. It hasn't been a problem for me, but this one is pretty bold.