Meteor Show

Last night as my wife and I were headed out to dinner we took a long route trying to see if we could catch a glimpse of comet PANSTARRS but couldn't find it. But as we approached the local Air Force base we saw a bright light streak across the sky. I thought maybe it was a plane because it was low but seemed level and traveled right along the line of the runway (parallel) to us. But my wife saw what she thought was a tail. Well, it turns out it was a meteor that was seen up and down the east coast.

And then on the way home after dinner we saw a shooting star; much smaller than the meteor. And pretty interesting since the American Meteor Society calls March the slowest month for meteor showers.

Quite an interesting night.

Suffolk Art Show

A local, small art museum holds an annual juried photography show. A friend of mine convinced me to submit some photos last year. I managed to get one of three selected. It was actually my least favorite of the three I submitted but perhaps the most "artistic." It was this rather graphical crushed bike on a bridge in Amsterdam.

Dutch Transportation

This year I came up with three more to submit and again one was selected. After seeing the show, I'm kind of surprised that I got any in as the jurist had quite a different artistic eye than I do. I was not impressed with many of the selections that got in but I guess that is the nature of art. Most of my interaction with photographers are people who focus on nature and landscape photography. Much of this show is more fine art and graphical photography. So it is definitely interesting seeing how others approach photography.

Perhaps the most interesting submission was a small box with three glass panes in it. Each pane had a portion of a picture of a flock of birds departing a tree. There was a small light in the back that lit the scene. It gave an interesting 3D impression.

Below are my submissions with the top one being the one selected.

Lupines on Hurricane Ridge

Rainy Afternoon

Northern Gannets

Early Spring Visitors

Today, the first day of daylight savings time, we have a few uncommon visitors to the yard. I was out taking test shots with my new Canon 7D when I heard some shorebirds approaching. They were only making single peek calls but as they flew overhead I saw that they were Killdeer. They landed in a muddy spot in the marsh and started feeding. Finally they gave their classic kill-deer call. I switched lens and called my wife back to see them. Luckily they stayed for quite some time. Really too far to photograph except for identification purposes. We've had Killdeer over the marsh before but this is the first time I remember seeing them land. And four at once!

We then saw a Tree Swallow, first-of-season, and Laughing Gull, also first-of-season. The Tree Swallow is new for our yard list. Probably a bookkeeping error as we both think we have seen them before here. We ended up with 28 species including two immature Bald Eagles that seemed to be fighting for the same wind. they were slowing rising on a thermal over the creek but once seemed to purposely run into the other occasionally. We also saw a Double-crested Cormorant swimming in the creek. Again,  I don't remember seeing one swimming in the creek right here.

Good way to call Spring closer.