Allens Fresh Run

 I visited Allen's Fresh Run to see the birds in July.  (I am still catching up with some of my posts.  There were reports of an unusual visit by Roseate Spoonbills, but unless you were an experienced kayaker who knew how to avoid being stranded during low tide, the distance was sometimes very far.  I found that there were quite a few other birds around too, but mostly at quite a distance even with a very long lens.  One of the days, I even saw the sunset too.

Great Blue Heron

Osprey

Roseate Spoonbills

Juvenile Bald Eagle with wires

Point Lookout State Park Beach Trip

 We wandered down to Point Lookout to hear the surf and view the Bay from a different perspective.  

I grabbed a shot of a bird over the causeway and realized it was an osprey with a fish later. Many of the osprey have already flown south.

Nearby, someone had a sun umbrella disaster.  I don't know if it was fixable.  

We sat down to enjoy lunch and I spotted a few boats.  I didn't realize the fishing net posts had a bird on every post till later. 

We had a nice lunch and I walked down to the beach to see the Lighthouse from a distance.

Near the beach I spotted a songbird I didn't recognize.  Maybe a Vireo?

  

Playing with Osprey Photos

I had a nice sequence of an osprey landing on the osprey nest and decided to make a sort of movement image of it by adding the photos together.  It is far from perfect, but it was a fun learning experience combining a batch of layers.  

Osprey April 8, 2024

After photographing the eclipse, I decided to photograph the neighbor's osprey since I had the longest lens handy and I didn't have to carry it very far .  This year our nest is occupied by a pair of geese.  I prefer the osprey, but unless they object to the geese, there isn't much we can do, but watch the geese.  No little ones yet on either nest.

Two Visits to Newtowne Neck State Park

We visited Newtowne Neck State Park in St. Mary's County twice to enjoy the beach at the end of Newtowne Neck Road in the perfect weather.  First we stayed to the West and then returned to see the Eastern side of the beach.  There are quite a few coves created by rock jetties.  Beautiful!  We didn't exactly have to  fight off the crowds in September.  I've heard it is quite crowded in the summer.

Osprey

Kayak Launch area

Sunbather

Manor House

St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church

 

Arrival of the Osprey

It's that time of year again.  The osprey almost have an internal biological clock, possibly the length of the day or environmental changes.  They arrive within a few days of March 15th to our area every year.  I thought I saw one at the neighbor's house on March 16th and quite a few more on the 17th.  There are sometimes haggles over who gets which nest.  I briefly saw 3 osprey at the nest, and later I thought there was some arguing going on.  The geese have been getting more agressive in recent years too and sometimes decide it is their nest.  At the moment, there are a pair of ospreys.  We enjoy watching them, even though we make them nervous when they see us.

Not a good photo, but you can see there were three.  The left one was obviously afraid and I believe the middle one was the agressor.

Piney Point Retake

We went back to Piney Point and St. George Island to look for osprey and enjoy prettier weather than the last recent trip there.

Osprey

Work boat

crab traps

Harry Lundeberg School of Seamanship

Double Decker Beach Gazebo