Month: April 2018

NOT THREE BUT FOUR PIPING PLOVERS ON GOOD HARBOR BEACH! (AND ONE DUNLIN)

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns

April 7th

Saturday at 5:30pm and there are not three, but four PiPl!! The Dunlin is still here and doing everything Plover, it is so funny to see. I think we have three males and one female.

They were sleeping at the wrack line but as the sun was setting, more and more dogs. They don’t seem to mind people playing in close proximity, but then a bunch of dogs ran through where they were resting and so down to the water’s edge they flew.

Sixteen off leash between 5:30 – 7pm, and it’s an on leash day. I avoid GHB during the off season because of dog owners that allow their dogs to jump on you, but it is so disheartening to see them running wild through the dunes. So much habitat destruction taking place. How will the dog owners respond when they learn the Piping Plovers have returned and are nesting again at GHB I wonder.

April 8th

Total mayhem on the beach. Dogs are everywhere, on the shoreline, the wrack zone, and running completely wild through the dunes. One knocked me over. I love dogs but this is crazy. The PiPl don’t have a chance and it’s too distressing to watch them try and rest and forage and nest and constantly be chased off.

Precisely where they were sleeping at the wrack line, a couple threw their dog’s tennis ball right smack at the PiPl. So startled, I and the PiPl both jumped up half a foot, before they flew off. Of course the couple didn’t know the PIPl were sleeping but it’s just really, really frustrating.

I wish so much we could do what they do at Crane’s Beach, where during the off season, dogs are allowed on a section of the beach. And at Cranes dog owners do not allow their dogs to run rampant through the dunes.

Tom came back from a walk at noon and couldn’t find the PiPl anywhere, and he is really good at spotting. I’ll check back at sunset to see if the PiPl can be found. Praying and hoping they have found a safe place.

Heartbroken. No plovers at sunset, anywhere, walked from the creek to the hotel twice. Still chaotic with dogs. Will try tomorrow at dawn.

Pretty Mama Plover

The boys of spring.

April 9th

Hooray!! Daybreak and I found them, three Plovers sleeping all in a row! Hopefully will find the other PiPl and Dunlin later today. Emailed Ken Whittaker, Gloucester’s awesome conservation agent, and we are meeting this afternoon. The goal is to get a cordoned off area in place before the next weekend when dogs are off leash. Reminder to let people know to contact Ken if they would like to help this summer by being a Plover ambassador.

Three in a row sleeping this morning, with Mama in the middle

Large dead Black-backed Gull on the beach near the big rock and will move that this afternoon after I speak with Ken. We don’t want to attract varmints to the Plovers’ nesting area!

PIPING PLOVER AMBASSADORS NEEDED!

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns

If you would like to become a Piping Plover ambassador and cover Plover monitoring shifts this season at Good Harbor Beach please contact Gloucester’s conservation agent Ken Whittaker to volunteer.

Thank you so much, and the PiPl thank you, too!!

Ken Whittaker contact information: kwhittaker@gloucester-ma.gov

Male Piping Plover sleeping and PiPl tracks in the sand.

Clouds over Magnolia Harbor on Sunday

Posted on by Donna Ardizzoni

A fickle spring this certainly has been.  The clouds near sunset seemed to telling a story.

Cork and Canvas with Kathy Roberts

Posted on by Donna Ardizzoni

When: Friday, April 13, 2018
Time: 05:00 – 07:30 pm
Where: Essex Wine Exchange
91 Main Street, Essex, MA 01929

Please join us Friday the 13th, for the third installment of our monthly art and wine tasting series: Cork and Canvas. This month we are featuring Kathy Roberts. Kathy is a Gloucester native who specializes in water color paintings. Whether it is a seascape, landscape or fresh cut flowers, Kathy’s use of dynamic color is truly spectacular. Please join us as we pop some corks and admire her fine work. See you there. Thank you.

Parker River

Posted on by davefernandes2

Sometimes I do get off the island lol,, here is a shot I took at the Parker River Refuge beach side at sunset Saturday afternoon.

I couldn’t believe the amount of sand that had been pushed up onto the boardwalk.

House Fire in West Gloucester Still Smoldering Monday Morning

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns

The once beautiful home owned by restaurateur Steve DiFillippo, of Davio’s fame, that burned overnight Saturday to Sunday morning is still smoldering as of early this morning. The wind is blowing fiercely out on the neck.

To read the full story, see today’s Gloucester Times.

Gloucester Smiles-883

Posted on by Manuel F. Simoes

Headed to Sugar Magnolias for his Birthday Breakfast

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Enjoying the News while waiting to be seated at Sugar Magnolias

Off the Island

Posted on by Bridgette Mathews

Sending some warm, breezy sunshine your way this morning from Riviera Maya, Mexico!  Went down to the beach for sunrise and it was a gorgeous, breezy 79 degrees…just us, the waves and the birds chirping.   A girl could get used to this 😀  (note to self…Camera + Air conditioning + Humidity = foggy lens..but I kind of like the soft, diffusion)  Happy Monday all!

Art Haven April Vacation Art Classes

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Cape Ann Art Haven's avatarCape Ann Community

April-Vacation

Each day is a different fun class!

Paper airplanes, Animation, Fairy Houses, Nature Lover’s Art and Painting Like Georgia O’Keeffe–we’ve got lots of great projects going on over vacation. Space is limited so we encourage registering soon.

Classes run 9-12 p.m.
$30 per class
Sibling Discounts and Scholarships Available

Visit our website www.arthaven.org for more information

For a longer day, Afternoon Crafts and Games is available as well from 12-3:00 p.m. More info on our website.

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BREAKING: PIPING PLOVERS LITTLE CHICK AND FRIENDS RETURN!!! -By Kim Smith

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns

Tuesday April 3, 2018

Oh Happy Day! Overjoyed to see the return of Little Chick and Friends!!!! Daily for the past several weeks I have been checking to catch sight of Piping Plovers. I looked this morning and nothing, but as Tom was leaving for a noon walk on GHB I asked him to keep his eyes peeled. My heart skipped a beat when he called only fifteen minutes later and said he thought there were three. I raced over, and sure enough, YES, three little plovers!!! They are so weary I don’t know what to think. Did they fly straight from the Carolinas or even further, from the Turks and Caicos, or possibly some remote island in the Bahamas? They are so sleepy-eyed and only want to rest.

Will they stay or are they on their way further north? Is this a passing passel of plovers? Could this be Little Chick or Papa and Mama Plover returning? It’s so cold and damp, rain is predicted and later this week, snow. What do Plovers do in the snow?

Wednesday April 4thDunlin in the drizzle

The Piping Plovers stayed the night, all three! They have been joined by a nearly as tiny little shorebird, a Dunlin I think. The PiPl appear to accept the Dunlin as part of the troupe. The Plovers seem a bit more perky today, foraging in the tidal flats.

Why oh why do folks encourage their dogs to chase shorebirds? Will have to post about the Plovers if they decide to stay. Too foggy and drizzly for my cameras on the beach today.

Thursday April 5th

 

Plover flying through a sand storm.

Joy! They are still here.

Terribly, terribly windy. The Plovers are trying to forage but are being blown sideways. So smart–they are seeking and finding shelter behind the big rock, and are huddling with the Dunlin. Too much sand blowing on my cameras.

The Dunlin-that-thinks-he-is-a-Plover

Friday April 6th

The PiPl are courting!!! Does this mean they have made GHB home for the summer? If they lay eggs now, won’t that be tremendous because chicks will hatch well before July 4th. I think there are two males, one female, and the Dunlin is still here.

 Object of desire.

The male with the brightest orange bill made several nest scrapes, inviting the female to come sniff his cloaca and to inspect the site. Courtship was interrupted numerous times by curious and exuberant pooches. The dogs are off leash on even numbered days. Perhaps the Dog Friendly people will help and keep dogs on leash when near this potential nesting area. I hope so much we can make this happen. If the PiPl are able to nest early, the chicks will have a much, much better chance of survival. Millions and millions of dogs, but only about three thousand nesting pair of Piping Plovers remaining. Will the numbers again drop this year after multiple hurricanes and late season nor’easters?

Female left, male right – notice the female Plover’s paler crescent band across her forehead, just a beautiful example of the difference between a male and female PiPl.

It’s time to let folks know about the Plovers, and we need a roped off area as soon as possible.

Sunny and cold and beautiful, with snow later today.

Late afternoon–what do Piping Plovers do in a snow squall? They forage! No photos, but a tiny bit of film footage. What were nice puffy wet flakes at home in my garden became icy, stinging cold driving rain/snow mix on the beach and too much for cameras to stay long.

Dunlin  (Calidris alpina) close-up

Posting Saturday and Sunday tomorrow when I have a chance to go through photos.

Great Gloucester citizen and friend to wildlife–kudos to this Mom for walking her dog on a leash, while carrying a child!

Beautiful Fish: Bluefish -By Al Bezanson

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns

Bluefish; Snapper (young)
It is perhaps the most ferocious and bloodthirsty fish in the sea, leaving in its wake a trail of dead and mangled mackerel, menhaden, herring, alewives, and other species on which it preys. Goode[89] wrote long ago, the bluefish, “not content with what they eat, which is itself of enormous quantity, rush ravenously through the closely crowded schools, cutting and tearing the living fish as they go, and leaving in their wake the mangled fragments.” It is not only the schooling fish that fall prey to them, but scup, squeteague, hake, butterfish, cunners, and small fish of all kinds, besides squid. Baird, writing in the 1870’s, when bluefish were at the height of their abundance, estimated that they annually destroyed at least twelve hundred million millions of fish during the four summer months off southern New England; and while this calculation surely was wildly exaggerated it will help give the reader a graphic realization of the havoc that they wreak during their periods of plenty.

From Fishes of the Gulf of Maine by Bigelow and Schroeder (1953) online courtesy of MBL/WHOI http://www.gma.org/fogm/Pomatomus_saltatrix.htm

John Sarrouf was featured in a Time magazine video on efforts to develop common ground between gun rights advocates and proponents of stricter gun laws.

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Dear Joey,

I’m a long-time GMG reader — even though I no longer live in Gloucester.
I thought you might want to know about this very cool matter involving my good buddy John Sarrouf, who still lives in East Gloucester (and has for years, though not by true Gloucester standards).
John was featured in a Time magazine video on efforts to develop common ground between gun rights advocates and proponents of stricter gun laws.
Here’s the link in case you want to check it out:
Thanks for publishing a great site!
Eric Convey

The Fisk Connection

Posted on by Donna Ardizzoni

‘THE FISK CONNECTION,’ A PROGRESSIVE ORGAN CONCERT ON SATURDAY EVENING, APRIL 14, 2018

EVENT DESCRIPTION:   The Gloucester Meetinghouse Foundation hosts a performance by six local organists on Saturday, April 14th at 7:30 p.m., the first half in the Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church at the corner of Middle and Church Street and the second half next door in St. John’s Episcopal Church.   Doors open at 7:00pm; come early for the best seats.

The performers are Kathleen Adams, Frances Conover Fitch, Carl Klein, Michael Kraft, Mark Nelson, and Robert Wech. Each one is connected to the work of the late Charles B. Fisk, whose firm located in Magnolia is world-renowned for superb pipe organs in churches, universities and concert halls. The concert will be narrated by Charles Nazarian describing the connection of the players to Fisk, history of the two remarkable instruments, and information about how the pipe organ sounds.

WHAT TO EXPECT: In the mode of a progressive recital last year by virtuoso organist Joonho Park, the first half will be performed in the Meetinghouse, home of the Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church, on the 1893 Hutchings pipe organ, restored by Gloucester organ builder Charles Fisk in 1962.

At the intermission, the audience will stroll next door for the second half of the concert in St. John’s Episcopal Church on the 1989 Fisk pipe-organ, the firm’s Opus 97. A reception will follow the concert at St. John’s. For more information and advance tickets please visit www.gloucestermeetinghouse.org

WHAT’S SPECIAL? This concert is a rare opportunity for Cape Ann residents to hear two pipe organs of historic significance and contrasting characters back to back, performed by organists with individual connections to Gloucester and the work of Charles Fisk. The Meetinghouse organ was built by George Hutchings, builder of the organ in Boston’s Symphony Hall, and restored in Gloucester by Fisk in 1962. The innovative St. John’s organ is the only new Fisk instrument commissioned on Cape Ann, the firm’s Opus 97 completed in 1989. Although products of different eras in organ building, both instruments feature mechanical (tracker) key action, a wide tonal palette for the performance of many eras of organ music, and exquisite craftsmanship.

WHEN: Saturday, April 14th 2018, 7:30pm

WHERE: The concert will begin in the historic 1806 Gloucester Meetinghouse (home of the Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church), corner of Church & Middle Street with parking on the green. Persons needing an elevator may enter from the 10 Church Street side entrance. The second half of the concert will be performed next door at St. John’s Episcopal Church. Additional parking is available in the St. John’s Church lot.

ADMISSION (at the door or on-line at http://www.gloucestermeetinghouse.org):

$20 General

$15 College Students & Seniors (65+)

Under 17 free