My View of Life on the Dock
If the weather cooperates we are going to be filming with a drone all around the shoreline of Eastern Point this coming week, capturing Cape Ann from the perspective of a Monarch butterfly’s migratory path.
With so many seen along our local beaches, I hope a hawk attack doesn’t happen to us!
Reader Suzanne Kramer from North Reading sends along this wonderful photo ~
Hi Kim,
I was up in Jackson NH today and saw this display and thought of you and your efforts.
Sue Kramer, NR Garden Club.
Cape Ann TV Announces It’s Next Lunch & Learn Event
Getting Started with Adobe Premiere
Adobe Premiere Basics taught by Cape Ann TV’s Henry Cooper
(Gloucester, MA)– Cape Ann TV (www.capeanntv.org), a regional non-profit local access television station that serves all of Cape Ann, is pleased to announce the next learning experience in the popular “Lunch & Learn” series –Getting Started with Abode Premiere to be held on October 21, 2014 at 12:00 p.m. at Cape Ann TV (38 Blackburn Center, Gloucester MA 01930).
“The question of which editing platform to use is a common one,” said Erich Archer, Executive Director of Cape Ann TV. “Adobe Premiere has been generating a tremendous amount of interest recently and it’s time we open the hood and take a look.”
Here to guide us through the basics is Henry Cooper. Henry has a Graduate Certificate in Digital Video from Northeastern University and has worked as a Production Assistant with Rockport Music for 3 years. He has a wonderful and informative presentation to help us navigate through getting started with Adobe Premiere.
About Cape Ann TV: Cape Ann TV is a non-profit, member-based organization dedicated to the Cape Ann Community. Cape Ann TV is an important community resource that gives everyone a voice. We strive to produce programming and educational content for the community, by the community.
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RSVP to: rtober@capeanntv.org
This event will fill up fast!
Lunch to be provided.
The first to be published in my husband Tom Hauck’s Kevin Lone thriller series. Avita Doesn’t Love You is available as an eBook from Whiskey Creek Press (only 3.99!) and you can read a sample chapter Here.
Avita Doesn’t Love You from Whiskey Creek Press
Lone and his allies – including the brave Jessica Kenney, who seeks to avenge her father’s murder – tell how they must infiltrate and defeat the cancerous North Korean spy ring masquerading as a peace-loving religious cult. But Avita, the secretive leader of the cult, will go to any length to ensure that her deadly mission is accomplished. The fast-moving plot is complicated by a mysterious activist who has threatened to set off a bomb in Washington, D.C. The suspense builds to a shattering climax when Lone must confront Avita and her deadly accomplices.
To read an excerpt and purchase a copy click HERE
Also known as kitesurfing.
Look at what I came upon last Tuesday morning while filming the wildlife at the footbridge end of Good Harbor Beach. The kitesurfing appeared death defying, particularly from where I was standing far down the beach; one kitesurfer especially seemed precariously close to Salt Island.
I would have loved to stay and continue photographing the three beautiful aerial/marine acrobats but I had been filming until the last possible moment and had to hurry off to work. The action that I did catch a glimpse of was simply stunning.
Airborne ~ Click image to view larger
Note to Kitesurfers: Next time you are planning to kitesurf at dawn please contact me at kimsmithdesigns@hotmail.com. I would love to photograph and film your next adventure, from beginning to end. Thank you!
Several more photos here:
Continue reading “Daybreak Death Wish”
You know your pooch is in superb hands with the East Gloucester Dog Walkers!
Emma, Pilar, Lily, and occasionally Emma’s brother Ben, manage the menagerie beautifully, to the extent of even bringing along a water bowl on hot summer days. They are kind, gentle, patient, and loving towards their charges. Our Rosie is having the time of her life with the East Gloucester Dog Walkers (along with socializing with the other dogs, too). This great team certainly practices the three P’s of a successful business: Positive, Polite, and Professional.
Thank you East Gloucester Dog Walkers for taking such great care of our neighborhood pets!
Emma Duckworth Photo of Pilar and Rosie
While filming B-roll for several projects I caught the sunrise at Brace Cove this October morning. The seals were awakening, as were the swan couple, the cormorants and gulls stretching wide their wings, and the songbirds breaking fast on the abundance of wild berries and seed heads found along the berm at Niles Pond. Click image to see full size.
Brace Cove Seals
Juvenile Male Cardinal
Niles Pond
Camouflaged!
Click to view larger
I went looking for the eclipse this morning Paul M. It was way too overcast (as you predicted), but the colors of the sky over Eastern Point, facing west, were very unusual, for sunrise. The panorama was taken at Niles Beach, in the direction towards where the setting moon would be, at around 7:15 this morning. Do you think the bright light and pinkish color in the sky is a reflection from the setting Blood Moon?
After listening to the latest GMG podcast I couldn’t help but laugh, noticing all the “Pumpkin in Everything” lining the grocery store shelves.
These chips are for Joey, cause we all know he loves pumpkin!
I gave the chips a whirl, even though I’m not a big fan of pumpkin. Although I do adore pumpkin seeds slow roasted in butter, olive oil, and salt. And homemade pumpkin-filled ravioli, and pumpkin pies, but definitely not pumpkin pie soda. You may like the chips, if you like a very sugary-tasting chip but for me, the sweet flavor was too much of an unwelcome aberration.
Sends us your “Pumpkin in Everything” photos and we’ll post them here! Email to kimsmithdesigns@hotmail.com
Lisa Smith writes ~
“Cape Ann Symphony’s A Night at the Opera” airs this week on Channel 12.
The Program: BIZET, MOZART, PUCCINI, ROSSINI, VERDI AND MORE.
Soloists: Mara Bonde, soprano; Krista River, mezzo;
Ethan Bremner, tenor; Thomas Jones, baritone
Iain Kerr Interview with Discovery
Sunday morning Discovery Channel News was at Ocean Alliance filming a story about SnotBot, the organization’s new drone. The drone was created by a group of Olin College of Engineering students, under the direction of Professor Drew Bennet, in the College’s robotics lab.
“SnotBot will be used to collect DNA, bacteria, viruses and stress hormones from whale blows. The team also tested SnotShot, a machine that makes a simulated whale blow (with the capacity to simulate different blow types) on demand—a testing tool that will actually help the scientists in the field collect a control sample.
The SnotBot drone works something like this: “as SnotBot flies out to a whale that is approximately 300m from the research vessel, it hovers over a whale and the whale repeatedly blows onto a collection device. After the sample is collected and brought back to the RV Odyssey, the data is used to help interpret an animal’s state of heath through the analysis of bacteria, viruses, DNA, and stress hormones recovered from the whale’s blow.”
Read More from the Olin College of Engineering Website Here
Snot Bot Ocean Alliance Archives Here
Gorgeous View from the Paint Factory of the Captain Dominic Fishing Boat
See More Photos Here
Continue reading “Discovery Channel at Ocean Alliance”
Three very interesting articles were shared this past week by friends and GMG FOBs. Thank you!!! I love reading what you send and below are the links to share with readers. Again, thank you!
Frieda from Again and Again forwarded this from Nature:
“The monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus, is famous for its spectacular annual migration across North America, recent worldwide dispersal, and orange warning colouration. Despite decades of study and broad public interest, we know little about the genetic basis of these hallmark traits. Here we uncover the history of the monarch’s evolutionary origin and global dispersal, characterize the genes and pathways associated with migratory behaviour, and identify the discrete genetic basis of warning colouration by sequencing 101 Danaus genomes from around the globe.” Link to Nature article.
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Our Catherine Ryan forwards from the New York Times:
“Why Some Monarch Butterflies Are Marathoners”
Monarch butterflies can be found throughout the world, but only in North America do they make a spectacular mass migration, annually flying from as far north as Canada to winter in Mexico.
Now, by sequencing genomes of 90 monarch butterflies from around the world, researchers have discovered a gene that plays a critical role in determining whether monarchs are migratory, along with new details about their origins, migratory behavior and coloring.
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Josh Dickinson from the University of Florida in Gainseville forwarded the following:
“A Strange Cloud Over St. Louis Turns Out to Be an Enormous Swarm of Butterflies”
Late last week, meteorologists in St. Louis noticed a cloud acting peculiarly: It was beating a path toward Mexico while changing into a variety of odd shapes. Was it a radar glitch? The debris signature of a south-moving tornado?
The answer was more heartening—and bizarre. After analyzing the reflections,the National Weather Service concluded they showed an immense swarm of Monarch butterflies migrating to their winter home in the Mexican mountains:
Here’s how it technically arrived at that conclusion, for the weather geeks out there:
Keen observers of our radar data probably noticed some fairly high returns moving south over southern Illinois and central Missouri. High differential reflectivity values as well as low correlation coefficient values indicate these are most likely biological targets. High differential reflectivity indicates these are oblate targets, and low correlation coefficient means the targets are changing shape. We think these targets are Monarch butterflies. A Monarch in flight would look oblate to the radar, and flapping wings would account for the changing shape! NWS St. Louis wishes good luck and a safe journey to these amazing little creatures on their long journey south!
One of my dearest friends, Donna, spent the weekend here in Gloucester with us. I took her for a driving tour around Cape Ann and, at every bend of scenic roadway and charming street corner, she was simply knocked out at how beautiful is our island. Donna is in Massachusetts working on the Disney film, The Finest Hours, which tells the true story of the US Coast Guard’s most daring sea rescue. The film is based on the book of the same name and is set in 1952. Production is taking place all around the South Shore, including the Quincy shipyard, and Chatham, too. The book sounds fascinating and I just ordered my copy from Amazon. Here is the link: The Finest Hours.
While touring around we stopped in to see Joey at the dock, and to pick up a second batch of lobsters (Donna thought they were the best she had ever had!), and then on to show her our stunning beaches. We then headed over to Rockport where we surprised an old friend, David Robinson, at his gorgeous gallery Windemere Art and Antiques, located on Rockport’s Main Street. David is the gallery’s owner, jewelry designer, and member of the Boston-based Cars rock band. The beautiful Lisa Griffiths, also known as That Nutty Redhead, was also stopping by the gallery to say hello to Dave. Dave took a break from gallery hours and took us all three out to lunch across the street, conveniently, to Bracketts, where we had an ocean view, delicious lunches, and excellent service. It was a wonderful day spent with friends, old and new, and made me realize once again how very fortunate we are to live on Cape Ann–for the natural beauty found at every turn, and most cherished of all, for our community of friends.
The beautiful juvenile Harbor Seal was found on a foggy morning in midsummer. The seal was beached at the high tide line and its breathing was heavy and labored. It had no interest in returning to the water and needed only to remain at rest.
For the next six hours the seal struggled to survive the world of curious humans.
Learn what to do if you find a seal on the beach.
The two agencies listed below have in my experience been helpful:
Massachusetts Environmental Police: 508-753-0603
Northeast Region Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Stranding and Entanglement Hotline: 866-755-6622
Reposted from August 14th. See original post here.
Yesterday’s late afternoon sun breaking through the clouds was a joy to see, even if only for a bit.
Just curious–in the above photo, does anyone know what that box-shaped thing is at the end of the dock, below the seagull?
Smith’s Cove, Gloucester
Because of the current stretch of rainy weather there will be few Monarch sightings at this time. Butterfly’s wings don’t work very well in the cold and rain. We can hope that if the warm weather returns there will be a greater number of butterflies migrating through our region than the passel of last week. In the mean time, I thought I’d share one of my most treasured possessions, which is the August 1976 issue of National Geographic. I purchased this copy when I began doing research for my Monarch film and children’s book. If I remember correctly, it was $2.50 on eBay–lucky me to find a copy!!
The issue tells the story of the “discovery” of the Monarchs by scientists. I have reservations in writing the word discovery because it is difficult to imagine that the native peoples living in the region did not know of their existence long before westerners. As a matter of fact, the woman who led the discovery, Catalina Aguado, was born in Michoacán, the Mexican state that is home to the butterflies wintering grounds. Catalina is the only living member of the original team featured in the 1976 National Geographic article.
The complete article is available to read online here.
There have been three interesting and noteworthy Monarch stories in the news recently, forwarded to us by our GMG FOBs. Stay tuned for a post tomorrow with summaries and links to all three articles.
We are going to be saying, “We knew him when!”
Good Morning Gloucester 