Author: Kimsmithdesigns

Documentary filmmaker, photographer, landscape designer, author, and illustrator. "Beauty on the Wing: Life Story of the Monarch Butterfly" currently airing on PBS. Current film projects include Piping Plovers, Gloucester's Feast of St. Joseph, and Saint Peter's Fiesta. Visit my websites for more information about film and design projects at kimsmithdesigns.com, monarchbutterflyfilm.com, and pipingploverproject.org. Author/illustrator "Oh Garden of Fresh Possibilities! Notes from a Gloucester Garden."

PLAYTIME STORIES RETURNS TO GLOUCESTER STAGE COMPANY ON JULY 8 

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PLAYTIME STORIES RETURNS TO GLOUCESTER STAGE COMPANY ON JULY 8 

Live Theater Performances for Young Audience Members Age 2 and Older

Gloucester Stage Company proudly announces Playtime Stories, an engaging combination of children’s stories and live performances for ages 2 and older, on Saturday, July 8 at 10 am at Gloucester Stage, 267, East Main Street, Gloucester and runs through Saturday, August 19.Playtime Stories offers young children the unique opportunity to experience the fun and magic of live theater as they watch their favorite books come to life onstage. Following the performance audience members will be invited to join the Playtime Stories Company in fun and interactive workshops relating to the story. Each Saturday the Playtime Stories Company, consisting of members of Gloucester Stage’s apprentice company, veteran Youth Acting Workshop students and special guest narrators will perform a children’s story against the backdrop of the story’s illustrations as well as create a dynamic weekly series of interactive events related to the story. According to Youth Acting Workshop Director and Teacher Heidi Dallin, “We had a great response to the Playtime Stories program over the past two summers. It is a terrific way for YAW to reach out to younger audiences to spark their excitement in live performance. Many of the veteran YAW students in the Playtime Stories Company have been involved in the YAW program since they were 5 years old and now they will inspire the next generation of YAW students!” Each week from July 8 through August 19Playtime Stories explores different stories ranging from classic fairy tales to new stories to works by local authors.  July 8 is a A Celebration of author Eric Carle with the books: The Very Hungry Caterpillar; The Grouchy Ladybug and Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me.   Upcoming books to be read and performed by the Playtime Stories Company include July 15: A Celebration of Virginia Lee Burton with Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel; July 22: If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, Doctor De Soto, The Little Mouse, the Ripe Red Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear ; July 29: Where the Wild Things Are and Corduroy ; August 5:  Dr. Seuss Celebration: Oh, the Places You’ll Go and Green Eggs and Ham with more stories to be announced for August 12 and August 19. All Playtime Story performances are held at 10 amat Gloucester Stage, 267 East Main Street, Gloucester, MA. Admission is $5. For more information or tickets, call the Gloucester Stage Box Office at 978-281-4433 or visitwww.gloucesterstage.com

T435 PL REP FC

INJURED PIPING PLOVER UPDATE

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Our littlest Piping Plover is on its way to Tufts with Catherine and her sons George and Charles.

Photo: Jodi Swenson, Cape Ann Wildlife. Jodi is Cape Ann’s resident bird rescue expert.

BREAKING: TWO CHICKS CELEBRATING TWO WEEK MILESTONE, ONE CHICK HANGING ON BY A THREAD

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Mama and the two fourteen-day-old chicks this morning at daybreak.

Two of our three Piping Plover chicks are doing beautifully, the third however is hanging on for dear life. The littlest chick was found limp and helpless by beach goers, on the dune edge near the creek. The chick was placed in the wire enclosure where Catherine Ryan and I found it at around nine pm. Jodi Swenson from Cape Ann Wildlife arrived shortly thereafter. She immediately tucked the chick into her shirt and has been keeping the chick in a warming nest. Jodi reports that the chick’s eye is swollen and that it is having neurological problems. More information to follow.Little Chick’s right eye is very swollen.
Jodi’s snapshot from last night.

GOOD HARBOR BEACH PIPING PLOVERS DAY THIRTEEN

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Thirteen-day-old Piping Plover Chicks

Foraging for tiny crustaceans at the high water line.

This morning at 5am found all three adorable balls of fluff zig zagging in and out of their roped off area. All was going well and I had planned to leave at 6:30 for work when the beach rake arrived on the scene. At the very moment the roaring rake was passing in front of the roped off safety area, the chicks decided to head to the water. It was harrowing trying to herd the chicks back up towards the wrack zone and at one point I lost sight of one. The rake passed twice in front of the sanctuary and both times the chicks were in extreme, extreme danger. The beach rake driver is super conscientious and stopped for Papa Plover when he ran in front of the rake, but not in a million years would a chick have been seen. I think eventually the chicks will learn to run in the opposite direction of the giant noise-making machine, but at this stage of development, they are running directly towards the beach rake. Additionally, while the rake drama was unfolding, half a dozen gulls flew in. I don’t know if they were there to check on what was tumbled up by the beach rake, or if they knew the babies were vulnerable as both parents were trying to herd the chicks away from the rake.

After writing this post, the next order of business is emailing Dave from Greenbelt and our conservation agent Ken Whittaker about the beach rake. I sincerely hope it can be redirected to stay on either side of the safety zone, traveling behind the beach through the parking lot road to clean both sides, but completely avoiding the area the PiPls are using as their morning and night time sanctuary.

Compare the photo on the left of a one-day-old chick and the photo on the right of the thirteen-day-old chick.

Despite their growing size, warmth and cuddles are still needed from Papa and Mama.

One of my favorite images, I think I’ll call this photo OctoPop.

Thirteen-day-old Piping Plover chick looking mighty confident.

HUGE SHOUT OUT TO WICKED TUNA’S CAPTAIN DAVE AND NANCY MARCIANO

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After yesterday taking a group of 70 veterans and their invited guests on a fishing trip aboard Captain Tom Orrell’s Yankee Freedom, Captain Dave and Nancy went fishing today with a ship full of local fishermen and fans.

No greater fan than Michael, who was waiting far ahead of the scheduled departure for an autograph from Captain Dave. Autograph in hand, just look at that ear to ear grin!

You can read more about Captain Dave’s efforts on behalf of Wounded Warriors in a previous post: Wounded Warriors with Captain Dave and Nancy Marciano Aboard the Yankee Fleet Celebrate Fourth of July 

 

GOOD NIGHT LITTLE CHICKS

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Nine pm, the tail end of the July Fourth weekend, and all three Piping Plover chicks are tucked under Dad’s wings. Great work everyone! Good night little Plovers.

GOOD HARBOR BEACH PIPING PLOVERS DAY TWELVE

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Twelve-day-old Piping Plover Chick

This morning found all three chicks (hooray for three!) hungrily zooming around the symbolic enclosure, as well as outside the roped off area, and occasionally down to the water’s edge, but only for very brief moments. When the PiPl chicks get to the water they drink quickly before mom or dad calls them back up towards the wrack zone. Later in the morning they will journey over to the creek, where they can safely spend more time in the water drinking and feeding.

Zooming around the beach at top speed.

So this morning, five of the endangered nesting bird signs were either knocked over or mangled. Young adults lighting fires on a busy public beach is just plain dumb, but destroying the signs is just plain unkind. The Piping Plover monitor volunteers are so terrific and 99.99999999999 percent of the community are rooting for the Plovers; it’s just sad to see how a tiny minority can so negatively impact Plover recovery programs.

More food for thought–why do you think there was a Coyote spotted this morning on Nautilus Road in nearly exactly the same spot where there should be a trash barrel? Because of the disgusting pile of food and plastic garbage that sits there every night and well into the morning (or blows into the marsh and ocean), until the DPW arrives. The Coyote’s favorite meal is the the human garbage they have scavenged. Additionally this morning, I filmed super up close two crows alongside the Plover area and they were very expertly digging in the sand and un-burying food that had been buried there in the sand.

Mama Plover and twelve-day-old chicks.

Thankfully, Patti Amaral and the King family reset the signs and a full schedule of volunteers will be monitoring the PiPlover family again today. Thank you to all the volunteers and to our wonderful community for all you are doing to help the Piping Plovers survive our busiest of beaches.

Happy Fourth of July Glorious Beach Day!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BWHp6Z3lYH6/

SATURDAY GREASY POLE WALKS AND NOTICE TO ALL WALKERS

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Congratulations again to Randy Sweet, the Saturday (and Friday) 2017 Greasy Pole Champion!Fantastic Walks Saturday Walkers, and Wonderful Costumes, too!

Several of the GP Walkers have asked how much I would charge to print photos of their walk. No charge. If you would like a photo that you have seen here on GMG, please drag it off the post onto your desktop, or take a screenshot, and send it to me in an email. I will send you the highest resolution file, which is best for printing. You can print however many you would like for your personal use. My email address is kimsmithdesigns@hotmail.com.

Here are links to Sunday’s walk, and I will try to post Friday’s early week:

Sunday 2017 Greasy Pole

Jake Wagner

Randy Sweet Your 2017 Saturday Greasy Pole Champion

TRASH IDEA SHARED BY GMG READER BARBARA FARRER

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GMG Reader Barbara Farrer shares an excellent trash idea and photo,

“My daughter and I went for a walk on the beach today and picked up handfuls of trash. This picture is from walking around 1/3 of the length of the beach and we couldn’t carry anymore garbage by that point. We noticed an abundance of plastic straw wrappers that we suspect came from the snack bar; perhaps the city should consider providing unwrapped straws to mitigate the problem, or stop giving straws (although that would be the tip of the iceberg). The real solution is a little effort and consideration by those who visit our beach, but a change to the snack bar’s straw policy may be a good start.”

FIVE ENDANGERED BIRD SIGNS BENT, MANGLED, OR COMPLETELY KNOCKED OVER THIS MORNING

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The good news is all three chick survived over night. The bad news is five of the endangered bird species signs were destroyed.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BWHp6Z3lYH6/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BWHuckkFNoc/

PIPING PLOVERS DAY ELEVEN!

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Three eleven-day-old Piping Plover chicks, one preening, and two under Mama’s wing. 

With the beach rake, crows, gulls, fires, dogs, garbage, and humans simply enjoying our beautiful Good Harbor Beach, there is mortal danger at every moment for these tiniest of birds. Thank you to all the awesome volunteers for all that you are doing to keep these little balls of fluff safe. Eleven days surviving, especially during a holiday weekend, is no small feat!

Learning to follow Mom’s voice commands.

Counting little pairs of legs under Mama’s wing.

TREMENDOUSLY EXCITING NEWS AND SAVE THE DATE: SNOTBOT ON NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC LIVE!!!

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Iain Kerr writes, 
Hi Kim,

FIRE ON GOOD HARBOR BEACH

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This morning I arrived at 5am to check on the plovers and two young guys were building a fire right next to the Piping Plover sanctuary. I watched from a distance for a moment as they built up the fire, and then they crossed the beach to leave. I called the police to come put out the fire and asked the guys, hey what’s up with the bonfire? Their mysterious response was that they were coming back to add more wood. They left via the footbridge and a few seconds later, the police arrived to extinguish the fire.

Building a fire where children will shortly be running around in the sand is a really, really dumb idea. Not only that, but the PiPl family were super stressed, which is not usually the case during daybreak hours. 

At about 5:30, two crows entered the sanctuary, eating garbage that had blown in. The parents were very distracted by the crows. At an opportune moment, when the chicks were on the opposite side of the crows and garbage, I ran into the roped off area and removed the enticing chicken remains, and chased away the crows. Crows and gulls are only on Good Harbor Beach in great numbers because of the garbage left behind. If there were no garbage, there would be no gulls and no crows.Pre dawn, and pre-arrival of the DPW, with lots of plastic littering the beach, which washes into the ocean each and every night.

CHANGES COMING TO GOOD HARBOR BEACH

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Possibly you’ve noticed the missing sign at Good Harbor Beach. It was removed by the DPW in preparation for construction at GHB, by the footbridge. A foot bath is planned, the retaining wall needs fortifying, and a guest landing pad is being created. The work is scheduled to begin after the Fourth of July holiday.

Your Daily Good Harbor Beach Garbage Photo 

PIPING PLOVER UPDATE: CELEBRATING DAY TEN!

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My, what big feet you have little chick.

Thank you to all who are watching out for the Good Harbor Beach Piping Plover Family! Reports throughout the day from the Piping Plover monitors tell of folks who are curious and interested in the welfare of the chicks. One of our little babies has gone missing, but the three remaining are doing beautifully. They are growing rapidly and getting better at following the parent’s voice commands. In the early morning and evening, for the most part, the chicks go in and out of the symbolic roped off area. During the heat of the day, the chicks stay closer to the grassy dune edge, seeking shade from the sun.

At sunrise this morning it was foggy and chilly. The chicks needed extra cuddling under Mom (ten-day-old chicks).

Interestingly, there is a male interloper. He was first reported by my husband about a month ago, when Tom called and said you have to get down here because the Piping Plovers are fighting! I hurried over, and sure enough an epic battle was taking place between our nesting pair and the strange male. I filmed the fighting, which went on for about half an hour, when Mama Joy and Papa Joe chased the interloper far out to sea. Unfortunately, the “third wheel” keeps reappearing, almost daily. I write unfortunately because as is the case with so many episodes that play out in the life of our little Plover family, when the adults are distracted by a perceived threat and leave the chicks, it makes it easier for a predator, such as a crow or seagull, to swoop in and carry off a baby. Later in the summer, as the Plovers are preparing to migrate south, the fledglings and adults will gather in larger groups, but at this point in the chicks development, the pesky interloper is clearly not welcome.

Eight-day-old chick. Could you be any better camouflaged little Plover?

 

SAINT PETER’S FIESTA OPENING AND CLOSING NIGHT PHOTOS WITH SEINE BOAT CHAMPION GROUP SHOTS

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Snapshots from Fiesta opening and closing night ceremonies Viva!

EOIN VINCENT SHARES A VINTAGE CLASSIC PHOTO OF GLOUCESTER’S MAIN STREET

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Check out Eoin’s Blog 18 Haven here for more beautiful vintage Cape Ann photos and stories on the life of Ken and Elizabeth Vincent.

KEEP YOUR EYES PEELED FOR BLACK SWALLOWTAIL CATERPILLARS

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Reader Elizabeth R. in Essex shares her Black Swallowtail caterpillar snapshot. She has ten on her dill plants!