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May 6

Connecticut’s young sands

Close-up photo of sand from a Connecticut beach.People think Connecticut’s beaches are ‘dirty’ because they are brown, when in fact they are just young compared to the unglaciated coast south of New York City. Our present coastline is only about 5,000 years old, and the sand is still full of granites and a surprising number of semi-precious stones, as well as the usual quartz. On older southern beaches the other minerals have eroded away over tens of thousands of years, leaving only the hardest white quartz of ‘sugar sand.’

Apr 30

Myrtle on myrtle

 

Painting of a Yellow-rumped Warbler on a bayberry branch.(Alright, alright: Yellow-rumped Warbler on Bayberry.)

Apr 30

Ancient history

Watercolor painting of a humpback whale and calf.

An old gouache (opaque watercolor) painting of a humpback whale and calf, from 1985. There’s no nostalgia for me here: I infinitely prefer painting in Photoshop these days.

Apr 18

Spring sprung

Photo of apple blossoms.That is all.

Apr 17

Blue crab sailing

Photo of a Blue Crab underwater in a salt marsh creek.A Blue Crab (Callinectes sapidus) doing something I’ve never seen before: “sailing” down a salt marsh creek by extending all its legs and floating along with the current. Occasionally it would drop down to pick off something, and then push up to “sail” in the current again.

Apr 17

Bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix)

Painting of a Bluefish.

Bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix), Photoshop painting.

Available as a limited edition print.

Apr 11

Beef & tomato chili in a slow cooker

Photo of the finished slow-cooker chili on a plate.A slow-cooked beef chili with the accent on tomatoes, and finished with fresh vegetables. Serve it with kidney beans and rice if you must, but I prefer a bed of green beans, fresh baby corn, asparagus or other veggies. This recipe just fits a 4 quart slow cooker.

Apr 5

Eastern Screech Owl (Megascops asio)

Painting of a red-phase Eastern Screech Owl.Eastern Screech-Owl (Megascops asio), Photoshop painting.

Available as a limited edition print.

Apr 4

Recipe for roast chicken with cumin & lime

Photo of finished roast chicken with cumin and lime.

An easy Mexican take on roast chicken.

Apr 3

The dangers of ‘ghost gear’

Photo of a Great Black-backed Gull with a leg entangled in fishing line.

Discarded monofilament line and other fishing gear can be incredibly persistent and deadly in the environment. Experts estimate that modern monofilament line will take as much as 600 years to fully degrade in marine conditions. That’s 600 years of deadly entanglements and thousands of dead or maimed animals.

This Great Black-backed Gull’s foot is entangled in yards of discarded monofilament fishing line. I watched this bird for over a year off-and-on during visits to West Haven Connecticut’s Sandy Point. It survived, but eventually lost the entangled foot and much of its lower leg.

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