4.23- Tern, Bluebird and Boat Washing

Four boats at anchor in the harbor today.

Saw an unusual bird while driving down South Avenue... Usually there are seagulls perched on the old abandoned Neuse Motel pier, but today I saw a flash of an orange bill that made me stop. I got these two pictures before the bird flew off... it was much more skitish than the usual Laughing Gulls that hang out here. I looked it up when I got home, and it is certainly a Tern, though I cannot tell if it is an Arctic Tern or a Common Tern. I am guessing it is the latter, just because, well, it is more common, after all.

Going down Hodges Street I saw this guy washing the hull of his boat while tied up at Town Dock.

When I got home, the neighborhood Bluebird was posing again.



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4.22- Pelicans and friends in Smith Creek

After getting my daily shot from the Dinghy Dock (two boats at anchor today), I went down to the Kayak dock next to the Wildlife Ramp and took some pictures of a Pelican that was diving over and over again, mostly successfully.

I just learned how to use the simulated motor-drive on my camera, so I tried over and over again to to get that Pelican as he was crashing into the water, until I did get the one in today's show.

Later, as I was photo-shopping my pics, I noticed I had captured a Carolina Skiff going by... upon zooming in I realized it was friends Eric and Dan cruising Smith's creek with Eric's two dogs perched on the bow. Eric and Dan look like they are thinking hard about something... Probably looking forward to a snack or something as they are headed back to Eric's house on the creek. I also got a couple of pics of a Red-Tailed Hawk going by. Final shot is one with both Pelican and skiff.



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4.21- Storms over the Neuse

Storms continued to dominate the scenery again today in Oriental. I just love watching them come in over the Neuse River (as long as I am not in a boat on the Neuse River).

Here is a sequence of three pictures of rain clouds just beginning to hit the river.



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4.20- Late night lightning

There was a great lightning show tonight as a storm moved across the Neuse River towards Oriental.

I tried to get some lightning shots, but my camera does not have a "bulb" setting, and the longest exposure I can get is 32 seconds. I took a couple dozen exposures, but none came out as well as I would have liked. Sometimes I really miss my analog cameras.

Here are three that kind of capture the scene. I took these from South Avenue just north of Lou-Mac park. Strikes were occurring all over the place, especially across the river. The first two pictures here show strikes somewhere near the mouth of the Neuse River or in Pamlico Sound. The trees on the left in the second shot are at Whittaker Point.

There was a ton of cloud lightning, very "Poltergeist"/"Indiana Jones" as depicted in the third shot.



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4.19- When the Swallows Come Back to Oriental

Ahoy!

Spring is definitely here, as the Barn Swallows return to their seasonal homes beneath the bridge and docks of Oriental Harbor.

I am pretty happy with several of these shots of flying swallows, a notoriously difficult photograph.

Another harbinger of "the Season" is a blue bird... the Red-Winged Blackbirds stick around all year, but are more visible in spring and summer.

Yet another sure sign the Season is upon us are these Kayaks next to the Dinghy Dock, waiting to take some aliens on a pleasant creek tour...


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

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4.15- Gardening, Cat in a Tree, Pelicans, an Ocean Gem

gardening neighbors.
the neighbors' cat found herself in a puzzle as to how to descend from this pear tree.

Northeasterly winds were blowing Pamlico Sound up the Neuse River, making for some high water at the Oriental Dinghy Dock.

pelicans roosting at the end of the breakwater
"Ocean Gem."


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View Picture Album on Picasa


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4.14- New Template for The Dinghy Dock

Ahoy!

Welcome to the new, BEAMIER Dinghy Dock blog. This template, "Minima Lefty Stretch," is much wider than the previous template for this site, and consequently allows much W I D E R pictures to be posted.

(I decided to try this format out after seeing the "San Antonio Daily Photo" site on Blogger. The SADP, by the way, is great... wonderful daily photos of one of the world's Great Cities, even without sailboats)

For example, compare the following picture in BEFORE and AFTER sizes:

BEFORE (400 px wide):



AFTER (700 px wide):


(Whittaker Point, taken 4/14/08 from South Avenue waterfront, facing North down the Neuse River, towards Pamlico Sound... look carefully about two points off the port bow and you can see a cormorant swimming and swallowing a snack)

WOW! MUCH BIGGER! It also means LARGER SLIDE SHOWS.

Of course, this means larger file sizes on Capt. Ben's Picasa space, so we shall see how often this new potential is used.

More likely, I'll stick with about a 500 px width (still 100 px wider than previous template would accommodate), as in the following picture:


(The "Green Dolphin," a 55 foot ketch, motors in to Oriental Harbor, where she has a slip... here you can see another of the ubiquitous cormorants swimming by)

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4.13- Mimosa Tree Budding

ONC is very quiet today, as the 700+ bicyclers who were in town over the weekend are now long gone.

Today the crew found these budding leaves on the Mimosa tree right next to the Dinghy Dock. This is Capt. Ben's favorite tree in ONC. There is a nice flat rock on the rip-rap next to the tree... a great place to sit and watch the boats coming and going:

Today is one of those days when you might be standing in the sun while rain is falling on you. Some nice big cumulus clouds drifting by, a little cooler than the last few days. This pic was taken from Lou-Mac Park, facing south, up the Neuse River:



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4.11- Cycle NC Weekend / Bay-Hen Cruise

The pictures and the captions pretty much tell today's story:


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4.10- Dinghy Dock Weather

Today's Dinghy Dock Weather Report was shot just after sunset... A beautiful day here in Pamlico County, after what seems like weeks of wind and rain.


Today's Slide Show:
Capt. Ben started his day with a trip to Bayboro to do some research, then on the way back to ONC, he spotted these two bicyclists on their way to ONC for the "Cycle NC Spring Weekend." Seven hundred or so bicyclists are on their way to ride around Pamlico County from base camp Oriental.

Capt. Ben also saw many tents going up around town to accommodate all the aliens coming for the weekend, but was too busy navigating around bicyclists to take pictures. He will be sure to get many pics of the event tomorrow, when the bulk of the bikers are scheduled to arrive.

Capt. Ben also went to the Twin Towers for the weekly Captains Meeting, but the Captains table was full, so he settled for cracking up neighbors Sandy and Annike.

After a beer, Capt. Ben ran into Capt. Keith down at Town Dock. Capt. Keith was about to take his crew (Jack & Caleidh) out for a sail around the harbor in his un-named Bay Hen cat-boat. Capt. Keith graciously invited Capt. Ben to join in, which he happily accepted.

Unfortunately, Capt. Ben did not have a cup with him, so he missed out on Capt. Keith's grog.

Nonetheless, it was a fun sail, enjoyed by all. The First Mate Caleidh helped out by blocking the tiller as much as possible, and Second Mate Jack helped by insisting that the helmsman (Capt. Ben most of the time) scratch Jack's head the entire time. We all got barked at by the crew-member of one boat anchored in the harbor... apparently we got too close for the crew-member's comfort, though the Captain was friendly enough.

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4.7- Weather pic from Lou-Mac park

Picture of Neuse River from parking lot between Lou-Mac Park and the Neuse River Suites pier (defunct)... That is Whitaker Point beyond on the left, with the tall pine trees.



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4.5- Gangs of Oriental

Capt. Ben's crew has noticed an upsurge in apparent gang activity here in Oriental NC, as evidenced by tags in several locations left by "Squiggly Crip CK (-B-)"



As a public service, The Dinghy Dock is posting the following educational video regarding the type of gang activity for which Oriental residents and visitors need to be prepared:



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4.4- Moving Ross' Mast (and Boom and Spar)

Today Cap'n Ross needed a little help moving his 800 lb.+ wooden mast, along with the associated boom and almost negligible spar, from the boatyard to his shop.

Capt. Ben lent a hand between taking pictures. Really, he did. Really.


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