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RESPLENDENT SMITH’S COVE SUNSET
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Category Archives: Gloucester sunset
POUNDING SURF AND A RAINBOW SUNSET, WHAT WILL #HURICANELEE BRING TOMORROW?
Waves, wind, and a beautiful sunset –
Mother Ann awash in waves today
RED SUN THROUGH A VEIL OF WILD FIRE SMOKE
View from our porch of Gloucester skyline with UU Church steeple
Last night’s setting sun’s red appearance was due in part to haze created by wild fires in Western Canada. 
GOODBYE 2022, HELLO 2023 BLUEBIRD OF HAPPINESS!
Closing out 2022 taking snapshots at the Magnolia Pier with my daughter Liv, and finding Eastern Bluebirds on the first photo foray of 2023. Happy New Year Friends!
Male Eastern Bluebird
WONDROUS SUN PILLAR OVER CAPE ANN
Out filming wild creatures in the trees at dusk, and very focused, when I turned around and caught a brief glimpse of this beautiful red pillar in the sky. Not a clue as to what it was called, I took a few snapshots as it progressively became fainter and am so glad I did. I am late in posting my photos and several folks have identified it as a sun pillar or solar pillar.
More about sun pillars from EarthSky –
“Sun pillars are beams of light that extend vertically upward (or downward) from a bright light source, such as the sun or another bright light low on the horizon. They can be 5 to 10 degrees tall and sometimes even higher. They might lengthen or brighten as you gaze at them.
They’re beautiful and wondrous. They’re also the source of some UFO reports!
Sun pillars or light pillars form when sunlight (or another bright light source) reflects off the surfaces of millions of falling ice crystals associated with thin, high-level clouds – for example, cirrostratus clouds. The ice crystals have roughly horizontal faces. They are falling through Earth’s atmosphere, rocking slightly from side to side.
When is the best time to see a sun pillar or light pillar? You’ll most often see sun pillars when the sun is low in the western sky before sunset, or low in the east just after the breaking of dawn. You might even see a sun pillar when the sun is below the horizon. Light pillars can be seen at any time of night.
They’re called sun pillars when the sun helps make them. But the moon or even streetlights can create this light phenomenon, too, in which case the name light pillar is more appropriate.
These pillars of light often prompt people to report sightings of UFOs. They can sometimes look strange! There are said to be a lot of UFO reports caused by light pillars over Niagara Falls, where the mist from the rush of descending water interacts with the city’s many upward facing spotlights. Light pillars do appear frequently over Niagara Falls, especially during the winter.
As always, the great website Atmospheric Optics is a wonderful place to go and learn more about sun pillars.”
GOOD HARBOR BEACH LOVELY SUNSET OVERLOOKING SARATOGA CREEK
Sunset last night from Good Harbor Beach
FOURTH OF JULY SUNSET #livinginparadise
Beautiful golden sunset for our Fourth of July sunset picnic last evening 
Niles Beach
GLOUCESTER HARBOR SUNSET
July’s evening sky
2021 WILD CREATURES REVIEW! PART TWO
Cape Ann Wildlife – a year in pictures and stories
July through December continued from part one
July 2021
Conserve Wildlife NJ senior biologist Todd Pover makes a site visit to Cape Ann beaches, summer long updates from “Plover Central,” GHB Killdeer dune family raise a second brood of chicks, Cape Hedge chick lost after fireworks disturbance and then reunited with Fam, Great Black-backed Gulls are eating our Plover chicks, thousands of Moon Snail collars at Cape Hedge, Monarchs abound, #savesaltisland, missing Iguana Skittles, and Earwig eating Cecropia Moth cats.
August 2021
New short film for the Sawyer Free Library The Marvelous Magnificent Migrating Monarch!, Coastal Waterbird Conservation Cooperators meeting new short Piping Plover film, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds in the garden, why we love Joe-pye and other wildflowers, butterfly friends, Monarch cats in the garden, what is the purpose of the gold dots found on Monarch chrysalides?,Black Beauty came calling, Tigers in the garden, School Street sunflowers, Hoverflies, luminescent Sea Salps return to Cape Ann beaches, Petal Dancers and lemony Yellow Sulphurs on the wing.
September 2021
Flower Fairies, irruptive Green Darner migration, mini glossary of late summer butterflies, what to do if you find a tagged Monarch, Painted Ladies, White-tailed Deer family, Monarchs mating, Tangerine Butterflies, yellow fellow in the hood, and Beauty on the Wing first ever live screening at the Shalin Liu.
October 2021
Bee-sized butterfly the American Copper, Monarch conga line, Thunder and Cloud, abandoned Piping Plover egg, School Street Sunflowers, Monarchs migrating, quotidian splendor, Monarch fundraiser updates, collecting milkweed seeds, the Differential Grasshopper, Cooper’s Hawk – a conservation success story, #ploverjoyed, and nor’easter from the EP Lighthouse.
November 2021
Bridges between life and death, ancient oak tree uprooted, autumn harvest for feathered friends, Monarch migration update, we have achieved our fundraising goal!, Harbor Seal pup hauled out, flight of the Snow Buntings, and a very rare for these parts wandering Wood Stork calls Cape Ann home for a month.
December 2021
New short film Wandering Wood Stork, tiny tender screech owl suffering from rat poison under the care of Cape Ann Wildlife Inc., Praying Mantis in the autumn garden, masked bandits in the hood, short film The Majestic Buck and Beautiful Doe Courtship Frolic, Snowy Owl boy in the dunes, short film Cedar Waxwing vocalization, the story of the Steller’s Sea-Eagle’s foray to Massachusetts, and Harbor Seal Pig Pile.
Steller’s Sea Eagle – Haliaeetus pelagicus
SEE PART ONE, JANUARY THROUGH JUNE, HERE
BEAUTY ON THE WING: LIFE STORY OF THE MONARCH BUTTERFLY COMING SOON (FEBRUARY 2022) TO A PBS STATION NEAR YOU!
SAINT ANN’S CHURCH IN SILVER AND GOLD
Snowy Gloucester – love that time of late day when the steeple atop Saint Ann’s shines silver and gold. 
TONIGHT’S VIBRANT VIOLET SKY DRAMA SILHOUETTE LIGHTHOUSE SUNSET
Tonight’s sunset after the storm
I especially love the colors in the above image
LAST LIGHT OF DAY
Schooner Adventure, fishing boat, and the UU Church
RAINBOW SUNSET OVER GLOUCESTER HARBOR
Tonight’s glorious rainbow sunset to match this most glorious of new days <3
CHECK OUT THE BEAUTIFUL WORK OF MARY RHINELANDER AT HER NEW ONLINE SHOPPING WEBSITE!
Many locals are familiar with Mary Rhinelander and her beautiful artistry. For my out of town friends, as well as local readers who may not yet be aware, did you know Mary has an amazing website where, for super, super reasonable prices, you can purchase one of her prints?
Not only prints, but her wonderfully fun and whimsical greeting cards.
Visit Mary’s Website Here: Mermade Press
Mary also teaches block printing workshops at the Cape Ann Museum. It’s on my bucket list to take her class. Now more than ever, after the pandemic has run its course, of course.
STUDIO VISITS BY APPT
34 Mt. Pleasant Ave
Gloucester, MA 01930
OPERATING HOURS
Mon – Fri: 10am – 9pm
Saturday: 10am – 9pm
Sunday: 10am – 9pm
From Mary’s About page on her newly revamped website –
WHO IS MARY?
Hmmm….
In the nursery rhyme, she has a reputation for being quite contrary. No doubt some would say in real life too.
Ever desperate for affirmation, this Mary won an art prize in first grade and that was the beginning of “making stuff.” Creating kept me semi-sane in high school and college. A sculptor student suggested I design wallpaper and I was grievously insulted. No doubt it would have been more lucrative! But he had a point. I love the strictures of graphic design and the precision of typography. My first jobs were in the art departments of publishing companies. However the freedom and mess of ink and paint tempted me back to graduate school, where I earned an MFA in printmaking. Since then I have been a practicing artist and educator.
My mixed media work has graced the walls of television shows and movies (thank you set designers), and it is in many collections, both public and private (thank you art reps). I have shown in Canada and Europe and the USA. One of the best things about printmaking and works on paper is probably also the worst: they tend to be very affordable! When a young person buys their first piece of original art from me, I am proud.
I hope you enjoy looking around. Please feel free to reach out with any questions (see contact page).
BEAUTIFUL MEMORIAL FRIDAY AT GOOD HARBOR BEACH!
People and wildlife waiting for sunrise
From what I could see and for the most part, people were social distancing while enjoying a gorgeous day in the sunshine.
NILES BEACH SUNSET SUNBURST
Sunset from Niles Beach wednesday evening.
GLOUCESTER CITY HALL AGLOW -2
The north-south weather vane is perfectly aligned as are the three gulls encircling the Hall–both by pure chance 🙂
GLOUCESTER HARBOR GLOWING TWILIGHT
Gloucester Harbor twilight hues as the light shifts from saffron to cinnabar to rose-violet. Click through slideshow to see full size.
WOWZER!!
Head of the Harbor WOW factor sunset.
Not too shabby from the the state fish pier, either!
Plum violet – when red meets blue.
SUNBURST STARBURST OVER STAGE FORT PARK
The sun appeared briefly through the clearing clouds during Monday night’s sunset. Taken from the Boulevard looking towards Stage Fort Park. 
Ten Pound Island Sunset
Paint Factory and Ten Pound Island Lighthouse
THREE VIEWS GLOUCESTER CITY HALL AND SKYLINE
A view that never disappoints
Choppy Harbor waters
Storm clouds departing
Later the same afternoon
SHOUT OUT TO GLOUCESTER’S ANIMAL CONTROL OFFICERS TEAGAN AND JAMIE!
Gloucester’s Animal Control Officers Teagan and Jamie were on the scene at the crack of dawn at 4:30 this morning fixing the posts around the PiPl nesting area and writing tickets. Last night Jamie was on the beach as well. Thank you Jamie, Teagan, and Chief McCarthy for the stepped up patrolling.
The posts needed to be pulled out of the sand because last night we had yet another super high tide, all the way up to the bluff for most of the length of the beach.
I read a comment yesterday that stated falsely that the animal control officers make $80,000.00 a year and sit around and drink coffee all day. I have it on good authority that their combined incomes do not total $80,000.00 a year. Stating misinformation and disparaging the hard working people in our community is creating a false narrative and is hurtful to everyone involved, to the people, the dog owners, and to the shorebirds.
Teagan and Jamie writing tickets at dawn this morning.
We don’t have as much an enforcement problem as we do an issue with entitlement and ignorance. Ignorance in the sense that scofflaws may be from out of town and may be unable to read, and entitlement in that some people know the rules and know the dangers that dogs pose to the shorebirds, yet choose to do as they please.
Upon entering Good Harbor Beach this morning, the scofflaws with their dog walked by these three signs.
Walking a dog on a beach is a purely recreational activity. For teeny tiny nesting shorebird chicks, protecting that same beach habitat is a matter of life and death.
If you see a dog at anytime or anywhere on Good Harbor Beach, please call this number: 978-281-9900.
As of late, it appears as though many more people now have the need of a service dog. Having a service dog requires that it be on leash at all times, not jumping on people, and not running through the dunes. Service dogs cannot go in the dunes, or anywhere on the beach that is restricted to humans.
Would the people with service dogs consider taking their dog to any other of Cape Ann’s stunning beaches, rather than to Good Harbor Beach during shorebird nesting season I wonder?
Folks getting ticketed and escorted off the beach.
Truly, the most important action people can take is to volunteer to help watch over the chicks. We have a number of folks posing as helpers but sadly, they are not actually volunteering for shifts. Two monitors on each shift would be ideal, but this year we have fewer volunteers, and don’t even have single person coverage during large chunks of time. Keeping watch over the baby birds will make a difference in whether or not the chicks survive. Anyone can be a volunteer and anyone of us can show you what to do. Finding people to help has been especially difficult on the weekends. Please contact kwhittaker@gloucester-ma.gov if you would like to lend a hand. Thank you so very much 
Six-day-old Piping Plover Chick
This morning’s dog tracks at Good Harbor Beach – Dog tracks are easy to spot and to differentiate from other canids (fox and coyote). For example, notice the sharp toenail indentation. Coyotes have rounded toe tip prints because they wear their nails down.
Dog tracks Good Harbor Beach
Look what other tracks were spied this week, deer! These too are easy to spot in the sand. The deer’s cloven hoof makes a broken heart shape.
White-tailed Deer Tracks Good Harbor Beach
Today’s early morning Good Harbor Beach view of Thacher Island Twin Lights
GOOD HARBOR BEACH PANORMA AT TWILIGHT
Mackerel sky pink clouds – Good Harbor Beach at twilight.