Last Saturday we raced from Newport RI to Block Island RI for the Columbus Day Regatta. After we arrived on Block Island I had a few hours of daylight so I walked around taking photos of the birds on Block Island.
I’m pretty sure that this seagull was sick, other birds kept coming over and she refused to move or even pay them any attention.
We watched this large bird feed on bait fish and then the bird came over and put on a show for us. The sea birds on Block Island have a good life since the water is full of bait fish for them to feed on. For pictures of the Columbus day race click here.
It’s fall in New England and we’ve been busy fitting in some warm weather activities. Today I took my younger daughter out on a dock on our lake to teach her how to hand feed the lake fish. The small 6′ lake fish have really small teeth (if any) so there is no risk of any harm.
Once we place our special lake fish food (bread) in the water it is a matter of seconds before 50-100 of the fish begin feeding. Once they are use to our special food we can lower our hands to the water and they will eat out of them. Since it was my 2 year old’s first time, I was happy that she actually held her hand until a second before they took the food. With my older daughter I will generally let the fish swim into my hands and lift them out of the water, they are like pets.
If you live on a lake and want to feed the fish it is important to do it from other peoples docks. Once the fish get to know you they tend to nibble on you when you go swimming. I do not find it fun having 50-100 fish nibbling on me while I am swimming.
How many 2 year old’s are able to claim that they feed over 50 fish lunch and dinner? This made Emilia’s day while using up most of my whole grain bread.
Trying to hold a camera in one hand while balancing at the end of a dock was a challenge! At least this “fall Eco Tour” was only a 20 second walk from our home.
2008 marks the 25 annual Mitchell Columbus Day Regatta that races from Newport RI to Block Island RI. This season was my 3rd year crewing on one of the race boats and by far it was one of the best weekends that I have ever spent on the water. From our departure from Cranston RI Friday evening until our return on Monday evening, we were blessed with clear sky’s and warm weather!
Since the race had a “staggered start”, meaning the slow boats had a head start, the end of the race became rather active when the faster boats began to catch up.
Over the race weekend I ended up taking about 1200 photos of the racing fleet, Newport, Block Island, the Bay, Birds and all sorts of interesting people. I’ll post some of the pictures on this website and maintain the other pictures in case they are needed for other projects. If you raced in the Columbus Day Regatta and you would like a copy of my photos, please send me an e-mail.
Photos of birds on Block Island <—click to view
It’s cranberry harvesting time in New England! I drove around today for an hour in order to find a cranberry bog that was in the process of being harvested and this is what I found.
I decided to capture some images of a few of the flowers in my yard since it’s fall in New England and our summer flowers have retired for the season. My front yard was the shortest I’ve ever travel for an Eco Tour!
This picture is a reminder that I need to buy a Macro lens for my camera while I wanted to blur the background I was trying to keep both stems in focus.
I just love sunsets! It’s been weeks since I’ve been able to capture the sun so I decided to get our sky at sunset with all of the blue shades.
Trees Changing Color in October
A Collection of Colors as Leafs Change Color
Fall in New England is full of different colors as all of the trees contain several different shades of green, red and orange.
Fall Leaf Peeping in New England
Due to the rain today I sat in my living room working on this website. If it was not for the rain I would of grabbed my laptop and blogged from my tree house. I was shocked to look out my patio door and see the trees on the other side of our lake start to change colors.
While the trees look beautiful in the fall they are a reminder that winter is only a couple of months away. In a way it is their last chance to show off their beauty before they hibernate for the winter.
The red leaves on this tree remind me of the maple trees in Vermont and how they would fill the state with tourist every fall. Growing up their we enjoyed when the tourist asked if they could remove some of our leaves so they could take them home. One man’s garbage is another man’s treasure?
I’ll try to put up some more photos as more of the trees fade into the fall. I might even use a tripod so the images are a little more in focus.