Some Sound Scenes

Looking out at Long Island Sound. These huge granite ledges are typical of the Connecticut shoreline. My great-great-grandfather made his fortune quarrying shoreline granite like this, providing the rock for the base of the Statue of Liberty, Grand Central Station in New York, the Brooklyn Bridge, and many bridges and buildings between New York and Boston. All photos clickable thumbnails.

Typical New England Seagull—the rats of the shoreline, lol. There is a larger and more aggressive variety of seagull, with black wings, that is starting to take over in New England. There are worries that this new variety might spell the end of the smaller, daintier gray-winged gulls that have been immortalized in so many paintings and photographs of New England.

Grainy from using the crappy Zoom setting, this pair of seagulls contemplates their next meal, usually something free and scavenged from beach goers. They're pretty savvy and know that we taller animals that walk on two legs leave plenty of garbage behind, and they'll eat almost anything—I have a few oyster shells in my yard that must have dropped from their beaks while flying. Last summer I watched a seagull tear open a McDonalds bag in a garbage can and pick out all of the leftover food. As he found them, he threw the scraps on the ground around the can. As if on cue, his mate flew down and the two of them stood on the ground eating their own version of a Happy Meal, tossing french fries and pieces of hamburger bun back and forth between them.

The small island in the background is where the town sets off the Fourth of July fireworks. The small dinghies are used mainly to bring boat owners out to their larger boats moored just off the shoreline.

A stone breakwater acts as a buffer between the Sound and this small cove used to moor a few boats. It also helps stop erosion of a small sandy beach. I haven't gone in the water in probably close to twenty years, but I could never live where I wasn't close to it. I walk or ride my bike down here almost every day.

New England cedar-shingled beach cottage on the left and the kayak storage area at the town beach.

A saltwater marsh across the street from the Sound. Notice the small white Egret in the lower left. Wading birds are very common around here—Egrets and Herons—and smaller shore birds like Plovers, several varieties of ducks and geese and the occasional pair or two of Swans. Those homes in the background sell for several million dollars. I'll do a post of some of the homes in the area soon. It's unbelievable how many shoreline homes are for sale these days. I counted more than 30 on this one road this week, ranging in price from about $1.5- to more than $12 million. Foreclosure signs are rare, but not that rare this year.