It certainly was weather-wise on Island this afternoon.
As I left the Community Center with all its Christmas décor and headed out to survey Race Point I stopped in my tracks. It struck me as a bit odd to see Forsythia bushes blooming in December.
Common Eider ducks congregate far off shore, bobbing within the rip tide.
I am still noting Hurricane Sandy’s unearthing of items of interest.
Today- bones (either cattle or horse) perhaps from an old Fort Wright dumping ground.
December 3: Unseasonably warm today on Island with temperatures this late afternoon reaching 60 in the sun. Ocean waters in the Fishers Island Sound have been maintaining temps in the low 50’s. I have counted 11 Harbor seals off Armstrong’s “Hooverness” at 3pm. The clumps of rock to the north of that property provide two small haul out sites for basking in the sun.
Over on the south side during an outgoing tide I am discovering small areas of unearthed building structure on South Beach and need to ask Pierce Rafferty at the Museum about their origin.
Saturday December 1: A school of up to 20 dolphins is sighted off the bow of the Ferry departing Silver Eel Cove @ approximately 8:20am.
The boat slows down to a near stand still while leaving the slip. Debbie Doucette of the ferry district happens to actually be on the vessel and reports how extraordinary this observation is and how beautiful.
As no photos have surfaced yet, I am not certain whether these animals were Common dolphins or the Atlantic Bottlenose (resembles “Flipper”) species. Common dolphins have an hourglass shaped pattern on their sides in shades of yellow, white and grey.