[Leica] The Bay Project...

[don.dory at gmail.com (Don Dory)]

Barney,
Almost Earnst Haas like.  Very nice and a wonderful project to keep you sane
and healthy.

Don
don.dory@gmail.com


On 1/22/06, Bernard Quinn <bquinn@sgi.com> wrote:
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> OK, Don, here goes.............
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> I am by training a chemist and a broadcaster, and that was a long time
> ago - in the Sixties. I have no idea if they still use molecules and
> atoms or if these have been supplanted by something more fashionable. I
> doubt that I have the talent much less the energy needed to do a full
> scale PAW. But, Don was asking about the Bay and that put an idea in my
> head that I want to try. The Bay has been my life and home for decades.
> I can certainly post a picture related to the Bay along with some
> information about it every week or so, if y'all would like.
>
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> I am not a historian or a biologist, nor am I a naturalist. I don't even
> play one on TV or te Internet. My only claim to expertise about the Bay
> is that I have been living, sailing, working, photographing, and
> exploring this part of the world since I was a teenager, and that was
> half a century ago. I have probably managed to pick up a fact or two
> along the way along, I am sure, along with a generous portion of urban
> legend. and just plain old fashion mis-information. There are many LUG
> members who know far more about these things than I can hope to learn in
> the time left to me. I will do my best to get it right, but if I goof up
> not only will comments be welcome and helpful.
>
>
>
> The Chesapeake Bay divides Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia each into
> two parts. We call the "mainland" or Washington, DC,side where I live
> and work the Western Shore, and the other side, ocean side, The Eastern
> Shore. The Bay is long and narrow. It's length is something like one
> hundred and ten miles. Where I live, near Washington, DC, it is only
> about six miles wide. The Bay is very shallow. The deepest part of the
> Bay is called Bloody Point. The depth reaches 115 feet there. ( I'll
> save the story of why we call it "Bloody Point" for another time.) The
> average depth of the Bay is only two or three feet. This may give you an
> idea of how shallow most of the Bay actually is. Its shores and
> tributaries are covered with estuaries, which are a kind of marsh land.
> The water in the Bay is brackish, meaning that it is salty, but not
> nearly as salty as a proper ocean. The marshes and estuaries which line
> the Bay are ecologically very important because they serve as the
> nurseries where Crabs, Rockfish, Clams, and Oysters along with a lot of
> other marine life are born and nurtured. But, more about that as time
> goes on.
>
>
>
> The computer gods who govern what happens to me on my day job were
> neither benevolent nor kind to me this week. One of the things which I
> do when I am tired and need to recharge myself spiritually is to pack up
> my camera and to drive around the Eastern Shore looking for pictures, at
> least during the winter. On summer weekends the way is congested with
> killer traffic jams composed of people trying to get to Ocean City, one
> of our local Atlantic Ocean Beaches. There are two ways to get from the
> Western to the Eastern Shore in the Northern part of the Bay. You can
> drive over the Bay Bridge which connects Sandy Point State Park, which
> is not far from Annapolis, our State capitol, with the Eastern Shore's
> Kent Island. The Bay Bridge is about six miles long, making it one of
> the longer bridges in the world. Or, you can use your boat. At my age
> there is little that could induce me to cross the Bay  Bridge in the
> weekend summer traffic, though when I was younger taking a date to the
> beach with all the hope that entailed would certainly do the job.
>
>
>
> Yesterday afternoon I went to the Blackwater Wildlife Refuge. It is
> located on the Eastern Shore, just outside of Cambridge, Maryland. As
> far as I am concerned it is one of the gems of American Parks. The Bay
> is located on one of the major flyways used by migratory birds as they
> travel north in the summer and south in the winter. This time of year
> the Blackwater Refuge is filled with thousands of birds. I was there
> late in the afternoon yesterday. It was an incredible experience. It was
> an unusually mild winter day. The thermometer on the dashboard of my Jag
> said that it was 61 outside. A storm was blowing up. I could feel it,
> and so could the birds. They were making a great deal of noise and
> flying about this way and that. Being there as the storm came in was an
> incredibly powerful emotional experience. You could feel that you were
> in the presence of something strong, primal, and far larger and stronger
> than you or I are as individuals. This is what it looked like and felt
> like to me.
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> http://www.leica-gallery.net/barney/image-91228.html
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> Barney
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