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Columnists
Ocean Views
Sustaining mid-winter ducks
Kim Gaffett
Sat, Jan 28
Category:
Ocean Views
As January comes to an end, we find ourselves in another season: mid-winter. So far it’s been a mild winter, without any of our regular winter diversions. True, it is nice not to have to be worrying about plowing out driveways, or the inevitable follow-on of mud season. But, the pleasure and...
Community Bird Census 2022
Kim Gaffett
Fri, Jan 6
Category:
Ocean Views
On December 26, there was a small but hardy gathering of walkers and birders starting the day’s observations for the Community Bird Census (CBC). Following the first – mostly – white Christmas in years, the weather stayed cold and crisp: 20F plus-or-minus throughout the day with a moderate...
Tundra Swan, Bald Eagle, Snowy Owl
Kim Gaffett
Fri, Dec 23
Category:
Ocean Views
Tundra swan, bald eagle, snowy owl: charismatic megafauna. All of these species have been seen on Block Island in the last week. Although I do hope there are sightings of these on December 26 – the day of the upcoming Community Bird Census – I personally would be more pleased to see the equally...
Notes From a Naturalist: Season shifting
Kim Gaffett
Mon, Nov 14
Category:
Ocean Views
If you have followed these Ocean Views over the last year you will recall, or have observed, that I’ve been taken with the notion that the prime unit of time is a season. Generally, we are all familiar with a pattern that divides the year into spring, summer, autumn and winter; and of late I’ve...
Celebrate Earth Day – help plant beachgrass
Kim Gaffett
Fri, Apr 15
Category:
Ocean Views
It’s time to plant beach grass! The last time the island marshaled a beachgrass planting brigade it was 2019. Because of Covid restrictions, gathering for grass planting was curtailed in 2020 and 2021. Weather-wise we are at the end of the beachgrass planting season, and we are all systems go. On...
Block Island Seal Count:
Kim Gaffett
Sat, Mar 26
Category:
Ocean Views
On Tuesday, March 15, 25 volunteers surveyed nearly 100 percent of the island’s perimeter in an effort to get a count of seals in the area at this “peak” season for wintering seals. This effort was in coordination with Save The Bay’s annual bay-wide seal count, which surveys all possible seal haul-...
The Ides of March: Tree Swallows, Spring Peepers, Peak Seal ...etc.
Kim Gaffett
Sun, Mar 13
Category:
Ocean Views
Beware the ides of March – not! With all due respect to Shakespeare: celebrate the ides of March – the first full moon in a new year. Sparing the reader a long, complicated treatise on ancient calendars, let’s just accept the premise that the only good reason to keep a calendar is to track seasons...
February Bird Questions and Answers
Kim Gaffett
Sun, Feb 20
Category:
Ocean Views
Have you heard red-wing blackbirds trilling yet? Maybe you are wondering: are there more northern cardinals around than usual? Or, maybe you’ve seen a purple sandpiper and are curious about why it’s called “purple”, when its orangey-ochre colored feet and legs are so striking? Ahhhh, February, so...
February’s sense of place and anticipation:
Kim Gaffett
Sat, Jan 29
Category:
Ocean Views
With the advent of February, we have the first winter month when both sunrise and sunset are working to extend the day at both ends. As we start the month, sunrise is once again before 7 a.m.; and, as February closes, sunset at 5:35 p.m. is a full hour later than early January. We are leaving the...
It takes a community...
Kim Gaffett
Sun, Jan 9
Category:
Ocean Views
The 2021 Community Bird Count held on December 26 was astounding in many ways. First, the weather was not ideal; it seemed a bit too cloudy and breezy to encourage bird activity. At first glance the day seemed unremarkable: the sky was blue-gray and mostly cloudy, the wind was northwest –at times...
January: a sense of peace, and anticipation
Kim Gaffett
Sat, Jan 1
Category:
Ocean Views
As we leave the calendar year and a sense of celebration, we are headed to a season of rest – a season of quiet, reflective peace. Even though January can be known for its fierce winter winds and weather, it also carries with it a sense of peace. On the island, this essence of peace comes wrapped...
Long-tailed Ducks: Not “Old-Squaw” or “Young-Brave”
Kim Gaffett
Sat, Dec 25
Category:
Ocean Views
On December 26, 1921 Elizabeth Dickens recorded in her journal the following bird species observations: Loons calling, Canada Geese, Long- tailed Ducks singing, Black Ducks, Horned Larks, European Starlings, Meadowlarks, Song Sparrow, and a Shrike. This journal entry was before she started the...
The Gray Seals of Block Island
Kim Gaffett
Sat, Dec 4
Category:
Ocean Views
It looks like we are going to have another winter with lots of seals around to observe and to revel in the knowledge that we exist on this precious island in their company. Thankfully seals have been making a region-wide comeback from their drastic reductions – if not near extinction – in the late...
December’s celebrations as prelude to a season of rest
Kim Gaffett
Tue, Nov 23
Category:
Ocean Views
For many, December is a month that launches our sense of celebration. Evidence of festive adornment and activities abound at this time of year: think of the bursting bittersweet and winterberries ablaze on their now leafless armature; think of splashing and ducking hooded mergansers and coots, and...
November will pique your sense of artistry
Kim Gaffett
Fri, Oct 29
Category:
Ocean Views
If you have an artistic sense, then November may be the month for you. Each Block Island month has its aesthetic allure, but November’s landscape is stunning. The combination of light, shadow, texture and color – may be subtle, but – is beautiful and captivating, and worthy of museum and gallery...
Use your sixth sense in October
Kim Gaffett
Thu, Sep 30
Category:
Ocean Views
I have a feeling that October is going to be spectacular. Of course, this feeling is based on a little more than my sixth sense. It has been a wet summer and there is still dampness in the ground, which is a clue that the color change of the foliage will be strong and brilliant. October is a...
Marine Critters
Kim Gaffett
Thu, Sep 9
Category:
Ocean Views
Here are a number of photos of marine critters seen along the island’s ocean shores and in the Great Salt Pond. Refer to the captions for: species name, normal range, where observed and by whom. Although not all the species are exclusively tropical, they all include regular existence in waters...
September
Kim Gaffett
Thu, Sep 2
Category:
Ocean Views
As we near the end of summer, we find that the best of the season is yet to come. September is the umami of summer. The tastes, the feel, the scent, the sight, of summer wildness all gain a richness, and a depth of expression in September. September embodies the essence and concentrate of summer...
Wandering gliders
Kim Gaffett
Thu, Aug 26
Category:
Ocean Views
Dragonflies abound! Dashers, darners, skimmers and gliders, to name just a few, have been darting around the island all summer. But it is the preponderance of wandering gliders that has captured the wonderings of many of us, since the blurry eye of Tropical Storm Henri passed over us this past...
The taste of summer
Kim Gaffett
Fri, Jul 30
Category:
Ocean Views
August morning song is starting just a little bit later and is just a little shorter than it was in July. Even so, the power of the Carolina wren’s “tea kettle, tea kettle, teeeeee” at 5 a.m. is impressive, rousing, and more effective than a bugle call – at least to me. I’ve always been a morning-...
Summer Sensations
Kim Gaffett
Fri, Jun 25
Category:
Ocean Views
It is beginning to feel a lot like summer. It has been a nice cool spring, but the warm, moisture-laden, humid air is upon us – summer air. Summer air is a mixed blessing. At its best, the radiant heat is warming and pleasant; our muscles are relaxed, ready to stretch, and energized for all manner...
June is a Scented Month
Kim Gaffett
Fri, May 28
Category:
Ocean Views
There will come a day in June when, upon leaving your house, you will be greeted with a wall of moisture-laden air permeated with the smell of roses. June is a scented month. It can also be a month punctuated with bouts of fog. The collision of warming air over the ocean, still cool from winter,...
The Microseasons of May: a Phantasmagoria of Life
Kim Gaffett
Fri, Apr 30
Category:
Ocean Views
When I uncurled from sleep this morning and looked out my southwest facing window I saw the day’s sunrise reflected in the sky. For brief moments the baby blue backdrop was streaked with one wide band of peach and salmon, and several more thinner repeating bands drifting towards the horizon. In the...
Sounds of Spring
Kim Gaffett
Thu, Mar 25
Category:
Ocean Views
The sounds of spring enter April – and our consciousness – like ocean waves: sometimes loud and thunderous, sometimes murmuring and almost subsonic. The sounds of spring build throughout April in leaps and bounds, but by the first of May the island will be in the midst of a full-on spring chorale...
Volunteers Are Needed to Help Count Seals
Kim Gaffett
Thu, Mar 18
Category:
Ocean Views
On Block Island in February we celebrate Groundhog Day by counting people, in March we celebrate the arrival of spring by counting seals. Since 1994, Save The Bay volunteers have observed and recorded the presence and species of seals at haulout sites around Narragansett Bay throughout the winter “...
March’s Microseasons
Kim Gaffett
Thu, Feb 25
Category:
Ocean Views
March and October are my two favorite months of the year. Since we are on the eve of March, I’ll leave the charms of October for another day. March: what’s not to love? March is like that perfect morning slumber in those moments when you emerge from your warm blanket cocoon, stretch broadly and...
February Celebrations
Kim Gaffett
Thu, Jan 21
Category:
Ocean Views
February is a maligned month. For all its detractors, February has much to offer: traditional celebrations and the subtle reddening and swelling of shad buds are among the offerings. The February moniker hales from the Roman words februum and februa, relating to festivals of purification, of light...
20th Annual Community Bird Census: Socially Distanced & Communal
Kim Gaffett
Thu, Jan 7
Category:
Ocean Views
This year’s Community Bird Census (CBC), on December 26, 2020, dawned cold and windy, but fortunately it was only partly cloudy; there was enough sun throughout the day to keep spirits up and bird watchers afield. My expectations for this twentieth anniversary CBC were low. The cold and wind...
Community Bird Census: One birder at a time
Kim Gaffett
Thu, Dec 17
Category:
Ocean Views
“December 26, 1920 – 7 a.m. Temp. 14. Loon 3, H. Gull 20, H. Lark 12, Starling 12, Meadowlark 5, Song 4. A little vapor. — Elizabeth Dickens Bird Journals On Dec. 26, 1920 Elizabeth Dickens had been keeping her daily bird journal for just nine years; and had not yet started leading the Christmas...
I’m tired.
Kim Gaffett
Thu, Aug 27
Category:
Ocean Views
Like many locations on the Island, the Ocean View Foundation (OVF) Pavilion site has had a hard summer, and as usual, it is a tale of two communities. The good The OVF Pavilion was built in 2000, presented to the community of residents and visitors, an open-air oasis in the Old Harbor. Over the...
Sandhill Crane Makes a House Call
Kim Gaffett
Thu, May 14
Category:
Ocean Views
Any morning that includes a bird photo and the following text exchange, is a good one.
Paige G: “Good morning:) Kate Musso just sent this and is curious what it is?”
Kim G: “OMG where??? Sand Hill Crane. I need to see it!!!”
I was at the banding station handling gray catbirds,...
Earth Day, Arbor Day, May Day: Calls of action
Kim Gaffett
Fri, May 1
Category:
Ocean Views
Ahhhhh, what an April it has been. We can only hope that the adage, “April showers bring May flowers
,
” proves true. By my calculation, we have had only 10 mostly sunny days in April (30 percent). The other 20 days have been cloudy or rainy! Ahhhhh, keeping track of the weather is such a...
Kim Gaffett’s Ocean Views: Earth Day meets Poetry Month
Kim Gaffett
Fri, Apr 17
Category:
Ocean Views
Everything is Going to be All Right How should I not be glad to contemplate the clouds clearing beyond the dormer window and a high tide reflected on the ceiling? There will be dying, there will be dying, but there is no need to go into that. The poems flow from the hand unbidden and the hidden...
Celebrating seals and the Vernal Equinox
Kim Gaffett
Thu, Mar 12
Category:
Ocean Views
As we teeter on the cusp of spring we may find ourselves suddenly in a day where the wind has abated, and the afternoon sun feels so warm that it is like a Siren’s call to sit, and loll, on the lee side of a favorite stone wall while taking a little rest. If we are lucky, and let ourselves succumb...
The 2019 Bird Count
Kim Gaffett
Thu, Jan 9
Category:
Ocean Views
The 2019 Bird Count
By Kim Gaffett
A letter to Miss Elizabeth Dickens on the 2019 Community Bird Census:
Dear Miss Dickens, You were missed on our annual Community Bird Count, which of course was on Dec. 26. It felt like a drab day of low numbers with no sun, and although...
The fungus among us
Kim Gaffett
Fri, Dec 6
Category:
News
,
Columnists
,
Ocean Views
On Saturday, Dec. 7, author and mycologist Lawrence Millman will be walking and talking fungi right here on Block Island. First, a walk at 11 a.m. through the Boy Scout Camp. (Upper Connecticut Avenue. Park and meet at the Neptune House.) “Mushrooms at this time of year?” you may be thinking...
Once and future salt marshes: A tutorial
Kim Gaffett
Fri, Sep 27
Category:
Ocean Views
Depending on where you start counting, our earth satellite has just finished its year’s travel around the sun; and now, we start a new year with autumn. Some or our favorite summer activities are enhanced and made sublime by fall weather. A walk in October light and cooler air is delightful...
Ocean Views: Citizen Science: Seals, birds, and flowers, … Oh, my!
Kim Gaffett
Thu, Jan 31
Category:
Ocean Views
You might ask in wonderment, what do seals, and birds and flowers have in common? The answer is — for this article — citizen science. Citizen science is the process of many volunteers collecting observations and reporting them to one scientist/entity that is building a database of information. It’s...
Ocean Views: Food waste is serious
Thu, Jan 24
Category:
Ocean Views
Calling all chefs… and composters, back yard recyclers, and transfer station managers, and anyone interested in knowing more about how food waste is being handled (or not handled) worldwide, to a viewing of an incredibly interesting film, “Wasted! The story of food waste,” on Tuesday, Jan. 29 at...
Spy hopping, banana posing and other seal questions
Kim Gaffett and Clair Stover
Thu, Jan 17
Category:
Ocean Views
With our yards and meadows mostly buttoned-up or battened-down, we are paying more attention to our island-wide back yard. Have you ever been walking on the beach, and realized that somebody was watching you? Or, lost in thought admiring the rivulets of sand — created how? by wind or wave? — and...
57 species collected, one by one
Ocean Views: 2018 Bird Census
KIm Gaffett
Fri, Jan 4
Category:
Ocean Views
On Wednesday, Dec. 26, a hearty band of bird watchers — Jon Peterson, Heather Hatfield, Anne Connelli, Judy Gray, Jules Craynock, Sarah Grey, Laura Rosenzwieg, Cathy Payne, her granddaughter Bailey Payne, and cousin Aidan — met at Sachem Pond to kick off a day of looking for birds to be tallied for...
Ocean Views: Evening grosbeaks and other winter finches
Kim Gaffett
Fri, Dec 21
Category:
Ocean Views
Winter finches: purple finch, common redpoll, white-winged crossbills, pine siskins, and evening grosbeaks — all members of the finch family
Fringillidae
— are expected to be seen in unusually high numbers this winter as far south as New York and New England, and maybe even beyond. On Block...
Saving Block Island one blade of grass at a time
Kim Gaffett
Sat, Apr 21
Category:
Ocean Views
“A steady sea wind sweeping across the beach carries grains of sand inland. When its motion is interrupted by a log or grass clump, the wind drops its burden of sand. Slowly, a mound builds up. Growing higher, broader, merging with other mounds, it becomes a hillock, a ridge — a dune. Rolling up...
Ocean Views: A picture is worth a thousand words
Kim Gaffett
Sat, Mar 10
Category:
Ocean Views
The recent storm had a fierce erosive effect on the island’s outer shorelines. The same storm surges, coupled with full moon high tides, produced unusually high water in the largely protected Great Salt Pond, and associated inner harbors. The level of water that we witnessed on March 3 is...
SNOWstorm
Kim Gaffett
Fri, Feb 23
Category:
Ocean Views
From Elizabeth Dickens’ 1926 bird journal: “In Nov. and Dec. the greatest flight of Snow Owls ever recorded.” That entry goes on to identify sightings of 23 individual snowy owls on Block Island that winter. Since 1926 there have been several irruptions of snowy owls into our region, and well...
Great Backyard Bird Count, Block Island-style
Kim Gaffett
Thu, Feb 15
Category:
Ocean Views
The Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) is this weekend: Feb. 16 – 19. This is a global effort to observe and report which bird species are where during the winter — between migration times. "The 2018 GBBC again promises to provide an important snapshot of bird occurrence in February," says the...
2017 bird census
Sat, Jan 6
Category:
Ocean Views
Q. What do Ross’s goose, Virginia rail, Common raven, Ruby-crowned kinglet, Palm warbler, Field sparrow, and Fox sparrow have in common? A. They were all seen on Block Island, on Dec. 26, 2017, for the first time during the 17th annual Community Bird Census. Not since the first two years have we...
A glimpse of Island birdlife
Kim Gaffett
Sat, Dec 30
Category:
Ocean Views
Starting in January 2009, the Crazy-as-a-Coot bird walkers (co-led by Maggie Komosinski) meet twice a month (October through June) to survey bird presence and activity, and to take pleasure in our surroundings. We meet at different locations around the Island, depending on weather, mostly wind...
Kindness shown to injured owl
Thu, Dec 21
Category:
Ocean Views
The following report came in from Kim Gaffett:
Kate Sprague Campanale and Heather Dippolito discovered an injured owl on Corn Neck Road early on Monday, Dec. 18. They called the Police Department dispatch, which called me. Kate and Heather protected the downed owl until I got there. It...
Ocean Views: A Resiliency Roundtable
Kim Gaffett
Fri, Dec 1
Category:
Ocean Views
Block Islanders are nothing if not resilient. No harbor to support a fishing industry: design a special work boat – the Block Island double ender. No wood for building and fuel: salvage every stick that comes ashore, from driftwood, to cargo, to ship hulls run aground. Now, the Island –— like the...
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Island Buzz
This weeks Nature Conservancy Schedule
Posted By
The Block Island Times
1/31
Check out this weeks Nature Conservancy Schedule at https:// www.natureblockisland.org
TimberTech by AZEK
Posted By
Riverhead Building Supply
1/26
Riverhead Building Supply offers TimberTech by AZEK Building Products. Click here for the latest collections and styles...
Thinking of Listing Your Home For Sale?
Posted By
Ballard Hall Sales Group
12/12
We would love the opportunity to meet with you! When listing your home for sale, our goal is to market your property in an...
Christmas at Highland Farm
Posted By
Highland Farm Inc.
11/20
Highland Farm supplies all the holiday magic you and your family will need this season! We have beautiful cut Balsam and...
FALL SALE! 20% OFF
Posted By
Highland Farm Inc.
10/27
Highland Farm’s Fall sale has begun! 20% off all trees, shrubs, annuals, perennials, statuary, and lawn ornaments! ***Sale...
Spring 2022 Update
Posted By
Highland Farm Inc.
10/14
Hello all! We are now open for the season, call today to get your orders in! A rriving daily; New inventory of Trees and...
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Island Religion
PART 4 THE SPIRITUALITY PUZZLE
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Block Island Christian Fellowship
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PART 4 THE SPIRITUALITY PUZZLE IF SOMEONE HAS LITTLE OR NO FELLOWSHIP DOES THIS INDICATE LOSS OF RELATIONSHIP WITH YAHWEH OR...
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