sandpipers

Once the surf emptied of swimmers, the sandpipers came out to feed on these very small and pale purple shellfish.



They follow the waves in and out, looking for the little bubbles in the sand that show where the shellfish are burrowing back under, after having taken a gulp of seawater to strain for algae.



As the evening grew, either they could see me less or they grew used to me, and would let me get a little closer before they flew off squeaking.



Here is the last trace of the setting sun. Unlike the old saying, "red sun at night is a sailor's delight, red sky at morning, a sailor takes warning," this red sun in fact meant it would be raining when dawn came the next day.



This was the night of the full moon. We'd been hoping to see Jupiter and Mercury, but a low cloud-bank rolled in over the ocean.



Much harder to take a picture of the moon than you'd think. The camera doesn't seem to understand what it is you are trying to focus on, and you have to find something to brace your elbows on to keep your hands steady. This took four attempts to get a clean look at the geography of the surface, but lovely colors all the same.

cape henlopen ferry

A series of images from the cape henlopen to cape may ferry crossing. In the first, to the left, you can see one of the lighthouses. Unfortunately, a thick fog came in from the sea just after I arrived, and my closer takes of the lighthouses were not salvageable. I did like the pilot boats here, and the coloring of the tanker against the ocean, although these two were slightly blurry. In the fourth, of the berth for the ferry, to the slight left of the center is a concrete tower. That is the actual historic cape henlopen lighthouse. On my very first crossing, there were dolphins, but no such luck this time.