South of Welshpool Wharf, Campobello; June 10, 2012

It was our last day on Campobello Island and I set out to explore the area south of the wharf. My husband is an amazing trumpet player and wanted to practice, so he stationed himself near the wharf building, which was deserted since it was Sunday morning.

The clouds scudded overhead and the light changed rapidly from cold grey to warm gold,

and I poked through the detritus on the beach as the Harry James Trumpet Concerto echoed through the crescent-shaped bay.

I've never had a musical accompaniment before - it was beautiful.

 

I had plenty of company. There were the usual seagulls,

and a pair of cormorants,

several spiders,

and a moth.

And as you can see from the first photo, there was an amazing amount of sea glass!



In the still life: Driftwood, sea glass, granite and schist beach stones, Blue Mussel (Mytilus edulis), industrial ceramic cover, possibly from the Bryant Electric Co. (1888-present), porcelain, bird bones, seafood industry label, lobster-claw band, Rough Periwinkle (Littorina saxatilis), soda can pull tab, and plastic lighter

North of the Welshpool Wharf, Campobello; June 9, 2012

 The sea glass hunting around the Welshpool wharf is some of the best I have ever seen. There wasn't a lot right next to the pier, but to the northwest the beach was speckled with beautifully worn glass. 

According to the owner of our inn, a grand old hotel once stood on this bluff, and it very likely dumped its trash onto the beach. New trash is depressing, but old dumps are fantastic places for beachcombers (and archaeologists). You can see I brought back quite a haul!

There was a crow somewhere on the wharf making an awful racket, so after a while I pulled out my telephoto to see if I could spot him and see what had his panties in such a twist, and this popped into view:

I barely had time to press the shutter button before the eagle flew off. He must have been sitting there for a good quarter hour before I looked up to see what all the fuss was about. I happily gathered glass as the sun began to set, turning around every now and then to make sure I hadn't attracted any more avian stalkers, and occasionally looking up to admire the view.

The sun sank,

a light fog drifted up the passage,

and the lights of Eastport came on over the water.

When it got too dark to see the beach, I trotted back to our warmly lit inn and shared a glass of wine with my husband, who dutifully admired my finds. I suspect he secretly thinks most of it belongs in the recycling bin, but we were in Campobello celebrating our twentieth wedding anniversary, and one key to a long marriage is not pointing out when your spouse's hobbies are slightly dotty. 

What a lovely day. 

Addendum:

 I wasn't completely happy with the colors in my first shot. What do you think - first or second try?

In the first still life: Jasper beach stone, sea glass, Ten-Ridged Whelk (Neptunea decemcostata), china, bone, brick, Blue Mussel (Mytilus edulis), Waved Whelk (Buccinum undatum), rubber, and industrial ceramic. 

In the second:  Sea glass, china, bone, Waved Whelks (Buccinum undatum), Ten-Ridged Whelk (Neptunea decemcostata), sea brick, jasper beach stone, industrial ceramic, and rubber.

Friar's Bay, Campobello Island, June 9

Friar's Bay, Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Canada

One of Campobello's claims to fame is that Franklin Delano Roosevelt summered there. Friar's Bay was one of his favorite places on the island. It wasn't mine. Granted, it was high tide and pouring rain, so the view was fairly grim, but the amount of trash on the shoreline was some of the worst I've seen in a rural area.

The rain kept starting and stopping, but when it rained it came down mighty hard, so I didn't stay on the beach long. This is I saw when I looked up - black and white clouds chasing each other across the sky:
I did find some interesting things, like the whelk egg sacs (all empty), and a moon snail shell, and a tag from a Maine lobster trap. Maine traps in Canada? Well, yes - this truly is a borderland. Campobello's only bridge connects to Maine, so residents need passports to reach the Canadian mainland. Another reminder of how arbitrary national borders are.


In the still life: Lobster fishing rope, Blue Mussel (Mytilus edulis), sea glass, granite beach stone, Soft-shell Clam (Mya arenaria), Waved Whelk (Buccinum undatum), beach china, plastic bottle cap seal, whelk egg cases (probably Buccinum undatum), lobster claw band, Moon Snail (Lunatia heros), and lobster trap tag.

Head Harbor Lighthouse, Campobello, NB; June 9, 2012

 

Well, it's been a while, hasn't it? I've missed the whole darn summer! I won't go into the details or we'll never get to the beachcombing, but every darn person living in my house and several other close family members seem to have had some medical event and/or life upheaval over the last few months. The long and the short of it is that everybody's going to be fine, eventually, but I didn't go beachcombing at all from the time we left Campobello in early June until my father-in-law's birthday party on September 3rd. Rather than dwell on all that, I'm just going to pick up again with Day 2 of our trip to Campobello, because it was so beautiful and I found such cool things on the beaches there, and one would hope that by the time I finish telling you about Campobello, life will have calmed down and I'll have fresh adventures to show you.

The morning of our first day we planned to go see the Head Harbor Lighthouse, also known as the East Quoddy Light, which is way up at the northern tip of the island, and only accessible at low tide. There was a thick fog, but the tides were right, so off we went!

There were a lot of warnings about the tides along the way. To reach the lighthouse, you have to scramble up and down several sets of very steep stairs and across the seaweed-covered rocks below. It isn't terribly strenuous for the experienced beachcomber, but you really wouldn't want to try to race the tide back!

 The fog cleared slowly as we picked our way across, and by late morning it had turned into a gorgeous day.

The lighthouse is part of a cheerful, classic, red-and-white complex.

The buildings are not open to the public (although I did hear that a group of volunteers who had come to work on the buildings got to stay there for a couple of nights) but you can wander around between them.

 

It wasn't terribly crowded in early June - three or four other couples were exploring while we were there, and for short periods we were entirely alone.

 This last photo was a farmhouse we saw on the way back to the inn. How often have you taken a photo out the car window, knowing perfectly well that it will be a fuzzy mess but unable to stop yourself from trying? Well, this is the one that actually came out, guaranteeing that I won't stop shooting from a moving car anytime soon.

There are more photos from this trip in my Flickr stream. 

In the still life: Basalt, schist, and granite beach stones, sea glass, beach china, Blue Mussel (Mytilus edulis), Ten-Ridged Whelk (Neptunea decemcostata), lobster claw band.

Raccoon Beach, Campobello; June 8, 2012

Raccoon Beach, Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Canada; June 8, 2012

Raccoon Beach is part of Roosevelt Campobello International Park, an amazing joint effort between the US National Park Service and the Canadian government.

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The park takes up almost half of Campobello Island, which is only 8 miles long. The island is part of New Brunswick (Canada) and is a bit over two hours away from home. If you follow the border between Maine and New Brunswick in the map below, Campobello is the point where the border meets the ocean (well, really it's the Bay of Fundy.)

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On our first day, we decided to go for a bike ride, so we asked the ranger at the visitor center what was interesting. "Well," she said, "there's a dead whale on the beach. Only been there a couple of days." "Oh no," another ranger piped up, "it's been there a week or so. Might smell a bit." So off we went to Raccoon Beach to see the whale. Pretty much everyone we talked to all weekend had been to see it, so I gather the first few days of its decay must have been quite the social occasion.

See that oddly-colored lump near the center?

Dead whale. Yup, smelled a bit. But only downwind. I later learned (through the graces of Google) that it was a baby Northern Right Whale, killed by a ship strike.

The stones on this beach are the smooth, rounded kind we call 'cobbles' back home. When I try to picture the melting and mixing and uprising and tumbling processes that made these lines and speckles my brain starts to hurt. Geological time does that to me.

There were some real beauties here, but I wasn't sure of the park rules (in US National Parks it's against the law to take any natural things like rocks or shells and I hadn't thought to bring my light tent, either (doh!)) so I just took photos on site. That's why there's only garbage in the still life.

But then I have to admit that I find the trash almost as interesting as the stones. Shotgun shells, a puzzle piece, sea glass, rope, and the top of a soda can. A wide variety of recreational uses! And I've never found a jigsaw piece before. Or a dead whale. Altogether a memorable day of beachcombing.

In the still life: Pulpboard jigsaw puzzle piece, sea glass, aluminum soda can top, shotgun shell, fishing rope.