Frankenstorm Sandy

[Dr Croubie]

Hope all you guys up there are taking your precautions and/or getting the hell outta there.
Good luck to anyone in its path, hope to see you around next week once it's all over.

[btaylor]

+1
Hope everyone stays safe.

[ddt0725]

+2! Only one word for you guys on the coast ....LEAVE! Don't be one of the stubborn ones and try to ride it out! This thing is massive! My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone that lives in the path of Sandy!

[ham]

Stay safe all.

If you can do that and get some pictures, please do.

[neuroanatomist]

Was out on an Audubon birding excursion yesterday - we saw a rump banded storm petrel in a Massachusetts North Shore inlet. It's a pelagic bird normally found hundreds of miles off the coasts of the Carolinas, almost never seen from land and even then never north of Connecticut. Poor guy was blown way, way off course by Sandy...

[HDNitehawk]

Be safe everyone in the track of the storm.

John; if you are going to claim you saw rare birds blown in by the hurricane and then not show us pictures of it shot with your new 600mm, I am not sure we can continue to believe you. Although I did look the bird up to see what it looked like since I had never heard of it before, kind of an ugly little guy and probably not very photogenic any way.

[neuroanatomist]

Be safe everyone in the track of the storm.

John; if you are going to claim you saw rare birds blown in by the hurricane and then not show us pictures of it shot with your new 600mm, I am not sure we can continue to believe you. Although I did look the bird up to see what it looked like since I had never heard of it before, kind of an ugly little guy and probably not very photogenic any way.

LOL. I wouldn't know how to ID a storm petrel if it was pecking me in the...well, you get the idea. He was far off, my 600mm + 2x got him in focus, as a tiny speck. It was enough for the Audubon leader to tell it was a 'band rumped' and not a 'Leach's'. I'd never even heard of a petrel before yesterday.

I did get some shots of crossbills, ducks, plovers, and some of a bittern in flight - handheld at 1200mm .

Not processed yet, though. We've already lost power for a few hours (back on now), but I'll post them at some point...

[HDNitehawk]

I bet they love your 600mm at the Audubon birding excursions

But seriously I thought your next reply might be on the run from the storm on your iphone.

[Dr Croubie]

But seriously I thought your next reply might be on the run from the storm on your iphone.

Heh, that reminds me of something that happened a few years ago. Big tropical storm came past us just at the end of a long dry summer, from the tropics and all way across the desert, not much rain but a lot of lightning and huge winds. I saw it was headed for Kangaroo island where a few mates lived in a National Park (working as Rangers). I sent them an sms "hey guys, big storm coming your way, hope the lightning doesn't start a bushfire".

Got a reply back, "nah, she'll be right mate, no fires here". (yet).

20 minutes later I got a picture sent from them "this is the view out of the back window of our car, driving 150km/h with the bushfire chasing us down the only road outta here, and it's gaining on us..."

Hope that Sandy doesn't lead to the same thing over there. Shots would be cool but don't break your camera (or yourselves) for any.

[neuroanatomist]

Not running, but posting from my iPhone. Power back on, but cable (including Internet and landline) are still out. We're up here on the fringe - I can't imagine what it's like in New Jersey, New York, etc.