Jesse Bass Photography

It has been about 3 years since Hampton Roads has received any measurable snow. Last big storm was the blizzard of 2018 where large portions of the area saw 8-12 inches fall. But on January 28th 2021, we would get a general 2-3 inches across the southside and into northeast North Carolina. It started in the early morning hours and continued to fall through daybreak until about 9am.

My wife and I were out tonight for dinner and as we were leaving I mentioned the rocket launch that was scrubbed last night, October 1, 2020. She reminded me that we hadn’t missed it tonight and that it was set to launch around 9:15pm. So we ran home and I grabbed my gear

With 2020 in full swing and being a year of craziness, COVID-19 and lockdowns worldwide, we were waiting for something positive to happen in the early summer to change things a bit. The last several years we have had a few comets make their way through our solar system towards the sun with hope that they would make the swing around and make their way back out to space giving us a nighttime show to watch….but that just didn’t happen. The comets never survived the trip and burned up before coming out the other side.

As lockdown swept across the planet the past few months, I continued to get out and shoot, working on my photography. I have never been much for backyard/ small song birds. I had always been drawn more towards the larger birds…birds of prey, such as eagles, osprey and larger wading birds like great blue herons and great egrets. But with the stay at home orders across the country, I spent more of my time setting up and shooting in the backyard.

As of course we all know by now, nearly the entire world is on lockdown, unable to go many places other than work and the stores. I have continued to work everyday as my place of employment is in a semi-closure, but daily activities around the campuses continues. However, as spring has sprung, and the days have grown longer, the birds have begun to return to our feeders around the backyard and neighborhood.

As we kicked off October, it was warmer than usual outside here along the east coast. However, evidence of fall was being seen as leaves have begun to change and fall from the trees. Late afternoon October 1st, I went to my backdoor to step outside and noticed at least a half dozen blue birds in the yard. Several on our feeders, and 2 on posts on our deck. We have been trying to lure them to the yard this year

As of this post at 1pm, the center of extremely powerful hurricane Dorian is beginning to move over the northwestern islands in the Bahamas. Grand Bahama island is up first as the western eyewall with those incredibly high sustained winds of 185mph move over the island. With that wind speed, Dorian is setting records. It is the strongest in terms of winds in the northern Bahamas on record.