If you are keeping track, yes this is the fourth shot of birds at chesapeake beach, that has shown up here on MDP. 

These birds saved me today as I fell asleep last night before I could dig a more recent photo out of my computer to post today.

Congratulations Byan for correctly identifying Luskins hill yesterday. 

I am away from my computer today, but I have this picture of a bird from Chesapeake Beach saved up for just such an occasion.

I hope you aren’t sick of these scenes from Chesapeake Beach.   I’ll throw something random into the mix tomorrow.

Shooting into the sun seems to be a regular theme on MDP these days.  This is a picture looking back at the Chesapeake Beach hotel from its boat docks.  The bar where the pier meets the land seemed to be a real hot spot.

The town of Chesapeake beach began as a resort community, servicing visitors from Washington DC who came by rail and visitors from Baltimore who came by ship to the western shore of the bay.  In 1935 the railroad closed after the depression took its toll on vacation traffic.   Today the town doesn’t serve the huge crowds each weekend that it did at the turn of the last century, but it’s still a popular weekend spot.

You probably thought this would be a post about the Orioles, given the title. After the very verbose posts of last week, is seemed like a good time for mdp to take a relaxing trip.   These birds are hanging out on the rocks of Chesapeake Beach.   As you’ll see this week, they are not alone.

Here’s one more shot of the Navy Pier Fire in Solomons.  I really liked this picutre from the start with the sunset and the smoke together.  You can just make out the shadows of people standing on the fishing pier observing the fire.

Today’s picture comes to us thanks to Chris C. who was an eyewitness to last winter’s fire at the Navy Pier in Solomons.   The wooden pier burned for hours.  Above you can see the view from just south of the Governor Thomas Johnson bridge.  We have a close up below in which you can see to the right that there’s a ship docked at the pier.   That boat,which caught on fire but was not destroyed,was later towed to the open water.      

This is the Drum Point Lighthouse formerly located where the north end of the Patuxent reaches the Chesapeake, but currently situated in the middle of the Calvert Marine Museum.   Construction on the light finished in 1883, and it served the area well, as many boats had run aground in the shallow areas around drum point.   While it was orignally built in the water, by the 1970′s it was competely on land due to the constantly growing shoreline from the deposit of silt from upstream.

In the 70′s it was moved to its current home after it had been vandialized and abandoned following its decommisisioning in the 60′s.

Here’s is picture of a house that’s located in quite an unusual spot.  Any guesses?   I’ll post the answer tomorrow.

This is a picture from the original building of the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, on Solomon’s Iisland.  From this small building, the lab has grown to take over a sizable piece of the island with modern laboratorys and some of the best bay veiws possible. 

This is a picture of the nefarious snakehead fish.  Believe it or not, this guy can actually get out of the water and walk on land.   Not a native of the Chesapeake, it was introduced to the waters when a whole bunch of these guys were dumped into the northern area of the Potomac.  They weren’t rounded up in time and their numbers have increased dramatically.  The problem with that is they have a voracious appetite and the ability to walk on land certainly increases the area of their destructive capabilities.  

Today’s photo like Wednesday’s was taken at the Calvert Marine Museum.  I wholeheartedly encourage you to go. 

We’re keeping the nautical theme at MDP this week.  Have you ever seen one of these egg cases lying around on the beach?  They’re usually empty.  I’ve seen a whole bunch of them, but never one with an baby ray in it.  At Calvert Marine museum there is a display which conveniently backlights an egg case with an actual embryo in it.  You can very clearly see that it will develop into one of these.