These images come from the recent visit to the old stomping grounds in Mystic; sunset over Noank, CT. The iphone version is at johnsfstop.com;

During the weekend visit after new year’s day, the weather was such that this was the only evening with opportunities for sunset photos. It snowed a bit on Saturday afternoon and evening. Approximate total accumulation was an inch or so; strangely, the roads received two passes by a snow plow. Not something that would have happened in Maine, of course.

We noted that a dredging project is underway along the Mystic river off of Noank. The large barge and crane operation [see image 2] is along the shore near the Ram Isl. yacht club. If you notice the red box-like feature in the water directly below the crane peak, you are looking at the shovel that splashes into the water, sinks to the river bed, and then grabs a hunk of sea bottom mud. Once filled, it is cranked up and then swung around and the material gets dumped into the barge with a loud thud that can be heard for miles.

The barge in image 2 remained where you see it during the entire weekend; further south along the river about a half-mile, another barge was berthed (and another smaller crane operated nearby). On Saturday, this barge was pulled out by a blue/green tugboat into the area between Noank and Ram Isl. It was then joined by a red tugboat [image 3]. We are assuming this is where the excess dredged material is being dumped.

During our visit to the little beach, we found a small flotilla of merganser ducks going back and forth in Poggy Bay. The last image show a female red-breasted merganser. A male merganser was separately captured to digital memory, see johnsfstop.com again to see him.