March 28, 2024

Help Captain Pat’s: Help the Watermen

A GoFundMe site has been established for Captain Pat’s Seafood — not only a Lexington Park landmark and beloved seafood restaurant — but one of the last local buyers of local watermen’s fresh Southern Maryland catches.

Ospreys Return to Where They Were Born: Message From the Cap’n

Ospreys

Ospreys born in 2018 in the Chesapeake Bay will be among the scores of birds returning this month to seek a mate, begin courting, and then building permanent nesting sites to start raising young of their own. Here are some tips for learning about the returning fish hawks.

St. George Is. Opens 1776 Revolutionary War in MD

st george island

This Message from the Cap’n — “St. George Island History”– carries the islander patriots forward from 1639 to 1921 — with some links to local historians Joe Norris and Jason Babcock.

Message From the Cap’n/Oysters, Another Lesson From Mother Nature

shellfish harvesting

It doesn’t add up. After a year of rainfall, then a late summer drought, ends up there’s a good oyster harvest yet prices drop for holiday buyers. The Cap’n says it just goes to show: We don’t know as much as we think we know.

What’s Killing Our Pine Trees in Southern MD

pine trees

The Southern Pine Beetle is wrecking havoc among the loblolly pine trees of Southern Maryland and the lower Eastern Shore. Outbreaks are most prevalent after a hot, dry, period like the one we just had.

Great Blue Herons: Solitary and Amazing

Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Herons are year-round residents of the Chesapeake Bay, but some of that population might only be visiting during our cooler, winter months.

Message From the Cap’n/Oyster Season Begins

oysters

“Oyster season  in the months with R” used to be the norm, but conservation and disease dropped September out of the season decades ago. This year’s Oct. 1 start of oyster season, with the water temperature in the 70s, won’t have oysters as plump as they will become later when the water temperature falls.

Message From the Cap’n/Hummingbirds, Our Tiny Visiting Friends

hummingbirds

The Cap’n welcomes tiny visiting guests with hummingbird feeders dangling around his St. George Island home.

Who’s Who on St. George Island/Paul Haskell

St. George Island

“I glory in the beauty and solitude, and basking of St. George Island and Piney Point, in the warmth of the wonderfully friendly people.” … Paul Haskell

Parasites Summer in St. George Marshes

Plant parasites, dodders, are increasingly invading the High Tide and Water bushes along the shoreline of St. George Island. Like the Cap’n, they send messages, too.