The winter of 2011-12 brought an unusually large number of Snowy Owls to New England and other parts of the lower 48.  Among them was a male Snowy that took up winter residence at Duxbury Beach.  Linda and I made two visits to the long, thin neck of sand that acts as a natural breakwater for Plymouth Harbor to photograph the owl.  Our success was only mediocre with our quarry - we saw and photographed him on both visits, but only from a distance - but I took a series of photos of the small community located there.

The Gurnet, as the knob of land at the southern end of Duxbury Beach is called, is actually part of Plymouth.  The lighthouse that sits atop the hill is alternately called Plymouth Light and the Gurnet Light.  The sky was quite dramatic during our second visit, painting the saltmarsh with shades of gold and russet, punctuated with deep brown shadows.  In this painting, I resisted the temptation of focusing on the lighthouse, opting instead to try to capture the play of light and shadow in the sky and on the saltmarsh.