Walking at Compo Beach yesterday, Pam Docters spotted “at least 50” dead horseshoe crabs.
She wonders if they’re collateral damage from Hurricane Ophelia.
Any carcinologists out there? If you know why so many dead crustaceans washed up on shore, click “Comments” below.
Horseshoe crabs on Compo Beach. (Photo/Pam Docters)
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Igor Pikayzen — Westport’s favorite home-grown violinist — kicks off this year’s Suzuki Music School’s Pillow Concert Series (October 1, 246 Post Road East, lower level; bring a pillow to sit on).
All 5 performances features superb local artists.
The 2005 Staples High School graduate went to Juilliard, then earned a master’s degree and artist’s diploma from Yale University and a doctor of musical arts at the CUNY Graduate Center.
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He’s appeared as a soloist with major orchestras across 4 continents. He has played Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York, Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, Le Teatro Sant-Cugat in Barcelona and Cadogan Hall in London; his live performances and recordings have been broadcast on WQXR, and around the globe. He’s won numerous competitions too.
Families and students attend free. as part of Suzuki’s community outreach programs. The goal of the series is for student musicians to hear exceptionally accomplished musicians. For more information, click here.
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Speaking of music: There was a nearly full house yesterday at Saugatuck Congregational Church. Full house at Saugatuck Congregational Church.
Alex Beyer — winner of the Queen Elizabeth, US Chopin and Dublin International Piano Competitions, now a US Navy pilot stationed in Norfolk — performed works by Mendelssohn, Schubert, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Bartok and Prokofiev.
A Q-and-A session, and masterclass with young musicians, followed the concert.
Alex Beyer performs at Saugatuck Church. (Photo/Mark Mathias)
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Westport photographer Luis Colon-Castro earned an honorable mention award in the 20th International Photography Awards contest.
His “Possessed Candy” was cited in the “Special” and “Special Effects” categories.
“Possessed Candy” (Luis Colon-Castro)
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Compo Beach gulls don’t usually get to cavort in the waves like their ocean-going cousins do.
Yesterday — as Johanna Keyser Rossi’s “Westport … Naturally’ photo shows — they did.
(Photo/Johanna Keyser Rossi)
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And finally … Kol Nidre is a prayer sung in Jewish synagogues at the beginning of the service on the eve of Yom Kippur (today, the Day of Atonement).
In 1927, Al Jolson gave this memorable performance in “The Jazz Singer”:
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For anyone who would like to watch the Alex Beyer concert, the full concert video is available on the Saugauck Congregational Church YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/live/qUleioRilpI?si=OOfaoGJVM8RJxOFo&t=421
Horseshoe Crabs shed their shells as they grow. The sheds washed up at Compo. It’s the time of year 🙂
Due to their blue blood they are very important to the medical research community.
I think these are horseshoe crab molts (shedded shells), not dead animals.
Horseshoe crabs have exoskeletons. As they grow, they shed, and they grow a new exoskeleton. Not to worry about the shells that are seen in the sand. The horseshoe crabs grow new shells 16-17 times until they are done. Totally normal. Especially in the Autumn to see the empty shells.
Yes, it’s molting season, which horseshoe crabs do until they reach breeding age at 10 to 12 years. The good news is that this summer Gov. Lamont signed a bill banning the capture and killing of horseshoe crabs along Connecticut’s shoreline and Sound; the new law goes into effect on Oct. 1. (They were chopped up to use as bait to catch whelk for making conch fritters.) The eggs laid by horseshoe crabs at high tides each spring are critical to the survival of migrating shorebirds and many other marine species. Lamont also called on other states, specifically New York, to enact protections for this endangered “ancient mariner.”
The horseshoe crabs are not “ dead”. That is their exoskeleton which they shed or molt as they get larger. Currently they are washing up all along the MA, RI and CT shoreline
Molts.
I believe in “The Jazz Singer” that renowned cantor Yoselle Rosenblatt’s singing was dubbed in for Kol Nidre.