3 Free eBooks – December 2015

Like last month – one of the ‘books’ I picked for December was one referenced in the Ancient Egypt course from Coursera that I completed back in November; the follow up reading spilled into December. It was a challenge not to pick a book that included botanical prints…I switched to birds this month but couldn’t resist picking an artist (Charles Demuth) that did a lot of plant paint!

Haskell, Barbara. Charles Demuth. New York: Whitney Museum of Art. 1987. Available from the Internet Archive here. The title of the painting that I am including in this post (partial) is “From the Kitchen Garden.” The topics of his paintings included other topics too….a snapshot of different perspectives of the US and Europe in the first thirds of the 1900s.

The British Museum. Mummy: The Inside Story. Available from the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine here. The mummy in this case is Nesperennub, a priest who lived at Karnak (Egypt) in 800 BC. The site is a series of slides (with pictures and explanatory text) about the modern way that mummies are studied….not by unwrapping. One of the amulets found near the neck of this money was a wedjat eye. One from another mummy was included in the images and clipped a portion for this post. Unfortunately – this site was removed from the The British Museum’s site when it was reorganized so now it is only available via the Wayback Machine. There are two other online tours (Cleopatra and Egypt in the Old Kingdom) that can be found by clicking on the ‘Egypt’ link just above the ‘slide’ portion of the screen.

Keulemans, John Gerrard. Onze volgels in huis en tuin – Volume 1. Leyden: P.W.M. Trap. 1869. Available from Internet Archive here. Keulemans  (1942-1912) is a well-known bird illustrator and this is one of his earlier works – in his native Dutch. I was looking at it for the illustrations rather than the text. There are two other volumes available on the Internet Archive (volume 2 and volume 3) that I have yet to read…and I’m going to look at other books that might be online that he illustrated. According to Wikipedia, his total output includes over 4,000 published images – virtually all before 1915 so not in copyright.

Enjoy good visuals and good reads!

Nature Photography through a Window – December 2015

My office window is my favorite place for ‘through the window photography’. Here are some recent images.

The nuthatch is the only bird to use the feeder this way! The bird is a little bigger than the chickadees and has a more aggressive personality. There is a titmouse waiting patiently on the deck railing for the nuthatch to finish.

Squirrels are very active this time of year.  The light caught this one with something to eat under the pines.

The dove was looking down at the seed bowl but ultimately decided that the bird bath was a better ‘next stop.’ Note that there are a lot of tulip poplar seeds in the gutter. We’ve has a bumper crop of seeds this year and they are still coming down with each brisk breeze.

We have robins in the neighborhood too. There are some that winter here but I haven’t seen them in the winter very often. There seem to be more that stayed in the neighborhood this year.

I’m not sure what this flicker was so interested in but it was in the area long enough to get a picture.

I’ll share another batch of ‘through the window’ images in January.

Nature Photography through a Window

My office window provides a great vantage point of our back yard and I’ve cleaned it so that sometimes I can get good pictures just steps way from where I write this blog. The deer wonder through

And the squirrels are active in the yard.

They climb up the sycamore or the steps to get to the deck if I have seed in a bowl in addition to the squirrel-proof feeder. It is surprising how fast they discover the seed in the bowl!

But I enjoy trying to capture images of birds. There have been some successes this past month. The dove sat for a very long time on the roof of our covered deck that is visible from my window. It was cold day but that was a sunny spot.

The cardinal sometimes shares the seed bowl with others…and sometimes chases them away but he doesn’t stay long so the others get their share.

The female cardinal seems to need water more often than seed!

The titmice come as a pair.

The blue jays sometimes come from water but they often move so fast that there is not time to even get the camera turned on. This one sat for a few more seconds than usual!

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 28, 2015

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Plastic by the Numbers in the Atlantic Ocean – Samples taken during the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers show that microplastics are very common. There were 0 samples without any plastic! On a personal level, I’m reading labels on face washes and toothpastes now and not buying any that have microbeads.

6 Common Activities that Harm Wildlife – One of the six is ‘microbeads’ so another spur to action. The other activities are also thought provoking: sunscreen, feeding bread to birds, bleached products, removing weeds, and plastic bags. Most of them I had heard about before…sunscreen only recently.

Are superbugs deadlier near where you live? – They are everywhere…some places worse than others. Often they are indicators of use (and misuse) of antibiotics.

An easy pill to swallow – Research into a mechanism to deliver mucoadhesive patches via pill through the digestive tract to the small intestine. There is potential that this could change delivery of protein based therapies (insulin, growth hormone, antibodies, and vaccines) from a injections to a pill.

A Flight of Birds – 14 unusual birds…portraits from the Photo Ark project (one of the 14 is a California Condor)

800-Year-Old Ancient Extinct Squash Uncovered during Archeological Dig on Menominee Indian Reservation – I’d like to see this one in my grocery store!

Shenandoah National Park Counting on Beetles to Slow Invasive Insect – The wooly adelgid is killing the hemlocks in Shenandoah (and in our area of Maryland too). Shenandoah is importing a beetle from Japan (where the wooly adelgid came from). Evidently the beetle has already been used successfully in other parks, including Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

1,700-Year-Old Roman Mosaic Discovered During City Sewer Construction Project – Found in Israel by workers upgrading the sewer system.  It was the floor of a large room in a villa during the Roman period.

Pictures: Great Smoky Mountains National Park  and Pictures: Rocky Mountain National Park and Explore the Power of Parks – From National Geographic…lots of great pictures, of course.

Obesity: A Complex Disorder – Graphic from The Scientist with a link at the bottom for the full article. The more we learn about obesity, the more complex it seems to become.

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 21, 2015

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Poland's Mysterious "Crooked Forest" Populated with 400 Bent Pine Trees – Trees are remarkably resilient. Whatever caused these trees to be bent near the base…and then continue growing upright…they are survivors!

Why do we still not know what’s inside the pyramids? – I usually notice stories about Ancient Egypt that come in on my newsfeeds but my awareness is even higher right now because of the Ancient Egypt course I am taking on Coursera.

6 Homemade Vegan Sauces and Condiments that are better than Store-bought – I’m trying the recipe for peanut sauce after I finish the store bought bottle I have in my refrigerator!

The digital revolution in higher education has already happened. No one noticed. – Another dimension of higher education not mentioned in this thoughtful piece is the continuing education that many post-career individuals seek. I recently looked at face to face classes offered in my area of Maryland and decided that the selection available from Coursera and other online providers was much greater (and the price was right too). Another case where the digital revolution in higher education has already happened.

Photography in the National Parks: Your Armchair Guide to Big Bend National Park – Part 2  - A continuation of an article I included in my October 31 gleanings….good info for planning a trip there.

Tangy and Tasty Fresh Cranberry Recipes – My ‘new’ recipe to try for Thanksgiving is the Cranberry-Carrot cake. I am not going to put icing on it….eat it more like muffins for Thanksgiving Day brunch. Don't forget Cranberry Orange Relish either! Wegmans recipe is here.

Move Over, Turkey: Meet the World’s Other Bald, Be-wattled Birds – Thinking of turkey this week….here are some other birds that have similar heads. They all look odd to me!

Field Drain Tile and the “Re-Eutrophication” of Lake Erie – Why the algal blooms have worsened in recent years after improving for the prior 15 years.

Elegant Greenhouse Photos Mimic the Ethereality of Oil Paintings – Hmm…the textured glass reminded me of a shower door. This might turn into a winter photography experiment!

Incan Mummy Genome Sequenced – The mitochondrial DNA analysis was the first completed and placed the boy in a very small subgroup – only 4 other known individuals. Other genetic analyses of the 500 year old mummy of a 7-year-old boy are ongoing.

For the Birds

Earlier this week I noticed that the bird bath on our deck railing was frozen when a dove tried to get a drink, failed and then proceeded to slide across the ice while two cohorts watched. It was time to put out the heated bird bath – of the changes we make to the deck for the birds in winter. The ring that is attached to our deck was purchased with the bowl we use in summer quite a few years ago and I was pleased to find a heated bowl that was exactly them size last fall.

Our bird feeder is full but there are a lot of foods in the woods and gardens now so we don’t have as many visitors as we will later in the season.

I put seed in a bowl sometimes since the feeder doesn’t work well for the larger birds (cardinals and doves) and sometimes even the small birds prefer the bowl. Once a squirrel discovers it the bowl empties very quickly so we try to chase them off. The chipmunks are fun to watch.

On the afternoon after I filled the bowl with seeds I saw a male cardinal, juncos, a nuthatch and a chickadee…we were fast enough chasing off the squirrel for them to still get their treat.

Our deck is ready for the birds of fall and winter!

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 03, 2015

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

What you may not know about the world beneath your feet – 10 items from BBC future. A short paragraph is included for each one and then a link to a more detailed larger article is provided.

Salamanders Lost, Found and Saved – From National Geographic about salamanders in Guatemala.

U.N. Dreams Big: 17 Huge New Goals to Build a Better World – As I looked at the list – I asked myself if they are all equally important and how the goals will get translated into action by individuals and organizations and governments. Two keywords that appear again and again (standing out to me): sustainability and inclusive.

Angry Birds: Why Molting Makes Our Feathered Friends Grumpy – Many birds molt between the time nesting ends and migration begins. Since our cardinals are here year-round, I have been watching them closely this year. They did look scruffy for a time…then I didn’t see them as often…and now they are looking much better. The male goldfinches have already made the change to their winter plumage; I wonder where they dropped their yellow feathers?

Photography in The National Parks: Your Armchair Guide to Arches National Park – Part 2  - We didn’t get to see Arches a few years ago when we went to Utah in early October 2013; the government (and national parks) were closed. I enjoyed these pictures…and attached a picture of Wilson Arch that is right on Route 191 south of Moab that was the only arch picture I got during the trip!

For U.S. Tribes, a Movement to Revive Native Foods and Lands – Wild rice in wetlands being restored in Minnesota.

Decision aids help patients with depression feel better about medication choices – From the Mayo clinic. It bothered me that before using the tool…’clinicians are often uneasy or unwilling to offer options other than their preferred prescriptions.’ That is probably true of more than depression medications!

Increased internet access led to a rise in racial hate crimes in the early 2000s - So many things are positive about broadband internet access….this is a downside. We often think that more information helps people understand others better --- but this is another study that shows that it can also lead to extreme polarization.

Work in Transition – On sentence from the article: Choreographers, elementary school teachers, and psychiatric social works are probably safe…telemarketers and tax preparers are more likely to be replaced. Work done by humans will increasingly involve innovative thinking, flexibility, creativity, and social skills.

The curious chemistry of custard – I make pumpkin (or other winter squash) custard frequently this time of year. I’ve always wanted how the consistency develops. It turns out it is all about eggs and their protein!

Found Feathers

Back in June I posted about finding a lot of feathers on a walk around Centennial Lake. It probably resulted from a sad ending to the bird.

Most of the time I find only one feather at a time and feel happy about finding it - a little treasure. The blue jay feather I found in Texas is a good example. It was still in near pristine condition so I must have found it shortly after the bird lost it.

Feathers get bedraggled very quickly after they are lost. It’s an indicator of the effectiveness of the preening birds do.

This feather was in grass that had been recently mowed. I wondered if the feather had survived the mower or whether it had been already scruffy looking with the bird lost it.

3 Free eBooks - July 2015

The three picks for this month are all biologically oriented - flowers, quadrupeds and birds…and they are all a series of books (so instead of just 3 books - the total is more like

Knowles, George Beauchamp and Westcott, Frederic. The floral cabinet and magazine of exotic botany. London: William Smith. 1837. Three volumes available at the Internet Archive: volume 1, volume 2, volume 3. Keep in mind the date…and enjoy the colorful renditions of flowers - some of the very familiar like the poinsettia I clipped as an example.

Audubon, John James; Bachman, John; Audubon, John Woodhouse. Quadrupeds of North America. New York: V.G. Audubon. 1851. The volumes available at the Internet Archive: volume 1, volume 2, volume3. John James Audubon is famous for birds but this series - published at the end of his life - shows that he was interested in more than birds. His son did some (maybe most) of the artwork in the series. Some of the animals are posed awkwardly - just as some of the birds were in earlier work. I liked the chipmunks.

Wilson, Alexander. American ornithology, or, The natural history of the birds of the United States : illustrated with plates engraved and colored from original drawings taken from nature. Philadelphia: Published by Bradford and Inskeep. Printed by Robert Carr. 1808. There are 9 volumes on the Internet Archive: V 1, V 2, V 3, V 4, V 5, V 6, V 7, V 8, and V 9. Wilson was the greatest American ornithologist before Audubon.

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 25, 2015

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

It's official: Workplace rudeness is contagious and Kids expecting aggression from others become aggressive themselves - For some reason the results of these two studies seemed similar to me. They both found that our environment - and expectation of our environment - have impacts on our own behavior.

This New Map Shows Your Risk of Catching Lyme Disease - Maryland it in the dark blue - not a surprise. I hear often enough about people in our area discovering they have Lyme Disease. Wearing long pants tucked into socks is difficult when it is a hot day.

Iron: A biological element? - Much of the iron of our planet was deposited by bacteria living two and a half billion years ago. At that time in Earth’s development there was little oxygen in the atmosphere and many organisms metabolized iron instead of oxygen.

Intensive End-Of-Life Care on the Rise for Cancer Patients - As the population in the US ages, end-of-life discussion are important to more and more people - not just cancer patients.

What Happens to Your Blog when You Die? Why You Need to Appoint a Social Media Executor NOW - Another ‘end-of-life’ consideration…then one developing because of modern technology.

Let This Video Show You How Air Bubbles Form, Rise, and Erupt in Sand - For anyone that has ever wondered about craters or sand…..high speed video captures more than the eye can detect.

Organization of North America's bird species: List updated - The update includes some reorganization…but also some species new to North America!

E-waste: What we throw away doesn't go away - A problem for just about everywhere in the world…and it is about more than old phones and computers.

5 Simple Tips to Turn Your Yard into Pollinator - Some good basic tips.

The Women Who Rule Pluto - Good to hear that there are technical women behind parts of the Pluto stories in the news recently.

3 Free eBooks - June 2015

I’ve latched onto several series within the Internet Archive this past month - one from museums.

Atil, Esin. Art of the Arab World. Washington: Smithsonian Institution. 1975. Available from the Internet Archive here. This book was one of the 1970s and 1980s exhibition books from the Freer Gallery of Art. A number of museums are scanning their archives and making them available this way. I liked the sketched bird and the colors of the bowl in the clipped image to the left. After such success with the Freer Gallery of Art books…I am not working through the back issues of the Field Museum of Natural History (Chicago) Bulletins from the later 20th century.

Valentine & Sons United Publishing. Canadian Rockies. Montreal: Valentine & Sons United Publishing Co. 1910. Available from the Internet Archive here. I found quite a few tourist booklets for the Rockies on the Internet Archive. The trek between Banff and Vancouver must have been a very popular in the early 1900s. After the Rockies, I searched for books on the Pyrenees and am still working my way through the results of that search.

Cassin, John. Illustrations of the birds of California, Texas, Oregon, British and Russian America. Philadelphia: JB Lippincott & Co. 1862. Available on the Internet Archive here. I found this book by accident and was surprised that the author (I looked up his bio on Wikipedia) had died relatively young  - from arsenic poisoning because he handled so many pelts and skins that were treated with arsenic to preserve them; that use of arsenic had been mentioned as a historical note in my Master Naturalist class - a piece of trivia that somehow stuck. After enjoying this book - I looked to see what the Internet Archive had of Audubon’s work; they have The Birds of America in 7 volumes! Those books were published more than 20 years before Cassin’s work and the positioning of the birds seems much more contrived. Both probably did their work with dead birds rather than living specimans.

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 30, 2015

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Quiz: Can you tell these 16 cities by their skylines? -  I got 12 of the 16!

The Great Tuskers of Matusadona - Matusadona National Park in northern Zimbabwe….with lots of elephants and an organized anti-poaching group that (so far) appears to be sustaining the park wildlife.

Supreme Crispy Quinoa Vegetable Burgers - I don’t think I would actually eat this on a bun - since I general decide that I don’t like buns well enough to justify the calories. But I am always on the lookout for other ways to use quinoa since its nutritional profile is so terrific (and it tastes food too)…definitely worth the calories.

An El Nino connection to the floods in Oklahoma and Texas? - Map and narrative about El Nino and its impact on US weather patterns (using recent weather as an example).

These Are the Most Distinctive Popular Foods in Every State - Does it make sense for your state? Crab Cakes is listed for Maryland and that sounds about right.

See This Baby Flamingo Take Its First Few Steps - I knew that baby flamingoes were white (had picked up that bit of trivia somewhere along the line) but I hadn’t ever seen one. I was surprised at how big its legs were. The adult flamingoes seem very attentive to the baby too.

Insane Solar Jobs Boom About To Get $32 Million More Insane - Renewable energy stretching toward the goal of becoming competitive with fossil fuels.

There are No Shortcuts to Birding Nirvana - I was surprised that the Merlin app (from The Cornell Lab of Ornithology) was not mentioned. Maybe because it only includes 400 North American birds. It has the advantage that it is very easy to use even for new birders. I like it.

Designed for the Future: Practical Ideas for a Sustainable World - Take a look at the gallery (link below the picture). These are structures that exist - not drawings or plans.

Hidden Lead in Your Home - It isn’t just old lead pain on walls…there are more sources. 

Belmont BioBlitz

This is the last day of the Belmont BioBlitz! About 400 middle school students have participated over the 4 days. The first day was very hot…the second day was humid…the fourth was breezy but near perfect otherwise. The forecast for today has a higher probability for rain (hopefully it will hold off until the Bioblitz is over and the students have boarded their buses after a picnic lunch).

A red-tailed hawk was in the area on the first day - on the roof of the building housing the ‘tech’ for the Bioblitz and then on a high branch of a sycamore that was well within the range of the spotting scope.

A mockingbird that has a nest in a nearby river birch used the same roofline more frequently and griped at the ‘too many people’ in the area.

I was responsible for helping student identify what they found. The reference books were spread out on outdoor tables near enough of wi-fi reception where they could sync their iNaturalist observations while working on identification and then go into the tech room to make sure all the data was recorded.

Several insects visited my tables - and student made some last minute observations!

Some of the animals from the nature center were popular. Katrina - the diamond back terrapin usually in a large tank of water in the nature center - was out and about in the grass.

Maize the corn snake was also a new experience for many of the students.

And at the very end of yesterday - a plant that we haven’t identified yet. I need to quiet time with the books!

In the end - success is more about the new perspectives many of the students have demonstrated than the details of one particular observation.

Waking Up to Bird Song

I like waking up with the birds rather than an alarm clock. Of course - that means that I am waking up a bit earlier as the days gets longer since the birdsong occurs before dawn!

Somehow even with the house closed and air conditioned…and a ceiling fan turning lazily…I still hear the birds. There is forest behind our house and three trees in the front which provide ample places for birds to proclaim their presence in the world!

Surely in the days before air conditioning, most people woke up with the birds. It was impossible not to. Who could sleep through all that joy! Now we think of children sleeping later in the summer but that was not the case 50 years ago. When I think back to my childhood, it seems like most everyone I knew was a ‘morning’ person. The early morning was the best time of day to get physical work done too - before it got too hot.

I’ve stayed a morning person and I naturally wake up early…the timing this time of year is linked to the birds!

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 18, 2015

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

10 Geological Forms we’ve studied for Years and Still Don’t Understand - Some of the forms we thought we understood….only to discover additional mechanisms played a role (in canyon formation, for example).

Why the FDA Has Never Looked At Some of the Additives in Our Food - In the past 5 decades, the number of food additives has skyrocketed from about 800 to 10,000….and many of them have come to market under the ‘generally recognized as safe’ provision in the FDA safety-review process. Some of them have caused severe allergic reactions or long term health effects. This is a scary aspect to our food system. The article prompted to look more closely at the processed foods I buy and try to skew my food purchases to whole foods that I prepare myself.

Hawksbill Turtles: A Rare Good News Story for a Species on the Brink - Hurray!

This Elevation Map of Mars Makes the Red Planet Much More Colorful - From the German space agency

This 19th Century Art Is Made Entirely Out Of Butterfly Wings - I’d much rather see live butterflies!

A Chart Showing You How Much Water It Takes To Grow All the Food You Eat - Were there any surprises on this chart?  Each circle represents the gallons of water per ounce of a food. I found myself wanting more; I wanted to compare whether soymilk (on the graphic) took more or less water than almond milk (not on the chart).

Exceptionally preserved fossil gives voice to ancient terror bird - The fossil is from South America of a bird flightless that was 4 feet tall and is the most complete ‘terror bird’ discovered with 90% of the skeleton preserved.

Top 5 Interesting Nests in North America - It’s the time of year for birds to be building their nests in our area….and there are some interesting ones in this post.

These Knotted Cords Are a Sophisticated Ancient Counting Tool - The Inca’s knotted counting system…that we still don’t completely understand.

Greatest mass extinction driven by acidic oceans, study finds - A key in the past to understand the impact of ocean acidification.

Master Naturalist Training - Week 8

This past Wednesday was the last Master Naturalist - Hurray! I’m just getting started on the take home ‘final’ that we have 2 weeks to complete….not an enjoyable aspect of the course but required. The day was cloudy but relatively warm and dry; it was best weather for a class day.

The topics for the day were weather and climate for the morning and ornithology for the afternoon. We took weather related measurements as our outdoor activity in the morning…and I was too busy to take pictures. In the afternoon we took a bird hike. We saw vultures (black and turkey) in the sky….tree swallows…red wing black bird…blue birds…mockingbirds ---- maybe more. The only relatively good picture I got was of the swallows; this pair was starting a nest in the box.

Following up on the amphibians and reptiles lecture (when it rained so hard we did not outdoors for a hike) - we found a snake on this last hike!

And of course lots of the trees had popping buds: spice bush

River birch

Tulip poplar

Having an hour outdoors at the end of the class was a good finale!

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 11, 2015

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

The dystopian lake filled by the world’s tech lust - It’s in Inner Mongolia…a place that is one of the world’s biggest suppliers of ‘rare earth’ minerals. So sad that we can’t manage to build our tech in a way that is sustainable for the planet.

A Delicate Stone Bridge Creates a Mystical Passage with Its Reflection - After that last story - I needed to look at something beautiful for a bit...and this was it: a picture of a half-circle bridge reflected in water to complete the illusion of a full circle.

Bombing Range Is National Example for Wildlife Conservation - Elgin Air Force Base had 300 year old trees and is home to the last remaining old-growth longleaf pines in Florida…there is a natural resources visitor center and has 250,000 acres open for public recreation/wildlife habitat.

Erupting Volcanic Lightning! - A volcano on Mexico’s west coast.

A complex landscape has both vulnerabilities and resilience to climate change - Changes in the length of growing season and timing of rainfall will change the forests in Central Appalachia over the next century….and probably in the area of Maryland where I live too.

Can You Identify 20 Of The Most Common Birds in North America? - The quiz is here. Identify the bird pictured from the list - you’ll know if you got it right immediately. How many can you identify? I got 15 out of 20!

Theoretical study suggests huge lava tubes could exist on moon - So - how long will it take to have a mission to the moon to discover if the lava tubes exist?

Essential Spring Guide '15: On the Road to Castles of Stone and Wood Turned To Rock - This story brought back memories of the vacation to northeastern Arizona last January! My picture of Montezuma Castle is below!

Yellowstone by Moonlight - A 3 minute film that includes a series of time-lapse views of moonlit scenes in Yellowstone - including geysers and stars. I don’t have the patience for this kind of photography but I enjoy seeing the work of others.

MIT Climate CoLab Asks All For Impactful Climate Plans - Contests seeking high impact ideas on how to tackle climate change…submission due 5/16/2015. The Climate CoLab site is here.

Brookside Gardens Birds

My walk around Brookside Gardens last weekend offered more than the usual opportunities to photograph birds. The day was chilly and a little breezy….but full of sun and an improvement over prior days. The birds were active.

The robins were the easiest to photograph because of their numbers and their interest in searching through leaves and grass for edibles. It was possible to get close enough for the camera zoom to do the rest. This bird had just stopped his searching temporarily to survey the surroundings…eyeing me with suspicion.

The cardinal was singing a spring song in the tulip poplar. I appreciated my monopod for this shot - and that the breeze paused momentarily.

This mourning dove was walking around the bed of sprouting bulbs looking for nesting material. In the instant after this picture was taken, the bird flew away with the piece of straw in its beak.

There were lots of these black birds (in the trees, in the bushes, on the grass) but I haven’t quite identified them. The tail seems short for a common grackle. They eye is yellow so that rules out a cowbird or starling…and there is not red shoulder patch for it to be a red winged blackbird. Hmmm.

March Birds

March has been a colder than usual this year. Some of the bird activity seems to be happening with about the usual timing in spite of the cold. The robins have become more numerous - on the lawn, scratching around the leaf litter in the garden and at the edge of the forest, gobbling worms in the street and driveway when it rains.

We have pairs of doves and cardinals that we see from our windows frequently; they must be nesting nearby.

One day at Belmont there seemed to be swallows everywhere - staking out the blue bird boxes (hopefully there will be blue birds that get some of them but it seems that the swallows arrived first).

Most people have kept their feeders full to help out the birds arriving in the cold. At Mt. Pleasant Farm there were lots of gold finches and a pileated woodpecker (which I was not fast enough to photograph).

The juncos that leave us for the summer are still around; I haven’t watched them closely enough in years past to remember when they leave….are we keeping them here by feeding them?

Zooming - February 2015

It is often hard to find color in the middle of winter. The colors seem to be mostly white and brown…so the bits of color are appreciated more:

• The flower and fiddlehead in the green house
• The red of a pigeon’s eye
• The flash of blue when a jay pushes the leaves around in the forest
• The blue sky on a sunny day
• The blue powder design on a butterfly’s wing

It is very cold today and there is still snow on the ground from a few days ago. But I enjoy the scene of the forest in winter from my office window - staying warm indoors.

Enjoy the February zoomed images!