National Arboretum at the end of March 2016

Last week we walked around a small part of the National Arboretum. The day was sun and the sky was a great backdrop to the spring greens of these new leaves

As well as the evergreens with cones on their branches.

There were a lot of trees in bloom.

The camellias were nearing the end of their season

Leaving a carpet of temporary color at the base of the trees.

We were a little late for the deciduous magnolias but I enjoyed the walk through the section of the arboretum anyway.

The trees still had plenty of color at eye level

And looking up.

One tree only had three blooms left – but one seemed perfect to me.

Or maybe this pair are the best. It’s hard to choose.

There were several kinds of white deciduous magnolias blooming as well.

Sometimes the seed pods left after the petals fall away are as interesting as the flowers!

Wood Duck at Brookside Gardens

Last week I saw my first wood duck – a lone male sharing the pond at Brookside Gardens with a lot of Canadian Geese (the usual birds there) and at least one red-eared slider. The first picture I took was from pretty far away but I knew it was not a mallard right away.

The bird swam around gleaning edibles from the water surface. I took pictures from every angle and have selected my favorites for the slide show below. I was fascinated by the bird itself – sometimes the water being calm enough to reflect the head and the red around the eye – other times the water creating moiré patterns – the color of the water changing depending on the way the light reflected. The 4th image of the slide show has the red-eared slider poking hits nose out of the water; based on the side of its nose, it must be a big turtle. I hope the wood ducks find a pond near their nest with fewer turtles since the turtles at Brookside are big enough to take ducklings.

As I started away, I overheard a little boy point out the duck to his mother. She told him that it was probably a mallard. He, very confidently told her, “No, it’s not.”

The wood duck flew up and out of the garden as I continued my walk. 

When I got home I watched the video of wood duck ducklings dropping from their nest that I included in my gleanings list back in June 2012. The male is not involved with the ducklings….but the video is still fun to watch.

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 2, 2016

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.

19 Different Foods that Surprisingly Bloom Beautiful Flowers – Great visuals and informative too. Think of all the different kinds of pollinators needed for these flowers too.

Fulfilling Water Needs as Big as Texas – The Nature Conservancy has created the Texas Water Explorer – wish Maryland had a similar app although I did find Water Quality Assessment Maps for Maryland which have much of the same information. I liked the picture of the Pedernales – brought back memories of a vacation in the state park along the river almost 40 years ago.

New knowledge for managing tree-killing bark beetles – After learning more about the southern pine bark beetle when I visited Chincoteague, I’ve been more aware of the damage it is causing…noticing articles like this one. There is really no good news.

Monet-esque Micrograph and Bug Brothers and Subterranean settlers and Zika viron and Cretaceous Chameleon – The Scientist almost always includes an image in its newsletters. Here’s a collection from March.

Blood test can predict risk of developing tuberculosis – It would be good if a blood test could do this. I remember having to get chest x-rays for my job since I responded to the TB skin test (i.e. was a latently infected person) …and repeated chest x-rays are not a good thing.

It has fast become antiquated to say that you ‘go online’ – Living constantly online…it’s becoming the norm for more and more people. And even when we turn off our devices, our online world continues while we are away. It is the new normal.

Developing better drugs for asthma, high blood pressure – The point of the project is to avoid complications from drugs that require treatment – separate from the original reason the person was taking the drug in the first place. It’s a good goal but I prefer the research toward interventions that address the root cause of a problem rather than starting with a drug that works most of the time and trying to avoid complications from it – which seems to be the goal of this research.

Sleep: The A B Zzzzs and  Learning with the Lights Out and Desperately Seeking Shut Eye and Under the Cover of Darkness (infographic) and Who Sleeps? And Characterizing Sleep (infographic) – The Scientist has had a number of interesting articles about sleep. I wonder how often a person’s sleep (or lack of sleep) is the primary cause of a health issue….and how often doctors decide to treat a sleep problem unless is overwhelming obvious that sleep is the problem. Some sleep problems may be very difficult to treat and may require a significant change in lifestyle which is often very difficult.

These Ancient Trees Have Stories to Tell – I like trees…and these are artfully photographed. They were printed in black and white; I think I like trees in color more.

The Artificially Intelligent Doctor Will Hear You Now – I like the idea here – particularly that it takes into account the patient’s history and circumstances…not just symptoms. One of the things I have observed is that doctors typically key off one or two recent test results rather than taking the patient’s full history into account. They have the problem – like all of us – of being overwhelmed by data. Having an AI that would take all of that into account would benefit the doctor by saving a lot of patient history review time and the patient would get a more informed diagnosis and treatment.

Learning Log – March 2016

March was a huge month for classes...both online and traditional classroom/field work.

The 6 modules of Coursera’s Big History were a whirl wind discussion beginning with the Big Bang to the present and then initiating the importance of our understanding Big History as we contemplate our actions into the future. This is unlike any history course I’ve taken before in that it integrates a lot of disciplines rather than the traditional view of history. In Big History - wars and memorization of dates are way down on the scale of importance. Instead thinking about increases in complexity and energy flows are the drivers of change….and human history is in the context of the universe rather than insular to our species. I still have some references from the course to read/view but I was so fascinated by the material that I did all the lectures in March!

I finished 9 of the 11 modules of Coursera’s Soul Beliefs: Causes and Consequences Unit 2: Belief Systems. This is a continuation of Unit 1 which I finished in February. This part of the course is delving more into neuroscience and psychology. I’ve enjoyed it.

The Howard County Conservancy provided volunteer naturalist training for the spring field trips that will beginning in April for pre-school through middle school students. There was quite a range of topics: rocks, history of the places where we hike, insects, habitats, watersheds, literacy, seasons, and Bioblitz. In each of the 7 sessions, there was a classroom segment and then a hike to demonstrate the types of things we would do with the students. We looked at macroinvertebrates in the stream, learned to use iNaturalist, explored the hiking routes in detail, and sometimes pretended we were students. The first field trip is next Monday….so we’ll see how prepared we all are very soon!

Then there were all kinds of experiential learning going on – here are my top three for March:

Observing the effect of the combination of pine bark beetles, tree age, salt mist, and big storms at Chincoteague

Noting the large number of Tundra Swans at Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge and Snow Geese at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge

Seeing two organisms I knew about from books and pictures but had not seen in the wild: the hemlock woolly anelgid (see previous post here) and a wood duck (more images coming in an upcoming post).

Cherry Blossoms

This week was the week for cherry blossoms in our area. We didn’t get down to the Washington DC Tidal Basin but I enjoyed the trees at – even though it was breezy and cold when I was there yesterday. It is spring break for a lot of the schools in our area so the garden was full of more than just week-day regulars: there were lots of children enjoying the gardens too.

But the best tree for me this year was the one in my own yard. I trimmed some of the longest scraggly branches last summer and the tree has been spectacular this year.

And it has the advantage of being near at hand to photograph on every sunny day until the wind blows the last blooms away. This little clump of blooms was growing on the trunk just as it transitions from smooth bark with large lenticels to the rougher bark of the trunk. There is even a bit of lichen growing just below the clump of new growth.

The first 6 images of the slide show are from 6 days ago. The rest are from yesterday. In the earlier pictures there are still some flower buds visible. They start out very pink. The petals are pink too until the flower opens almost all the way. It is that little bit of pink that I like the most about the cherry trees. Enjoy the show!

March Sunrise…and Sunset

The horizon around our house becomes blocked by trees after March – so this is probably one of the last sunrise/sunset posts from our home until late fall/winter rolls around again. Even in winter the bare tree branches are pretty thick between our front porch and the sunrise but the colors are good through their silhouettes.

The robins like our oak and generally seem to be facing the sunrise while they sing the morning awake.

The sunrise is visible from our back porch – and my office window. The trees are mostly tulip poplar – very tall. On the other side of the trees is a horse boarding area…so a relatively thin forest that still lets the color through as long as the trees are bare.

Somehow noting the colors at the beginning of the day – the clouds that add definition to the sky…is always worth a photograph.

Ten Days of Little Celebrations – March 2016

Many years – March is a mix of winter and spring, skewed toward spring. This year it has been heavily skewed toward spring.

I celebrated:

A sunny day for a hike (it was often muddy but the temperature was pleasant enough)

Blooming skunk cabbages (this year leaves are unfurling very quickly)

Birthdays of 3 family members. It happens every year, but somehow have 3 in cluster increases the attention to celebrating.

A road trip to 4 Eastern Shore wildlife refuges

The rapid leafing of a sprouted sweet potato once I put it into dirt

The rediscovery of a small purse that is perfect fit for my camera, id, and chapstick. I getting more comfortable with minimalist fieldtips!

The opportunity to dissect an owl pellet and finding 2 rodent jaws.

Feeling prepared for spring field trips at Mt. Pleasant Farm and Belmont (after training that happened this month)

The weather warmed enough to keep the window in my office open --- hearing the birds at our feeder and at the edge of the forest.

Staying focused on what I want to get done – there is no ‘spring fever’ happening to me this spring at all!

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 26, 2016

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.

Forests reveal lingering effects of native cultures – The researchers looked at patterns of honey locus in the Southern Appalachian region. The article drew my attention because the native culture in the area was Cherokee (maybe some of my ancestors) and I had read something similar about the native stands of bananas.

Goodbye, America. I’m becoming a nomad (again)! – Mike Elgan is currently in Cuba and blogging about the experience….a lot more about daily life in Cuba that the Presidential visit.

Pregnant T. rex could aid in dino sex-typing – A T. rex with a medullary bone – the same as modern birds (female) have to shell their eggs. It comes and goes with the bird’s reproductive cycle so not only indicates that the fossil was a female --- but that it was also in the egg laying part of its reproductive cycle.

Climate variations analyzed five million years back in time – We have to go back into the geological history of the Earth a very long way to find a climate as warm as what we are heading towards and we cannot detect the detailed variations….but we already know that there were abrupt climate shifts back then.

Artist Paints Elaborately Colorful Scenes Using Only Her Fingers – This is quite different than a child’s finger painting? My favorites are the lily pads with the fish underneath, the deer looking through yellow leaves, and the curled up fox.

Tunable windows for privacy, camouflage – I would enjoy not having to add blinds and/or drapery to windows….but it would have to require very little electricity to be opaque (since that is the mode that probably would be wanted most at night when solar energy was least available).

Bald Eagle Cam (DC) – Just in case you have not seen the story elsewhere. This article has a link for the live cam and the twitter feed. Yesterday when I looked the day was warm enough that a parent was standing to the side of the nest while the babies slept (they are still young enough that they fall over in a ‘food coma’ after they eat!

Potential Zika virus risk estimated for 50 US cities – A very scary map. It has been long enough ago that German measles caused birth defects when pregnant women contracted the diseases…this time we don’t have a large number of people in the population that have immunities from having the disease previously so if the US does have an outbreak it would have traumatic outcomes.

Chocolate Chemistry – On a happier note – chocolate. Dark chocolate is my favorite ‘splurge’

21 Enormous Man Made Holes – Mines, nuclear explosions, wells…lots of reasons humans have made giant holes on the surface of Earth.

Zooming – March 2016

In February – birds dominated the zooming post. This month there is more variety. The first two collages are from Brookside Gardens – and are all plants in the conservatory.

Outside the plants were mostly dried vegetation from last falls – but the collage below contains a feather too.

And then we get to some birds: snow geese and a yellow legs. I liked the shell within a shell shape.

Shelf fungus and pine codes --- pine needles as background for heads of a Great Blue Heron and an egret.

A splintered tree trunk – a physical reminder of how power storms can be. Tundra swans with sunrise colors in water and sky as background.

Close up of two birds revealed the red in their eye. The frog looks happy to be surveying the pool with lots of eggs already laid. The daffodil is just the beginning of the spring flowers.

Beautiful Food – March 2016

I am enjoying unadorned whole foods for snacks and realized that they have a beauty all their own. Walnuts with their convoluted surface. I always put them in a very small container so that I don’t eat more than a serving (1/4 cup).

Blueberries (partially) thawed from the freezer. There glistening purple color is quite a contrast from other foods.

Oranges are a day brightener both because of the beauty of their namesake color and their taste. I like to eat them standing at my kitchen sink watching the birds at the bird bath. I take off the skin before eating the pulp so I can chop the peel up to dry or include as extra peel in a batch of orange marmalade.

The is the time of year I begin to make the transition from foods I enjoy on cold days like soup (butternut squash curry with lots of topping: pumpkinseeds, broccoli flowerets, and a hardboiled egg) and

Breakfast for dinner (pancakes with apples cooked in cinnamon butter on top)

To foods that are best eaten cold – like the colorful spring leaves that have quite a mixture of green, purple and read leaves.

They are all part of the beautiful meals of March!

Belmont Manor and Historic Park – March 2016

I’ve been to several Howard County Conservancy training sessions at Belmont this month. The short hike associated with the first training was into the nearby woods. The trees were still very much in winter mode. A few of the young beeches retained dry leaves from last season. The large trees in this forest are beech, tulip poplar, sycamore and oak (fewer oaks, and they are smaller than the other trees).

The only green around were plants close to the ground protected by the buttress roots of trees or

Moss growing on tree trunks.

The next training had a hike that went out to the cemetery on the property. Just outside the fence is a huge tulip poplar. There is a hollow place on the side of the trunk toward the fence and it is unclear how far up the tree that hollow goes.

There is a row of White Pines with picnic tables underneath. I’ve never stopped there for a picnic but last summer the area under the pines was a good place to look for mushrooms to photograph.

We hiked back to the front of the manor house and I finally got around to photographing the date on the plaques above the front door. CPD stands for Caleb and Priscilla Dorsey – the builders of the oldest part of the house.

It was a wet day – but the view from the drive in front of the manor house was still scenic with the large magnolia on the lawn and the pond beyond – a bald cypress standing vigil at the water’s edge on the left.

The dampness gave the gum balls on the ground more color. The wind had trimmed one of the nearby white pines recently to add to the arrangement.

On some of the old trees the lichen on their trunks looks more robust than the tree.

During the third training we hiked through one of the fields and I found a blue jay feather – a little battered from being on the ground for several days.

After the training I decided to stop at all the turnouts along the one lane wide road. The part of the road that has been newly paved now has speed bumps. This is the entrance to Belmont showing the trees along the drive.

A lot of trees have been cut along this newly paved section – supposedly to winnow out unhealthy trees. It has been going on for the past several years. I made a slide show of the pictures I took of the stumps. Can you tell which ones are not part of the recent cutting? (1, 4, 9) One looks like an unfurling scroll to me. (3)  There were several that I wondered why they were cut – they weren’t hollow so there must have been something else that made them candidates for the saw. One such was (11 and 12) --- but then I noticed the space between the bark and the rest of the wood; something was definitely wrong. The one with the biggest hollowed out area would have probably fallen soon had it not been cut (13). Some of the wood from a large branch looked very spongey (14) so clearly the tree was rotting. Still – it is sad to see so many trees cut down at one time.

Mt Pleasant Farm – March 2016

There are signs of spring at the Howard County Conservancy’s Mt. Pleasant Farm but the trees still look very bare. Earlier in the month I posted about the Wood Frogs in the Honors Garden pool. Last week, the frogs (and their loud clacking) were gone, but the tadpoles were beginning to hatch. They were easiest to see on the rocks. They are algae eaters and the little pool has plenty for them to eat. Notice that there is also a tiny snail just above the water line.

The moss growing on the parts of the rocks above the water looks very green right now. Soon there will be a lot more tadpoles in the water below since there is a large egg mass that has not hatched near this rock.

I took advantages of the absence of leaves to capture a stump that is usually hidden by brush. It has shelf fungus

And wood pecker holes

And lots of moss growing on it.

It is near the spot where skunk cabbage grows (previous post is here).

The streams are gurgling (and the paths are usually muddy) this time of year.

The farmhouse is visible from the meadow with the deciduous trees still bare.

I stood photographing a mockingbird for several minutes. At first I thought the breeze was ruffling the neck feathers but then I realized that the neck moves a lot as the bird creates his sounds (mockingbirds have quite a repertoire).

Squirrels are still finding last season’s nuts – and eating them noisily. I would not have noticed this squirrel without that noisy munching.

The maple ‘tree within a tree’ is still one of my favorite stops along the stone wall. Theorizing about why it is that way….and looking for snake skin sheds which seem to be there frequently…are always a hit with hiking groups.

These shelf fungi caught my eye – like little steps up the large branch.

Last season’s dogbane still holds some of its seeds in the meadow.

So even at the end of winter – beginning of spring, there is a lot to see here. It is a calm before the riot of growth that comes in April and May.

Photographs through a Window – March 2016

March has not been the best month for ‘through a window’ photography because 1) there have been a lot of cloudy days (i.e. bad lighting) and 2) I have been out and about away from home/my favorite window on a few too many mornings when the birds are most active. The cardinals are still around. This one seemed to be looking right at my camera!

Early in the month we had snow and the heated bird bath was popular but no birds stayed around very long.

The snow made caps on the tops of the sycamore seed balls and coated the tree’s limbs.

But it was soon gone and robins are around our yard again. This one was fluffed up with the cold.

I usually don’t photograph sparrows but this one looked more distinctive – a chipping sparrow. The juncos are still around too but maybe on the verge or leaving for their summer homes much farther north since there do not seem to be as many.

I’m still tickled when I catch a mourning dove blinking. The light blue color of the lid is a surprise. The pink of the leg and foot is good on this one too. The dove may look a little scruffy because it was cold and wet when this picture was taken. The blur of red behind the dove is a maple in bloom…and the little bit of yellow is a neighbor’s forsythia at the edge of the forest.

Yesterday I saw a red winged blackbird at the feeder. I was surprised that he was light enough to not pull the spring down to cover the seed hole! He enjoyed his snack!

Skunk Cabbage

Skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) is some of the earliest ‘green’ sprouting from the cold ground in spring around here. I start looking for it in March. There wasn’t any up at Brookside Gardens in the first week of the month. By March 16, they were making an appearance at the Howard County Conservancy’s Mt. Pleasant Farm.

The leaves will be large and turning the previously brown leaf mulch bank into a vibrant green very quickly. Skunk cabbage are a welcome color change and a sure sign of spring (but stay far enough away from them to not smell them)!

Chincoteague Sunset…and Sunrise

Chincoteague was the only refuge on our 4 refuge trek that the weather was good for late and early day photography. We chose a place with water and pines for sunset and got there when the color was just starting in the sky and the reflections in the water were very clear.

I adjusted my camera to get the color and let all the vegetation be in silhouette just as the sun was at the tree tops.

And then it was in the trees.

Two Great Blue Herons flew to a snag behind us and waited there while the light faded still more.

--

The next morning we were up an entering the refuge when it opened at 6 AM (this was before daily light savings time and the refuge was on winter hours). The sky was already rosy by the time we got to our spot – a little further along the road that we had used for sunset.

There were birds already busy in the water that took on the color of the sky.

A contrail was reflected in the water closer to us.

The light became more yellow and the geese continued their morning grooming and breakfast.

Then the color turned to orange. The sun was above the horizon.

Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge

The last refuge on our trek was Chincoteague. I’ve posted about our two prior trips (fall 2014kingfisher, egrets, cormorants, herons, gulls, lighthouse, and sunrise/sunset; spring 2013vultures, blue grosbeak, and egrets). We always see Great Blue Herons at Chincoteague. When I photograph them now I am looking for something a bit out of the ordinary. There was one that was all fluffed up in the cold – standing very still on one leg – framed by dry grasses and brush.

Another Great Blue Heron was perched on a branch over some water – preening.

I noticed a lot more dead and splintered trees this trip and found out that the pine bark beetle had been particularly hard on the pines the past few years and

Winter storm Jonas brought such high winds that is brought trees down on the refuge.

There were tundra swans that we saw in greater numbers at Eastern Neck

And snow geese (sleeping here) that we saw in greater numbers at Blackwater.

This ring-billed gull (adult non-breeding) was not pleased that we pulled up on the road shoulder near him.

We saw a few pintail ducks (and some buffleheads which, again, were difficult to photograph – and I am refraining from posting another blurry picture!).

The birds I had to look up on allaboutbirds were this marbled godwit (I think)

And a juvenile black-crowned night heron (my husband is the one that spotted this one in the brush over the water where we often see other herons).

Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge

The third refuge on our trek was Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge in Delaware. It was a gray day --- but at least the rain happened while we were driving to the refuge than while we were there. One of our nav systems took us to a road through ponds but not to the visitor’s center. It was part of the refuge and we saw some Great Blue Herons

And Yellow Legs – very active in catching fish in the shallows.

Fortunately, we had another nav system that did chart a path to the visitor center and we did some hiking. Again – there was construction on one of the trails near the visitor and it was noisy enough that most of the wildlife has found someplace else to be for the day. On our hike I found a number of shelf-fungus. None of them were very large.

But one was a brilliant green color.

I tried to photograph them several from the top

And bottom.

The biggest one was growing on a stump near a boardwalk

And the gills underneath were more colorful than the top.

We headed out of the refuge and on toward Chincoteague….the topic of tomorrow’s post.

Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge

Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge near Cambridge MD was the second refuge we visited on the Eastern Shore. The high point of the visit was probably snow geese. They were all over the ponds closest to the visitor center.

Some were very close indeed. Most of them just calmly kept an eye on me (I was using my 30x zoom to photograph them).

But one of the younger ones seemed hyper aware of my presence – maybe this goose was smarter than average.

Of course there were Canadian geese as well – ignoring everything but their own business.

In lesser numbers but just as impressive: Great Blue Herons. Note the spring plumage on the head.

The day was very cloudy. It was only 3:30 in the afternoon but already looked like dusk as we drove around the wildlife loop.

We stopped to photograph a pair of bald eagles perched on an old osprey nesting platform. They were too far away to get a really crisp picture. But I always like to see them. Blackwater was the first place I ever saw a bald eagle in the wild – back in the spring of 1990.

As we got ready to leave – a group of Canadian geese honked their departure too.

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 12, 2016

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.

Dragonfly is world-record flier – Confirmed by genetic analysis…this insect makes transoceanic flights.

Identity unearthed: How excavations in Sudan reveal the transformation Egyptian, Nubian culture – Cultural blending in the ancient world…with a lot of individual choice involved: Nubian bed or Egyptian coffin, wrapped like a mummy or not, Egyptian-type amulet or Nubian jewelry (or both).

Fitting into what I’m learning in my Big History class: Mysterious cosmic radio bursts found to repeat, Hubble breaks cosmic distant record: sees universe soon after big bang, and Einstein’s gravitational waves ‘seen’ from black holes – Every time I take a course, it seems like there are a lot of relevant articles coming out in the news feeds!

Astrobiology: Understanding Life in the Universe – Student companion site for the Charles S. Cockell text. Includes chart sets for each chapter – if all you want is an overview of the topic. The book is developed to support the Coursera Astrobiology course taught by the author (which I took last year).

Migrating Monarch Number Rebound – Hurray! The good news is from analysis of the numbers of butterflies at hibernation sites in Central Mexico. There were 3x more butterflies than the year before. Still – the area is still a lot lower than the 45 acres in 1996. The area was 10 acres in 2015, 2.79 in 2014, 1.66 in 2013. Outside of the hibernation sites – more people are planting or conserving milkweed which is needed for monarch survival and keeping that focus on increasing milkweed availability in the environment is what we in the US can do to help.

Toward diagnosing diseases such as cancer in their earliest stages – But can it be done very inexpensively? So far a lot of these diagnostic tests have added cost to the medical system and there a lot of people that are not going to have the disease (i.e. there is a lot of cost of lots of testing to find the few people that need treatment).

Can some birds be just as smart as apes? – Research with corvids (crows, jays and their kind) and parrots reveals that they are capable of thinking logically, of recognizing themselves in the mirror and of empathy. Even though the brain structures and size appear quite different…both birds and apes have a prefrontal brain structure that controls similar executive structures.

Irish Eyes Soda Bread – Something to bake for St. Patrick’s day – coming up on the 17^th.

Uncovering the Roman Roads Cutting Across England - An amateur archeologist using LIDAR…reveals roads the Roman’s build for trade and rapid deployment of troops (follow the ‘full story’ link at the bottom of the article to see a map).

Who Sleeps? – Sleep conserves energy and may be why so many species sleep…but there may be other benefits at all. This an article that summarizes our current understanding of sleep in some major types of organisms (marine mammals, birds, insects, and mentions ongoing research.

Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge

The first refuge on our road trip was Eastern Neck, an island located in the mouth of the Chester River as it flows into the Chesapeake Bay. It is north east of Maryland’s Bay Bridge. We stopped at the visitor center first and walked down the Tidal March Overlook trail from there.

It was muddy and we didn’t quite get to the Tidal Marsh Overlook. I did find some seed pods that had lasted through the winter.

Next we drove down Bayview Road and walked the Bayview Butterfly Trail (no butterflies this time of year). There were buffleheads on the water (although too far away for a really good picture.

And seeds still hanging onto stalks at the water’s edge even this late in the winter season.

The Bay Bridge is in the distance. It was a cloudy day; next time we go to Eastern Neck I’ll want it to be sunny.

Then we headed to the Duck Inn trail that looked back toward the Chester River (toward the east). There was a lone feather near the beginning of the trail.

There were some very muddy places along the trail but this bank of green moss was almost a glowing green. When we came back down the trail toward the car, there was a small child that was enjoying the moss with his family.

We managed to avoid any deep mud encounters on the path and made it to the shore. Where the water meets the land is rounded stones and shells.

Further up the beach, the shells accumulate.

There were some in the grass – indicating that sometimes the water gets very high indeed.

The next stop was the high point of the trip – the Tubby Cove and Tundra swan board walks. There were a lot of tundra swans. The ones with gray heads are juveniles. All the swans seem to bob heads at each other when they are facing each other and it is hard not to interpret the behavior as a greeting or acknowledgement….it may not be the swan’s intent at all.

When they are intentionally moving rather than just floating on the water – their legs are often visible.

I took a series of pictures of one swan that was preening. A swan’s neck is certainly flexible!