Project FeederWatch – April 2025

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The juncos seemed to have left a little earlier than I expected. We didn’t see any by the beginning of April. Our bird feeder area looks almost the same as it did in the winter since the hollies and cedar are evergreen. Now we have violets coming up (the small low clumps of green in the rocked areas); they seem to thrive in the rock with landscaping cloth underneath. I’ve noticed robins and doves collecting the fine stems from last season’s violets to build nests.

We were startled during the first few minutes of one of our Feeder Watch sessions by a Cooper’s Hawk flying in and landing on the patio table! I managed to get a picture before it took off. All the other birds had vacated before the hawk came – so it didn’t get a meal from our feeder area. They didn’t return until the later part of our 30-minute observation time.

The white-throated and white-crowned sparrows are still around. I didn’t take pictures of them. There are house finches and goldfinches. The goldfinches are sporadic visitors and the one we saw stayed at the feeder longer.

The light blue color when a dove blinks always surprises me. This one seemed to snoozing….making it easier to photograph. It was cold morning, so the feathers were fluffed.

The Carolina Wren is not a bird we see every single observation time…but we usually see it at least once during our 2-day Feeder Watch count. It likes the suet…and whatever is scatter on the ground….best.

There is a pair of downy woodpeckers. They like the suet and the seed….and our trees. I am hoping they nest nearby and produce young this year.

I saw a red-bellied woodpecker briefly, but the grackles came and it left quickly. On the plus side – the grackles are acting as a deterrent to the starlings.

This is the last month of the Project Feeder Watch season. I’ll do one last post in early May to close out what happens at our feeders (maybe we’ll see some migrants). We’ll start up again in the fall.

2 Months with my Nikon Coolpix P950

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The most significant experience with my newish Nikon Coolpix P950 was our trip to Loess Bluff’s National Wildlife Refuge; there were three blog posts from that trip (one, two, three). My favorite image that the new camera captured was a video of trumpeter swans…trumpeting!

There were a few photos I took around my spring yard – crocus and a pinecone in the grass. I notice the slight increase in weight from my previous camera…not a positive for the new one.

The camera autofocus is not as good in lower light as my previous camera…or maybe it is the ‘through the window’ aspect of the photos I take while we are making Feeder Watch observations.

I am determined not to revert to my previous bridge camera (Canon Powershot SX70 HS) but I find myself using my small point and shot camera that I can slip in a pocket for times I don’t anticipate needing the additional zoom power of the heavier camera!

Sustaining Elder Care – April 2025

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My dad had his 94th birthday this past month – his second in the assisted living home. My sisters provided special foods and balloons over at least 3 days. One of the celebrations was shared with the staff and other residents of the assisted living home.

I visited before his birthday and was pleasantly surprised that the physical therapy sessions had improved his physical stamina since my visit in late February. He was able to stand up from sitting more easily…and we walked outdoors for about half the distance he had been doing last fall (so not fully recovered but trending positive).

He was a bit more alert when we worked on one of the puzzles I brought with me…for a little less than an hour. When he is tired and ready to quit, he complains about not being able to see well; there is probably a permanent impairment in one eye…and his readers always seem to need cleaning which might impact his sight in the other eye.

He talked a little more (although some of what he said was clearly gleaned from sometime long ago rather than recently). He admitted that much of what he thinks about seems to be happening recently, but it is too much to really all be in the past few weeks! He seemed more interested in the slideshow that one of my sisters put together to play on his television during the day. It doesn’t include people (which he would have trouble identifying) …it focuses on places he visited…farm machinery that he might remember from his growing up. The tractors are always a favorite.

I only see him once a month. Sometimes it seems like he is declining…and there is a slight recovery. The last visit was a “recovery” and I am looking forward to the next visit …hoping the trend continues.

Spring Yard Work

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There is always a lot to do in our yard after the winter months. Right now - mowing and cleaning up beds is not on my list. The temperature lows have not gotten reliably above 50 for enough days that the insects have emerged, so I am concentrating on all the rest – and enjoying some early blooms. The violets in the front (south) beds bloomed a couple of days before the ones on east side of the house.

The chive seeds I planted winter before last are now clumps of chives along the edge of the east facing bed as well. The seeds were from my mother’s garden. I’ll keep propagating them until they outline the bed. Maybe someday I will take out the metal edging completely. I like the way look and that, as soon as they are well established, they make excellent additions to salads. They are also a good reminder of my mother’s life and garden.

In the front flower bed, the space I cleared of rocks for the hens and chicks is overflowing with plants. Clearing more of the rocks (and the landscaping cloth underneath it) so that the group can expand further is on my list!

I picked up small branches around our yard – mostly from our neighbor’s river birch which is a prolific self-pruner. I piled them on the patio and made bundles of them to easily feed into our chiminea and

Waited for a calm day to burn them. I got about half of them burned before I felt thoroughly smoked and saved the rest for another day!

The highest priority task now is to remove rocks from around the hostas sprouting in the flowerbeds (some in places that are now under bushes), dig out the clump and divide them for transplanting into an area between a pine tree and the flower bed surrounding the patio. The area has been thoroughly mulched and is ready for them. I’ll not disturb the crocus bulbs that have multiplied there and have already finished blooming this season.

A challenge: the oak pollen is high and I am allergic. I’ll either wait a few days or wear a mask when I work on the hostas…or maybe I’ll be delayed by some spring showers.

Stress Reduction Strategies

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Late last summer, I started a lot of new activities and noticed that my stress level, as detected by my Garmin Lily, increased. My stress level and the quality of my sleep are related – when stress is high, sleep quality (and sometimes quantity) is low. At the time I thought I would acclimate, and my stress level would be reduced…but that didn’t happen.

I realize now that the new activities were not the only reason my stress level was high. My back was bothering me and the politics of the country were causing some anxiety as well. I asked my doctor for a referral for physical therapy to help with the back pain and started the PT sessions in December. They coincided with the holidays and a dramatic reduction of my new activities. By early January, I thought my stress level was trending downward along with the level of pain caused by my back.

It didn’t last. With the start of a new semester (geology class), an uptick in new volunteer activities, and the changes occurring at the Federal level….anxiety and stress spiked again and were even more volatile that before. Most of the time I was able to minimize my back issue (thanks to continuing the exercises I learned in physical therapy) so that was not usually a big component to my stress level. The strategies I am applying now (see below) seem to be helping…but I only have a few weeks of results so far. I suspect that I will be tweaking my stress reduction strategies for the foreseeable future!

  • No caffeine after 9 AM.

  • Limit TV news and news feeds. Be informed but not scrolling through news frequently.

  • Practice focusing thoughts on the present.

  • Continue physical therapy exercises focused on reducing back pain + at least 8,000 steps per day. Swopper chair (bounces) when sitting at my computer.

  • Move every hour….i.e. take a break from sitting. Use the time for a household chore.

  • Get some outdoor time every day.

  • 2 hours before bedtime: no screens. Read physical book and create Zentangle tiles. Do relaxing stretches.

  • Electrolyte drink 3 hours before bedtime.

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 5, 2025

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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’s Hiding Inside This 2,200-Year-Old Pyramidal Structure in the Judean Desert? - Alongside Nahal Zohar, a stream in the southern Judean Desert, archaeologists are picking through a large building they believe was used as a stronghold for protecting the caravan route bringing bitumen and salt from the Dead Sea to Mediterranean ports. To date, researchers have found a new Dead Sea Scroll, excellently preserved ancient Roman swords, and a 10,000-year-old basket and lid.

Which Native Plant Are YOU? - Take a moment to enjoy a bit of playful anthropomorphism as you take a Native Plant Personality Quiz, to see which native plant YOU are most like!

Ecologists document Utah's bee species and say beehive state is rich in bee diversity - 1,167 bee species are documented in the state of Utah!

Mud, water and wood: The system that kept a 1604-year-old city afloat - The city, which turned 1604 years old on March 25, is built on the foundations of millions of short wooden piles, pounded in the ground with their tip facing downwards. These trees – larch, oak, alder, pine, spruce and elm of a length ranging between 3.5m (11.5ft) to less than 1m (3ft) – have held up stone palazzos and tall belltowers for centuries, in a true marvel of engineering leveraging the forces of physics and nature.

From Wasteland to Wonder – A free eBook by Basil Camu about trees and how each of us can improve the places we love. It includes QR codes for instructional videos about how to do things. One that I viewed and will apply immediately is how to prune shrubs in a way friendly to the plant…and results in less frequent pruning!

Renewables Accounted for More Than 90 Percent of New Power Globally Last Year - Still, growth is not on pace to meet a global goal to triple renewable capacity by the end of this decade. Continuing its clean-energy dominance, China installed more renewable power than all other countries combined last year.

7 Ways State Wildlife Action Plans Save Species – From the National Wildlife Federation.

Women Played a More Important Role in Producing Medieval Manuscripts Than Previously Thought - Female scribes were responsible for producing at least 110,000 handwritten manuscripts between 400 and 1500 C.E. in the “Latin West,” or the Roman Catholic parts of Europe, researchers find. That represents roughly 1.1 percent of the total 10 million manuscripts produced during that period….and that is likely an underestimate.

Jamestown is Drowning - Millions of artifacts have been excavated from the site over the last century, helping historians to understand much of what we know about this historic early settlement. But untold numbers of other artifacts may soon be lost forever because of increasing water levels, not just from flooding but also from rising groundwater and migrating wetland areas. Among the most profound known impacts are the loss of human remains. The average sea level has risen nearly 1.6 feet in the tidewater region of Virginia—a trend that is now accelerating. Studies predict that about 14 of Historic Jamestown’s 23 acres—or 60 percent—could be permanently underwater within the next 50 years.

These Are the 20 Happiest Countries in the World - The United States dropped to its lowest ranking yet in the annual report. This year, America came in 24th, down from its peak at 11th on the 2012 list.