A short escape into nature

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On the way back to my parents house after a 24 hour stint with my parent in the hospital, I stopped by Josey Ranch (in Carrollton TX) for an escape into nature.

The first bird I saw was a bluebird! Whether or not it was a good omen – it was a great boost to my mood.

I thought at first that there were only scaups on the water.

But then I noticed the coots…and that one of them was smaller than the others. Was it a juvenile? The grass that had grown in the pond over the summer when the water level was low is now flooded and the coots seem to love eating it.

And then a grebe swam by near the coots.

I photographed the sleeping swans with some grebes feeding in the grass nearby.

It was only a short escape from focus on what was happening at the hospital and at my parents’ home…but time well spent for sustaining a positive mental outlook.

Phillips Landing Park

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My husband signed up us for 4 Delmarva Birding field trips as a last excursion to the eastern shore before we move to Missouri. The first field trip was at Phillips Landing Park near Laurel DE. It was a weekday so most of the other participants were retirees like us; we had two guides that were very familiar with the area…so we saw more than we would if we’d gone on our own.

Shortly after we started, my camera had a problem and I was challenged to work around it by using the eye piece rather than the screen for the rest of the morning….not what I usually do so my focusing/composition was not as good as usual even though the skew of pictures toward botanical rather than birds was probably about the same as it would have been with the camera working perfectly.

The plants are at the height of their variety in the spring with blossoms and unfurling leaves – the bright greens of mosses growing rapidly in the new warmth – unfurling ferns….good for photography although my eyes were itchy from the pollen laden air.

The high point of the botanical sightings: One of our guides pointed out a native orchid in bloom beside the path. They aren’t the large showy orchids of warmer climates; it takes a sharp eye to notice them!

There was an area near the path that looked like an egg laying site for a reptile….but something had found the eggs before they could hatch. There were eggshells among the acorns.

I did managed to photograph a few birds: courting cowbirds in the parking lot, a yellowlegs among the reeds, and a prothonotary warbler high in a tree.

The park was a good mix of habitat – watery area near the parking area (Broad Creek that flows into the Nanticoke River nearby) and a path through forest.

As we returned to our car, I saw a tiger swallowtail flit across the grassy area nearby. A good finale to a morning field trip!

Daffodils in the Brush Pile

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Looking out my office window - I noticed a clump of daffodils was blooming in the brush pile at the back of our yard and went downstairs (inside and then from the deck) to get some pictures. Our neighbors have always had daffodils around the base of one of their trees and I had planted some bulbs slightly in front of the tree line in our yard several years ago to establish a similar stand in our yard. The plants come up and bloom well before the leaves are on the trees. My subsequent project to gradually extend the ‘forest’ into our yard by putting small brush piles over the areas where the grass does not well (too much shade) covered the place where I planted the bulbs…but they are hardy enough to come up and bloom anyway! And they provide a marker for how much I have extended the forest leaf mulch area into our yard….probably at least 6 feet. It’s much better than having thin grass/soil showing in that area.

I also noticed that one of the larger branches in the brush pile had some shelf fungus growing --- decomposition and nature recycling itself in action!

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As I walked back up the incline toward the deck stairs, I notice a leaf from last year with some neatly drilled holes. I wondered if the holes were already made before the leaf fell.

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Overall – a very satisfying short photo shoot in our yard!

Found on the Ground

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I walked around my yard and looked for interesting things on the ground. I was a little surprised at how many things I found! My rule was to not move anything…just take the photo as it appeared on the ground. Toward the front and north side of the yard, I found oak leaves from last fall that had blown into the garage, a wasp nest that had blown down from someplace, an arc of grass clippings, some plants overflowing into the concrete trough below the gutter’s downspout, an anthill, a sycamore leaf and some mushrooms in our neighbor’s yard (I used the zoom for the last one).

In the back and the south side of the house there were tiny yellow flowers (weeds), sycamore leaves (rust and decaying green), a cabbage white butterfly enjoying the tiny yellow flowers, a tulip poplar leaf, the invasive plants under the trees at the edge of the forest, a mushroom, some clover, a cherry leaf and water droplets on a weed.

It was a short walk on a morning that was heating up; already warm enough to have the cabbage whites active. I was glad there were still water droplets too. Overall – I’m always pleased that there seems to always be something interesting in our yard.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Looked at a reference from last week’s Zoom meetings… savored The MoMA exhibition Safe: Design Takes on Risk from 2004 (19 short audios and then pictures).

Road Trip to the Eastern Shore

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My husband and I signed up for the field trips offered by Delmarva Birding the last weekend of January. The first one was on Friday afternoon, so we finished packing and left after the morning rush hour. I was still up early enough to see the sunrise. There were enough clouds to hold the light.

The clouds had thickened by the time we left. By the time we got to the Bay Bridge, the water and sky were very gray. The bridge going from east to west is being renovated…I took a picture as we crossed the other span….intending to take more on the way home.

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Our first ‘birding’ happened on the road. As we drove near Bridgeville, Delaware - a flock of snow geese flew up from a field. I took a picture as we drove past. That field was the only one we saw with a flock of birds like that. Maybe more grain had been spilled in that field?

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The Sunday afternoon, as we were driving back, was cloudy again. The view of the part of the bridge under active construction showed a lot of barriers to catch debris, concrete barriers closing off one lane…and scaffolding.

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The view of the other side of the bridge is the same ad usual…the Bay Bridge is an awesome bridge. The traffic was moving smoothly both times we crossed the bridge; I don’t want to be making this drive during the warmer months when the construction with make the traffic more challenging than past summers.

Stay tuned for upcoming posts about our Winter Delmarva Birding Weekend!

Birds on Busy Days

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Sometimes I manage to see something interesting from my office window even on a day I am not in my office very much. Back in December I walked into my office, glanced at the tulip poplar at the edge of the forest….and stopped because there was a hawk in the tree. I grabbed my camera for a quick picture and then it flew away. It looked like a red-tailed hawk.

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This month – right after we got the board set up for our birdfeed camera mount, I came into my office and discovered that the doves had already discovered the new perch. The camera is only big enough for one but there are other perches nearby – the gutter above and the solar panel to the side are popular.

Overall our back yard seems to be a popular place for birds. Fortunately, the predators are infrequent and don’t stick around. Our feeder and bird bath have busy times during the day…and other times are very quiet. Some visitors come every day while others come only occasionally. I’m always thrilled to find bird action when I first walk into my office!

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 19, 2019

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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.

New report deepens understanding of wind-wildlife interactions -- ScienceDaily – This article overviews the report. The 24 page report is available here. The amount of collaboration between the industry, government, conservation, academic and scientific organizations is significant and ongoing.

Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park Celebrates Forests – Maybe I’ll go to Vermont for this festival next September – if it’s an annual event.

These surreal jarred fish tell an urgent story of extinction – The Royal D. Suttkus Fish Collection – nearly 8 million preserved fish…a window into how 20th century development changed the Southeastern US fish….a record of that destruction.

No bones about it, this protein slows down fracture-healing -- ScienceDaily - Abundance of ApoE may explain why older people have trouble healing broken bones. Turning off ApoE completely causes fat to be deposited in arteries (a cardiovascular problem) so treatment options may involve lowering ApoE for short periods of time.

O Canada! We Like Your Food Guide – Food guides from Canada (and some other countries) … some differences from the US. Canada merges ‘dairy’ in with protein foods rather than featuring it as an independent group.

Scientists Are Getting Better at Predicting Hurricane Intensity – A new algorithm has been developed to include the complicated physical mechanisms of tropical cyclone dynamics and the way they interact with upper-ocean and atmospheric circulation. It may reduce the error of tropical cyclone prediction within a 24-hour period by 16%. Every little bit of improvement in prediction means better preparations when an intense storm is approaching.

Artworks of the Dark Zone – From caves in Tennessee and Alabama. Artwork incised in mud and inscriptions. A slideshow.

How Penn State is Cutting Greenhouse Emissions in Half – and Saving Money – Kudos to Penn State. I wonder how many other universities are doing similar things.

Empty Meditative Landscapes Visualize the Tranquil Beauty of Silence – A visual treat

Ed Hawkins “Climate Stripes” May be the Most Important Science Image so Far in This Century – Effective visualization of lots of data…becomes information. The next step is action.

Festival of the Cranes – part 7

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The third fly out of our visit to Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge was back at the ponds along the road rather than the flight deck.  The thermometer said it was not as cold as our first morning…but it was still very cold. The pink morning light on the ponds gave the crane groups other world looks.

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Ribbons of snow geese flew in.

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A northern shoveller was feeding among the legs of the cranes. I managed to catch a picture when it swam into an open patch of water.

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There was an intermingling of the snow geese and cranes. I noticed when I looked at this picture more closely that there are white snow geese and the darker morph of the snow geese (all with a dark grin patch – always reminds me of a streak of dark ‘lipstick’) plus some Ross’s geese that are smaller and without the dark grin patch.

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But my photographic objective for the morning was to photograph cranes in flight. I picked two series for this blog post. I like to look at the wings….how the cranes change the configurations of their wings. It is obvious that is takes a lot more effort for them to land and take off (previous blog posts) than it does to stay aloft. 

When it’s two or three birds, it’s likely to be a family group. The group of five could a family group too since the birds have clutch sizes of 1-3 eggs. This could be a very successful breeding pair!

Festival of the Cranes – part 3

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We made our way to the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center after the fly out. It was still a very cold day. We looked around in the visitor center and bought sweatshirts – giving ourselves another layer for later in the week – and then watched the red wing blackbirds near the feeder in the Desert Arboretum nearby.

There were still a few cottonwood leaves that had not turned brown.

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The saltbush was thick with seeds.

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We decided to take a turn around the wildlife loop. We saw quite a few Northern Shovellers

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And coots.

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My favorite water birds of the day were the pintails.

There were crystals still prevalent on vegetation; it was colder than it looked.

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The day was sunny – the sky clear blue – typical New Mexico in winter.

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Startled snow geese filled the air periodically. I took some sequences later in the week…so more to come about them in subsequent posts.

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Saturday Hike – Part II

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We started down from the Howard County Conservancy’s Belmont Carriage House shortly after 10 AM with 21 hikers. I wanted to make good time for the downhill part of the hike to the Patapsco River in the Avalon area of the state park. I didn’t stop for any pictures. Until we got down to the river.

The water was cloudy with silt and the gravel bars that used to be in the center (where tiger swallowtail butterflies liked to puddle in the summer) were gone. The high volume of rainfall has swept them way. The shallows don’t look so shallow any more.

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I noticed a stand of young sycamores as we started back. I wondered if they were planted or had just come up from seeds. There are not many truly large trees along the river because of the violence of the floods.

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The paths were muddy and sometimes slippery with wet leaves. The rain from the night before was still running off. There were two downed trees across the trail at one point…the leaves on one still looked fresh – like it might have fallen the night before. It was easy enough to go under them rather than over.

We’d had enough dry days that there were some noticeable shelf fungi but none of the brightly colored ‘new’ ones that appear after several days of rain.

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There was a light coating of leaves on the forest floor but a lot of green too.

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We knew were past the half way point going back when we came to the Morning Choice Trail.

There were more signs of trees that had fallen recently. I zoomed in on part of this one when I saw a funnel spider web that looked a lot like an owl!

We came out through the stand of big leaf magnolias and into the trail beside a hay field and thne were within sight of the carriage house shortly after noon. I had my 12,000 steps for the day!

Josey Ranch Lake – Green Herons

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Josey Ranch Lake is near where my parents live in Carrollton, TX and I try to make a walk around it ever time I visit. This time I’ve been busy with other things but managed to get over one morning – and saw 4 kinds of heron in less than 30 minutes! The most numerous were the Green Herons. They are only slightly larger than a grackle….so hard to distinguish at a distance. I was thrilled when I zoomed in on some fallen reeds at the edge of the lake and spotted one that hunting. Another bird appeared in the standing reeds. One caught something a gobbled it down – not sure whether it was a small fish or crayfish.

But the thrill of the day was few feet way at the edge of large stand of cattails….2 juvenile green herons! They were hunting on the logs and seemingly finding tidbits to eat. Their wings did not appear developed enough to allow then to fly; they still had a lot of down and coloring more like a starling than a green heron. But look at the legs!

Butterfly Heads

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I am in Texas and missing my frequent visits to Brookside Gardens Wings of Fancy in Maryland. The pictures I took right before I left are something to savor. The theme of my photography inside the conservatory was ‘butterfly heads! The blue morphos have orange and white papillae --- nothing iridescent blue about their heads.

Some butterflies have papillae that are very large. The proboscis is between the papillae and extend for feeding on bananas or flowers.

Sometimes the papillae are damaged. I notice the owls often have broken papillae. The brown and black stripes of the owl eyes are different than other butterfly eyes.

Some butterflies have antennae that seem to glow at the ends.

In the conservatory, butterflies are sometimes resting upside down under leaves. Its always a thrill to notice one in the foliage.

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Some of the larger butterflies feed on multiple flowers in succession – wings almost always in motion. The last day I was at Brookside was sunny enough that the camera was fast enough to freeze the motion.

I tell children that the butterfly’s proboscis is like a straw…and they do seem to handle it like one…although the way they coil it under their head is different from straws we use!

Butterflies feeding on flowers are my favorites, but some prefer bananas (or other rotting fruit). I inevitability decide that all of them are worth trying to photograph.

Sharing Wings of Fancy

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I enjoy Brookside Gardens Wings of Fancy so much that it’s my favorite place to take guests. This past weekend, my daughter was visiting, and we headed to the exhibit just at it opened. The caterpillars are big enough to see easily – particularly the spicebush swallowtail caterpillars with their eye spots that make them appear more ferocious than they are.

The high point of the morning was when a blue morpho butterfly decided that my daughter’s nail polish was like its own color. The blue (or pink/purple in different light) in both cases is a mechanical color rather than a pigment. The butterfly ‘tasted’ the color with its proboscis on each toenail then crawled up onto the sandal before flying way!

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 31, 2018

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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.

 4 Psychology Lessons That Can Teach Us About Inspiring Climate Action | CleanTechnica – Good ideas – particularly if anticipating a lot of disagreement or people being too depressed about the prospect of the future for Earth to take action.

Top 25 Wild Raptors – National Geographic – From around the world…no bald eagle in this group of photos.

After 250 Years of Dams, Rhode Island River Restored for Migratory Fish – Cool Green Science – Maryland is also removing dams. Bloede’s Dam (see blog post about it here)

Hummingbirds Make an Incredible Journey North – Cool Green Science – This little birds make a very long journey. Hope our recent cold weather has not made is a problematic year for them.

Saving Terrapins From Drowning in Crab Traps – Cool Green Science – Hopefully this can be a success story for terrapins around Long Island…time will tell.

Elusive Deep-Sea Anglerfish Seen Mating for the First Time | Smart News | Smithsonian – I’d only see pictures of dead specimens or drawings. The 2.5 minute video shows a living fish moving slowly through the water with filaments that glow surrounding it. Still very fierce looking but also a slow moving graceful beauty.

Drug-related mortality rates are not randomly distributed across the US -- ScienceDaily – The map says it all. The hotspots for drug-related deaths in the US are not necessarily where historically high drug use happened.

The 20 most beautiful libraries in the U.S. - Curbed – I’ve only been in one of these: the reading room of the Legal Research Library at the University of Michigan; it was part of the campus tour when my daughter visited the university before she added it to her short list that she would apply to for her undergraduate studies. I remember it being very quiet even though people were walking around – cork floors are quiet floors!

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch Is Much Larger and Chunkier Than We Thought | Smart News | Smithsonian – Ugh! It was bad even before the more precise measurements came in. There has to be a way to start cleaning it up and keeping more garbage from getting into the ocean.

Landscape Photography Series Tells “Winter’s Tale” of Snowy Forests – Hopefully we’ve had our last bought with snowy weather here in Maryland. I do enjoy the snowy forests…for a little while.