Blue Grosbeak at Chincoteague

We pulled into a parking area in Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge beside the road to look down into the water where the egrets had congregated earlier in the morning. There were a few left that we had spotted. Then we notice a splash of color in the grass. I had the advantage - being in the passenger seat with my camera already in my hand. I rolled down the window and started taking pictures. The door helped steady by hold on the camera as I increased the magnification. After the two birds flew a short distance further way, I was able to get out of the car and follow for a few more minutes of picture taking.

As I took pictures, I thought the birds were indigo buntings. There had been pictures in the Refuge’s visitor center that I remembered from the previous day. An hour later when we were in back in the visitor center, I was not so sure. The blue grosbeak looked pretty similar. I could not be sure on the small screen of the camera and I had not looked at the birds with the binoculars; the beak would have been the key indicator if I suspected the issue while the bird was within sight.

When I got home, I used the All About Birds site while looking at the pictures on a larger screen. Confirmed - it was a blue grosbeak pair! And they were a lot prettier than the vultures I posted about previously.

Ten Days of Little Celebrations - May 2013

Back in August 2012, I posted about finding something to celebrate each day. It’s an easy thing for me to do and the habit of writing it down reminds me to be grateful for these and a myriad of other things in my life. Here are some ‘little celebrations’ I’ve noted this month:

Peonies at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. The whole garden was special but the peonies were the highlight. See the post here.

Rhododendron at the Norfolk Botanical Garden. Lots of beautiful plants and glass artwork…but the rhododendron were at their best. See the post here.

A balanced diet day that met 90% nutritional requirements from food. I started recording me food intake on cronometer.com and learned very quickly that there was room for improvement. First I got the protein/carbs/fat percentages aligned to the recommendation (when I started, fat was overwhelming carbs too frequently); then I started to improve the percentage of nutritional targets I achieved with food (from the low 80s to low 90s). It has be more of a learning experience than I anticipated - and a very positive one.

New camera. I am thoroughly enjoying my new camera (a Canon PowerShot SX280 HS). See some blog posts about it here and here.

Planting seedlings grown in egg shells. I planted some seedlings started in egg shells that are doing well in pots on the deck. See the gleanings post that gave me the idea.

Lowest weight of the year; highest stock market day of the year. These may seem like unrelated metrics but they are both items I monitor daily. It is a day to celebrate when they both move in the right direction on the same day.

Horseshoe crabs at Sandy Point State Park. The view of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge would have been the highlight for me if the day had not been so misty. Instead I flipped over a horseshoe crab that had stranded itself upside down on the beach and celebrated that is crawled back into the water. I’ll be doing a post about the park in a few days.

Osprey, barn swallows, and immature bald eagle at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. I cannot pick which of the three birds I enjoyed spotting more! I’ll have a blog post in a few days.

Blue grosbeak and egrets at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. The surprise of seeing a purple grosbeak in the wild for the first time was quite a high point…but then the myriad egrets and their antics took the stage. Pictures will be posted in a few days.

Finding a surprise iris in my garden. I thought I had moved all the iris bulbs from the back garden that had gotten too shady to the front garden where they would get more sun. It worked - they are booming in profusely in their new flower bed but I found on lone flower in the back flower bed….a missed bulb that managed to bloom even in the shade. I celebrated its survival.

Vultures at Chincoteague

As I walked back to the parking area near the Marsh Trail at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, I noticed a vulture near the top of a dead tree. Pretty soon another bird joined the first. I decided to experiment with the zoom on my new camera. The results are in this post.

Vultures are probably the least beautiful of birds. The head is naked of feathers and their eyes look watery. The mouth is large. They hold themselves in a way that always has a somewhat sinister aspect - hunched, holding their wings in a way that appears to hide something in front of them, spreading their wings to dominate with their size. The two in the tree interacted very little but both spread their wings after a time - I assume to enjoy the warming sunlight on their wings. Many years ago, canoeing on the Guadalupe River in Texas after a night of rain, we saw a tree full of vultures with their wings spread in the sun. I think it was the first time I realized how big the birds are.

I try to convince myself that these birds fill a useful niche in the environment - cleaning up carrion more quickly than insects, mold, and bacteria can do the job. Still - they are not a bird I want around my neighborhood!

Brookside Gardens - May 2013

Brookside Gardens was brimming with greenery and late spring flowers. I was there are on a sunny but breezy spring day. The layers of greenery were everywhere but I liked this scene the best: 

• The shiny leaves of a Southern magnolia in the left foreground then
• Looking over the hedge surrounding the garden to
• The arbor with spent a wisteria vine whose blossoms have been overcome by green leaves to
• The rounded shape of a willow and then
• The trees beyond….and
• The blue sky backdrop. 

Gardens are experienced with as much knowledge and observational energy we care to apply. For me - it is more about the visual appeal of the place and noticing the way plants have changed since the last time I walked around. The deciduous magnolias that were so full of blooms in April are full of green leaves now. Their Southern Magnolia cousins are just beginning to have buds. The beds of tulips are cleared for summer plantings (the gardeners were at work in the dirt while I was there). The almost hidden plants like a single flower standing out in the undergrowth or a hairy fern just unfurling are like finding hidden treasure.

I do not attempt to remember the name of everything I see. Surprising - I have come to recognize many of the plants over the years. I am pleased that I look for - and find - Jack-in-the-Pulpits almost every year but usually they are in undisturbed woodlands rather than gardens. This year there were quite a few at Brookside and they looked like they had been planted!  

Brookside has quite a collection of azaleas and rhododendron and I enjoy every year. Poppies are increasingly popular. The gingko tree near the entrance is a tree I always check; the shape of their leaves, the way the leaves flutter in the slightest breeze, the lighter green in the spring and summer then yellow in fall….it is probably my favorite tree of the gardens.

Enjoy the May 2013 at Brookside slide show!

Sunset and Sunrise as Assateague Island National Seashore - May 2013

I visited the Assateague Island National Seashore in Virginia this week. There was a brisk sea breeze at both sunrise and sunset - enough to keep the mosquitos away.

The sunset was observed from the Toms Cove Visitor Center. We arrived a bit too early but there things to photograph beforehand - birds getting a snack before darkness and the lighthouse. The lighthouse in undergoing renovation and the cables used are seen in the image. The sunset itself was made more interesting by a lower bank of clouds. After the sun was behind the horizon the swirls in the clouds became more apparent.

The sunrise was observed looking out over the Atlantic from the beach. Again we arrived early but were shortly joined by a few others. It was before 6 AM! One person arrived on a motorcycle and headed off down the beach with his camera. A group of five people walked halfway down to the beach but then stopped and just stood huddled in the morning coolness to watch the sunrise. A man got out a folding chair and walked halfway to the shore and then sat. After photographing the lighthouse in the near darkness, I walked down to the beach. There were no shells to pick up but there was a sandcastle that someone had constructed the day before that incorporated a horseshoe crab into its structure and the waves were crashing to shore; it was good to hear them without the beach repair machinery noise of the previous day.

There was a boat visible in the morning mist. I took a few pictures of birds waking up.

The clouds were thick enough that the sun was hidden until it was well above the horizon and the color did not extend to all the clouds. It was a misty dawn.

Norfork Botanical Garden

I toured the Norfolk Botanical Garden the day after the Lewis Ginter which I posted about yesterday. The weather was still cool and cloudy but I was surprised at the difference being on the shore and a little further south meant. Quite a range of plants highlighted the visit.

There were the normal spring beauties like May Apples (left) and purple flags (on the right surrounding a Great Blue Heron sculpture).

Roses like cooler weather too. They are better now (and then again in the fall) than in the heat of summer. The yellow ones against the rough block wall relieve the harshness of its new construction.

But the rhododendrons stole the show - similarly to the peonies at the Lewis Ginter. I captured the phases of the clumps of flowers unfurling from tight buds. Don’t rhododendrons have the classic shape of a bouquet fit to be carried in a formal procesession?

There was glass sculpture by Craig Mitchell Smith displayed in the garden. My favorite was the blue jelly fish in the conservatory.

And what about a vine with white flowers unfurling - tight spirals expanding to gentle curves.

To end this very full post - enjoy the graceful curves of an aging tulip and spunky columbines. 

Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden

It was a cold day in early May when I walked around the

Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden

near Richmond VA. Peonies were the high point - along with pitcher plants growing in profusion near the water’s edge and sweet gum leaves seen from the vantage point of a tree house. The peonies were the flowers that seemed to have their own inner glow on a cold cloudy day.

The tulips were almost past their prime but their colors were still interesting. The double (maybe triple) white one in the picture below was quite a surprise both in colors and the number of petals.

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 18, 2013

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

Cases Of Mysterious Valley Fever Rise In American Southwest - Will we see more stories like this with climate change?

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #42 - My favorite is last one - the plum-headed parakeet.

How Safe Is Your Medicine Cabinet? - With all the data collecting on computers - why are we not monitoring adverse effects of approved drugs more effectively?

Geologists Study Mystery of 'Eternal Flames' - The surprises out there in the natural world…

I am taking two Coursera course right now: Technicity and Nutrition, Health, Lifestyle: Issues and Insights. The links below were items referenced in the classes during the first week and news items that I paid more attention to because my awareness was increased by the lectures.

The Next Age of Megacities - From Ericsson

How will cities secure their water future? - it is going to be quite a challenge with so many cities already depleting current supplies for part of the year

Fat Hormone Controls Diabetes - Research that could provide more options for the treatment of diabetes

Dietary Guidance Calculators and Counters - From USDA

Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010 - From USDA

International Food Information Council Foundation 2012 Food & Health Survey (exec summary and full report)

Cronometer tool - Log what you eat and it totals up the calories and nutrients. I learned that I never get enough potassium from food! Screen snap below. Using this tool has tweaked my diet in a positive way.

South Carolina Aquarium

The South Carolina Aquarium is located at the edge of the historic district of Charleston and right on the harbor - with a great view of the Ravenel Bridge. My favorites of the many pictures I took are in the slide show below. The maps behind water (1) and on the floor (10) provided orientation to the area. Alligators (4) and pelicans (5) were both animals we saw elsewhere during our vacation. I had never seen the underside of rays (6) like I did at this aquarium and it was all because there is a ‘feed the rays’ exhibit and they rays are very good at positioning themselves along the glass of the tank to get the food! Have you ever watched a tank of jelly fish (8)? I found it intriguing and soothing in equal measure; they seem so graceful and relaxed.

Charleston Tea Plantation

In late April, I visited the Charleston Tea Plantation - enjoying the beverage samples in the gift shop and the tour on a trolley around the place. I enjoyed the sign that pointed out how far this tea plantation is from the major tea production centers of the world. Growing tea requires warm and moist conditions - not found in the US in many places. Wadmalaw Island is one of the few places where is it possible. The plantation may be a little out of the way from other attractions around Charleston but it is a pleasant drive on a road bordered with large trees….and it is a unique experience.

The location and the flatness of this plantation make it usual for a tea plantation. The flatness here allows for automation that is not possible in mountainous terrain where tea is grown elsewhere. The one-of-a-kind machine shown below clips the new growth from the top of the bushes and collects the cuttings as it rolls down the rows of tea bushes 8-10 times a season.

The processing of the leaves into black, oolong and green tea is done on the plantation too. The factory can be viewed from two sides via big windows and filmed vignettes explain how the equipment operates to produce tea.

A factoid: Once tea bushes are established, they grow so densely that few weeds grow. 

Patriots Point

Patriots Point is on the Mt. Pleasant SC side of Charleston Harbor - within sight of the Ravenel Bridge. The centerpiece of the museum is USS Yorktown, a World War II air craft carrier. It is so big that it will not fit in one picture frame from the parking lot.

There are tours available but we chose to take things at our own pace. The hanger and flight decks have planes displayed.

Walking on the flight deck is quite an experience; the metal deck made odd sounds as I walked toward the edge. I was more comfortable staying toward the center of the flight deck. The bridge towers above- with the World War II ‘kills’ indicated by the Japanese flags.

There were rooms on the other decks set up in museum style (I was disappointed that the room about Navy women did not mention Grace Murray Hopper). The arrows on the floor are helpful; it would be easy to get lost in the warren of rooms!

The ship is in Charleston Harbor and there is some degradation of the metal. Hopefully it can be maintained for years to come - enlightening visitors about a period of 20th Century history. It bridges World War II to the space again since it was the ship that recovered Apollo 8 from the sea in the 1960s.

Calla Lilies

Calla lilies have all kinds of curves - the spiral as the bud opens, a flaring trumpet around a tight yellow ovoid, gentle waves and curls. Was it serendipity that three of the places I went around Charleston showcased different colors of the flowers? 

The white was blooming at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens.

The pink was in Boone Hall Plantation’s garden.

The yellow was in a first floor window box in downtown Charleston.

Charleston in April

I visited Charleston SC at the end of this past April. Walking around the old downtown part of the city was quite a treat. I enjoyed the architecture of the churches and houses - 

• Majestic buildings on the aptly named ‘Church’ street,
• The early 1800s vintage Nathanial Russell House with ironwork above the front door like many of the buildings in the downtown area of Charleston and the plantation homes outside the city as well,
• The diverse and overflowing window-boxes that add color just about everywhere, and  
• The tile-clad coal burning fire places and colonial vintage kitchen of the Heyward-Washington House. 

The houses use every bit of ground not covered by building of sidewalk as garden area and the climate lends itself to a lushness that is quite appealing. It was an enjoyable and educational vacation destination.

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 11, 2013

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

Printable Functional 'Bionic' Ear Melds Electronics and Biology  - What if this development really does live up to its potential?

Addiction Fact and Fiction - Infographic

Robot discovers secret chambers in Mexico - Underneath the Temple of Quetzalcoatl in Teotihuacan

APPLE-ALMOND BUTTER PANCAKES - Sounds yummy!

How Petals Get Their Shape: Hidden Map Located Within Plant's Growing Buds - Research about how different parts of plants take on different shapes

Geography in the news: hot chocolate - A healthy indulgence

Saturn Hurricane (at its north pole) - Video and pictures on NASA site

The Fine Art of Photographing Living Portuguese Man O' War

Bundled, Buried & Behind Closed Doors - Lower Manhattan’s 60 Hudson Street….a concentrated hub of Internet connectivity

Nature’s Most Transparent Animals - from National Geographic

Diet Linked to Daytime Sleepiness and Alertness in Healthy Adults - High fat consumption associated with daytime sleepiness

Art Installations Inspired by Solar Panels - My favorite is the second one (Solar Intersections by Robert Behrens)

On the Road

I have been on the road quite a lot the past few weeks. There were some long stretches where I was driving and kept myself focused on that activity rather than noticing too much of the scenery. This blog is about the times I was not driving and the road itself drew my attention.

There was an unpaved road of an oak allee. In the 1860s, the trees would not have been as massive but the road would have been like this - a white, sandy track near Charleston, South Carolina. I saw it on a tram tour. It is just a road to nowhere now since the plantation house is gone.

I posted about the Ravenel Bridge a few days ago. This picture shows the approach to the bridge and the graceful arc the bridge makes between the supports. The traffic moved at highway speeds the 10 or so times we crossed the bridge. Is the beauty and uniqueness of the bridge distracting enough to cause accidents? I didn’t see any but was glad I was not driving.

On foot in Charleston, we walked along tourist clogged sidewalks on Church Street. This was a place where being on foot was better than being in a car. The palm trees and window boxes added color to the brick and ironwork of the buildings. And sometimes the street pavement was cobblestones rather than asphalt!

The bridge and tunnel between Norfolk and Hampton, Virginia was another opportunity to photograph the road from a passenger seat. The choppy water under the bridge sometimes formed white foam against the pillars of the bridge. The tile in the tunnel reflected the red tail lights.

And now I am home again - for a little while.

Boone Hall Plantation and Gardens

Boone Hall was a pleasant surprise. It is across the Cooper River from Charleston SC. It started out as a cotton plantation, supplemented that crop with pecans and a brick yard, and now is a farm using precision growing techniques for fruits and vegetables offered in their own store and pick-your-own. The only cotton grown now is a small test plot that still showed last year’s crop when I was there in late April.

The brick slave cabins with clay tile roofs are unusual; slave cabins were usually built of more flimsy material. But Boone Hall included a brick yard so the cabins for the slaves associated with the house were built of bricks. The cabins have displays and recorded narrative to explain the life there prior to the 1860s.

The gardens are full of hearty flowers of the season and the mature oak allee dates from the 1600s. The people in the picture provide some notion of the size of the trees.

There is a two story cotton gin that had shored up walls - awaiting renovation. The gin was on the top floor and there were holes in the floor to push the cotton below where it could be baled for shipment.

Interesting ironwork is part of the Charleston scene - and Boone Hall’s gate is no exception.

Magnolia Plantation and Gardens

There is always a lot to do at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens (near Charleston, SC). When I was there in late April, it was still cool. That meant that there were still a few camellias but the azaleas and irises were blooming too. There was plenty of activity to see from the boat tour through the old rice fields: lolling alligators, hunting herons/water birds and plenty of duckweed to reduce mosquitos (even though it was too cool for insects to be very active anyway). The huge live oaks with graceful veils of Spanish moss (all the tour guides emphasized that it is not Spanish and not a moss…it is an epiphyte native to the Americas) were everywhere. The gardens were a contrast of natural, formal, and escaped vegetation. It was obvius they had been gardens for a long time and still constantly changing - both from the efforts of gardeners and the natural environment of the place. There were crepe myrtles that were growing quite happily among dense natural vegetation that had taken over at the edge of one garden area. I posted about the peacock at Magnolia Plantation last week. I took so many other pictures that it was difficult to pick the 25 in the slide show below. Enjoy!

Audubon Swamp Garden

The Audubon Swamp Garden is part of Magnolia Plantation and Gardens near Charleston, South Caroline. In late April, the egrets were nesting. The alligators and turtles were trying to warm up on a cool cloudy day. The boardwalk had quite a few photographers - some with fancy tripods and big lenses that were capturing the many birds and reptiles of the swamp.

The high point was an anhinga with hungry chicks.

This was my second trip to this location. Back in 2008, we were a few weeks earlier and the egrets were still doing mating displays rather than sitting on their nests with eggs or hatched chicks. It was a warmer day as well. Every platform held either an alligator or turtle. One held both - and the big excitement of the day for us was when the alligator ate one of the turtles!

A new electronic gate had been added to the garden….and the metal sculpture was new. I particularly liked the fiddling frog surrounded by spring green leaves.

Ravenel (New Cooper River) Bridge - Charleston, South Carolina

The Ravenel (New Cooper River) Bridge is between Mount Pleasant and Charleston, South Carolina. We drove across it at least 8 times while we were in the area a few weeks ago. It is a landmark from so many vantage points around Charleston!

I took pictures from Patriots Point - from the parking lot,

from deck of the USS Yorktown air craft carrier

and from the picnic area -

and the South Carolina Aquarium

and even Charles Towne Landing.

I was not driving so was able take pictures from the front passenger seat as we drove across. The slide show below are my favorites.

Around our (Maryland) Yard in May 2013

Spring is a few weeks behind the norm but it is quite lush at this point. The iris bulbs that I moved to a sunnier bed last fall have very fat buds. They are quite happy with the change in location and will provide fill for the area until the new azalea bushes we planted this spring can reach their full size.

Our tulips were mostly browsed by deer very early. We only had two that managed to bloom.

I forgot all about the chives that have come up for years where we now have a young sycamore. There is some weeding that will need to be done there.

The usual bird’s nest under the covered deck had multiplied this year; there are two at opposite ends of the support beam. The cats will glare through the boards of the deck at the robin chicks - unable to do more than catch a glimpse of the drama under their feet.

There was a slow moving bee on the dandelion. The air temperature was just warming enough for insects to become active.

The tulip poplar blossoms are still tight buds. I was surprised at how intact the shell of a bloom from last year still seemed to be after the buffeting of winter and spring winds.

Most of the violets that grow in the deep shade under the deck were done but one lingered.

The sweetest scent of the walk around the house was from a bush in bloom. I was surprised that insects were not buzzing around it. Usually they are. Perhaps I timed the walk perfectly - when it was still cool enough for the insects to be sedentary.