Mt. Pleasant Farm - June 2015

I am missing treks to Mt. Pleasant Farm for elementary school field trips. Since they have ended I’ve been doing other things/other places but I did take one short hike around one of the loops last week - just because I was missing the place.

The water lilies in the water feature of the Honors Garden have buds.

The summer flowers are beginning to unfurl.

The early ones - like butterfly weed - are already attracting butterflies.

I was thrilled that a bluebird stayed on a branch long enough to be photographed.

This is my favorite to bring groups to look up the stream and ask ‘which tree trunk has been has been across the stream the longest.’

One sharp eyed second grade student looked through the foliage and pointed out the shelf-fungus on the stump beside the stream nearby.

Last but not least - the milkweed is just about to burst into bloom. Hopefully the Monarch Butterflies will find the plants and plenty of eggs….and set the stage for a larger than usual cohort of Monarch Butterflies in summer 2015.

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 20, 2015

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

Soft Tissue Detected in Millennia-Old Dino Bones - New ways of looking at very old bones reveals unanticipated results (but not DNA).

Far From Sterile, Some Hybrids May Start New Species - Coyotes in the eastern US are quite different than their western counterparts and they are beginning to fill the niche left by wolves. Maybe they will help control the too large deer population!

Renewables Reach Highest Share of U.S. Energy Consumption since 1930s - Historical stats about renewable energy...with emphasis on the 1990-2014 time period.

Two similar articles: Why doctors should treat the healthy too and Interventions among healthy people save the most lives - The challenge is that most doctors are trained to treat illness and disability…not help people retain their health.

Data scientists find connections between birth month and health - The data for the study was from 1985-2013…1.7 million patients treated at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/CUMC. It interesting result but the researchers point out that the risk related to birth month is relatively minor compared to the more influential variables like diet and exercise.

The Weirdest (And Most Violent) Ways That Plants Release Their Seeds - Short videos. As with so many things botanical…I could not resist including it in the gleaning list. It includes how violets disperse their seeds and I’ve just started noticing the seed pods this year (I have several locations where I am watching the plants to see the seeds disperse).

Global freshwater consumption crossing its planetary boundary - Scary result.

Biodiversity reduces human, wildlife diseases and crop pests - Another reason to worry about the extinctions happening in the world right now.

Sunrise and Sunset Photos Capture Stunning Wildlife Silhouettes - Ending with some great images…and a reminder of the special light at the beginning and ending of the day.

Wheatland

Wheatland (the home of President Buchanan in Lancaster, Pennsylvania) was on our itinerary the day after Winterthur (in Delaware) and it did not disappoint. I was there for the first tour of the day; since no one else was as early, I go a private tour with the very knowledgeable docent. The tour starts on the back porch - where a workman was replacing part of the porch. The house was already its present size when Buchanan purchased it as he became the guardian for a niece and nephew.

There are many decorative features in the house that appeal even today. The windows have sturdy Venetian blinds with wood cut valences. The cords of the blinds are wound around glass knobs (a very practical idea!).

The robust cricket doorstop kept a door open.

The carpets are reproductions and produced in strips that are laid together to form the pattern and ‘fit’ the room.

There is a doll that ‘looks like’ the niece

And some pink ceramic pieces from her dressing table. She inherited the house at Buchanan’s death. Her name was Harriet Lane - known in relation to pediatrics at Johns Hopkins and the St. Albans school in Washington DC.

I liked the egret pitchers

And thought about the practicality of the ‘bath’ before plumbing (or when water is scarce).

I also found some items that are Zentangle prompts (just as I did at Winterthur).

One of the Buchanan items recently returned to the house from a Buchanan descendent was this artful mulit-bell. I wonder what the two bells meant in the household.

The house seen from the front shows a bit more about its division into three parts. Buchanan had his law office on one side. Note where the windows are…the ceilings are higher in the center than in the two wings. The external shutters appear to have been removed from the windows of the wings although some of the hardware is still in place.

As I walked back around to the visitor center, I photographed the privy. The trellis forms a rose bush arbor that hides the entrance to the 5 hole privy (with different seat heights and hole sizes!).

Winterthur Museum

Last weekend toured the Winterthur Museum and Gardens; I’ll post about the gardens later…today the post focuses on my impressions of the museum of American Decorative Arts. The museum holds the collection of Henry Francis Du Pont and is housed in the mansion - extended by du Pont to hold hisgrowing collection before it became a museum in the 1950s - when even the rooms where the family had lived were converted to museum spaces.

The initial impression of the museum is that the light is dim. One of the reasons for that is the large number of old fabrics displayed. Here are some examples taken in the part where photography is allowed: a child’s dress,

Bedding (showing the straw stuffed mattress at the bottom and featherbed on top)

Carpets,

And in an upright grand piano.

Some pictures I took to prompt Zentangle designs in the upcoming weeks: a gate

A comb (It took long teeth to hold very long hair!),

Patterns of wood inlay on chests

And chairbacks,

The transom over the front door.

The biggest surprise of the day for me was noticing that the silverware patterns are mixed for place settings (i.e. all the knives on the table were the same pattern…but the forks were a different pattern). Now I find myself looking at every museum dining room display (there will be another in tomorrow’s post).

Zooming - June 2015

The ‘zooming’ post is a little earlier than usual this month…but it was such a good month for outdoor subjects that I didn’t want to wait. Can you find:

• A wild flower?
• A garden flower?
• Dogwood?
• A wood frog?
• Rattlesnake fern?
• Garlic scapes?
• Milkweed?
• A feather?
• A goldfinch?
• Birds nest fungus?

Bird’s Nest Fungus

As I hurried back to the car to meet my husband after his walk at Centennial Park I spotted some tiny birds nest fungus in the mulch of a raised bed beside the path near the canoe and paddle boat rentals. Photographing them took a few just minutes.These fungi are only a little larger than a pencil eraser. I noticed their color first

Then some dimples

And finally some ‘eggs’ where the covering had torn away to reveal them in the ‘nest.’ Notice the one at the top middle of the image below that still had part of the covering.

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 06, 2015

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

Everything We've Learned about Mummies Using 21st Century Technology - Mummies fascinate just because we know they are often from the distant past…new technology adds elements to that fascination.

It’s Time to End the Gar Wars - Learn something new about native fish….and the history of conservation.

Why Kids Need to Dig in the Dirt Again - Play in the outdoors….not such a common thing for children as it used to be. Sad.

What Dose of Nature Do We Need to Feel Better? - Evidently there is a lot of research right now about the health benefits of spending time in nature….not just for children either.

New U.S. Water Rule is Crucial for Clean Drinking Water and Resilience to Droughts and Floods - As water supplies shift (too much and too little), the clarification will become more important. I was surprised that prior to the clarification, drinking water for 1 in 3 Americans came from streams without clear protection from pollution and degradation. Sustaining or improving the quality of water supplies is a key component to a sustainable planet.

Monarch Butterfly Conservation Series - I’m putting these videos on my ‘to do’ list.

Watching the Simultaneous Release of 11,000 Marbles - Mesmerizing.

Why you want Google Photos - Something new I am looking into.

16 Photographs of Animals Caught in the Rain - My favorites are the tricolor heron and monarch butterfly chrysalis photos.

These Maps Show Just How Screwed China Will Be After Sea Levels Rise - This is if all the ice melts….which may be a possibility if the world continues on current trends….and even if the ice does not melt completely, there are a lot of people living in coastal areas that are very close to sea level.

Violets and Rattlesnake Fern

Violets and rattlesnake fern have been ‘finds’ over the past few weeks. Violets were not new to me - I notice them when they bloom every spring. What I had not noticed previously was the seed pods that are produced afterward. This year they seem to be everywhere - or I am just recognizing them for what they are.

The rattlesnake fern is new to me. It is a very different kind of fern. I saw it first in the Patapsco Valley State Park near Belmont and then noticed many more plants at the Middle Patuxent Environmental Area. I’ve added arrows to this picture ---- everywhere I noticed one there seemed to be other growing nearby! It looks different than many ferns in that the fronds come from a central stalk and

The spore producing frond is almost like a ‘flower’ above the leaves. I found myself wanting to photograph the variations of that spore producing frond!

Middle Patuxent Environmental Area

Last weekend, we hiked the Wildlife Loop Trail in the Middle Patuxent Environmental Area. It was an outing that had been on my list for this spring and it finally was at the top. It is less than 15 minutes from our house!

The trails are rustic. There are two documented trails that have different entry points. The Wildlife Loop (the one we chose to do in this first trip to MPEA) was the trail originating from the parking lot at the Trotter Road parking area. We walked along old farm roads or mowed paths. The vegetation was lush with vines - sometimes with obvious invasive plants like honeysuckle and multiflora rose...and then there was the native grapevine too. Some areas along the road had been turned into meadow and the milkweed was getting ready to bloom.

Some of the trees were kept cleared of vines and were doing very well. I always enjoy seeing the heart shaped leaves and seed pods of redbud this time of year.

One of the maples was growing very fast and this branch must have been tall enough to be above browsing by deer.

The trail meanders downhill toward the river and then back up. Close to the end - I noticed leaves with droplets of water accumulated around their edges. It was a nice finale.

I’m already planning another hike to MPEA. I want to hike the other trail…spend more time at the river’s edge…go as early as possible while it is still cool…and remember bug spray!

Bigleaf Magnolia

One of the trails we sometimes take from Belmont into Patapsco Valley State Park has quite a stand of Bigleaf Magnolias. They look like a tropical plant in the understory of the forest. The leaves live up to the name of the plant! In this stand, most of the trees have long slender trunks - sometimes with only one ‘umbrella’ of leaves at the top. The deer population around Belmont is quite high so their growth pattern could be influenced by deer browsing on their buds and leaves. There were quite a few plants that were a clump of 2 or 3 spindly trunks. The canopy over the plants may be getting too thick as well; they are understory trees but they evidently need sunlight too.

When I hiked in the area last week, a few of the trees were blooming! Unfortunately - the blooms were high in the trees. I captured several using the zoom on my camera.

Then we found one that appeared to be lower than the rest. One of the leaves under the flower showed evidence of how easily the big leaves can be damaged by wind. These trees grow in a sheltered area of forest and would not do well as landscaping trees surrounded by yard.

We carefully used a walking stick to pull the branch down for some photographs of the inside of the large flower. More confirmation that it is indeed a magnolia!

Backyard View - May 2015

The wall of green filled our backyard view in May. At the beginning of the month the maple tree (to the rightside) still held all the season’s samaras. They whirled away with the wind at mid-month as can be send by the image series below taken about a week apart.

The scar from the large branch that fell from the tulip poplar is visible. There is a hole in the green wall high in the tree. It will take several years for the tree to fill the gap.

Last but not least - the sycamore is at its most beautiful this time of year - with unscathed leaves that seem edged with white and seed balls dangling on their long stems.

Chives

I always have chives in my garden. They come back every year even though a use quite a few in salads while the flowers and leaves are still tender. This year I have started looking more closely at the round flowers on top.

The pink-purple color contrasts nicely with the green of the garden. The teardrop shaped buds burst open and it is almost immediately apparent that the bud includes multiple flowers.

As the small flowers open, the shape transforms from tear drop to round. The flowers are positioned to all face outward.

The petals continue to elongate and appear to thin. Soon they will past the stage for including in salads.

Mt. Pleasant Farm - May 2015

I’ve been at the Howard County Conservancy’s Mt. Pleasant Farm quite a lot this month; it is the peak of the spring field trip season for elementary schools. In the quiet before the buses arrive I capture a bit of the scene:

The flower pot people dressed for summer,

The plantings in bloom on the way to the Honors Garden, and

The wood frogs in the small pool just inside the Honors Garden.

One morning I arrived early enough to walk around one of the short loops and saw a rabbit…that was long gone by the time the children arrived…

And tree swallows at the nesting boxes. Surprisingly - one morning a pair of tree swallows was so intent on building their nest that my hiking group of second graders watched them carrying sticks into the box and chasing away other tree swallows!

May 2015 turned out to be an excellent month for field trips to Mt. Pleasant Farm!

Birds at Conowingo Dam

My husband had read about the Bald Eagles at Conowingo Dam - particularly in the early winter - so we decided to reconnoiter the location last weekend and then plan to go back late in the year. The location is only an hour from where we live. Wow! We were surprised when we got there and saw the number of birds fishing at the base of the dam.

There were mature and immature bald eagles - sometimes in groups

Sometimes interacting with smaller birds -

Soaring up high to the top of the dam -

Surveying the river from a dam abutment

Or the rocks to the side.

There were quite a few great blue heron as well. Both my husband and I tried to catch them in flight.

This heron had just landed on the water and looks startled that the cormorant is so close!

Here is a series my husband took that show the way the heron’s wings look as the bird flies very low over the water.

There were quite a few cormorants and it seemed like there was always one wrangling a fish.

We also saw quite a few black vultures and tree swallows….but the Bald Eagles were the big draw for us. Both of us want to go back with slightly different equipment and a little bit earlier in the morning. 

Ten Days of Little Celebrations - May 2015

Noticing something worth celebration each day is an easy thing for me to do. The habit of writing it down reminds me to be grateful for these and a myriad of other things in my life. Here are my top 10 for the earlier days of May 2015.

Brighton Dam Azalea Garden. For a few weeks every year - the gates open to a wonderland of flowering azalea bushes and dogwoods. The tall trees make it a shady cool area even as the temperatures get warmer. It is usually at its best for Mother’s Day.

Red Tailed Hawk at Belmont. The first day of BioBlitz there was a red-tailed hawk that watched from a perch tall in a sycamore for the arrival of the first student. What a beginning to the event!

Bald Eagles at Conowingo Dam. I’ll do a post later with more about our day trip to Conowingo. There were at least 10 eagles feeding on fish come from the flow from the hydroelectric generation dam….and there were great blue herons, cormorants, tree swallows, and black vultures too….and that was just what I immediately noticed.

Whooping Crane lecture at Patuxent National Wildlife Refuge. Do you see a theme? I hadn’t noticed how many of my ‘celebrations’ this month included large birds until I put this list together. The birds are hatched and prepared for release at Patuxent.  It was interesting to understand how the researchers and volunteers disguise themselves so that the young birds don’t imprint on the human form as ‘parent.’ I’m glad they’ve had enough success to celebrate.

National Arboretum. Every time we go there is something new to see….and old favorites. I celebrated that I recognized an Eastern Towhee in the leaves there during the visit this month.

Strawberries. A quart of strawberries was the first offering of my Gorman Farms CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) membership. They were eaten before I thought to take a picture! The berries freshly picked from local fields always taste better than the ones from the grocery store. They evoke memories of previous springs and other strawberry fields….finding the berries among the green leaves…taste treasures.

No cavities. I had a dental appointment and was pretty sure a filling was going to need to be replaced because a small piece had chipped off leaving a small divot in the front surface of the tooth (no sensitivity or discoloration). But the dentist decided to just watch it! Hurray!

Volunteering for nature fieldtrips and BioBlitz. Seeing the wonder of discovery in the outdoors from a child’s perspective is awe inspiring. It happens almost every hike I lead…every time I assist I give to identify a ‘find’ ---- celebrating the wonder of children in the natural world.

Rain---finally. We are at close to average for precipitation in our area right now but I noticed a dry spell when I had to fill the bird baths and water my deck garden….but then we started having some afternoon showers. One of them caused a rainbow too.

A last cool day before summer. The forecast is for 90 degree days this coming week but the Memorial Day weekend had cool mornings….and we savored the perfect weather for being outdoors.

Zooming - May 2015

May is always an excellent month for outdoor photography. I had no trouble at all finding a lot of zoomed images to create the collages below. Can you find the

• Dandelion,
• Buttercup,
• Dragonfly,
• Azaleas,
• Dogwoods,
• Trillium,
• Solomon's seal,
• Tulip poplar, and
• Celandine poppy?

Dragonfly Wings

There was a dragonfly in a petri dish to be looked at under the microscope at one of the demonstration tables of the Belmont BioBlitz. I took a picture with my camera in ‘close up’ mode - without the microscope; the magnification is enough to make it interesting but I need to have better control of the light source to avoid reflections.

Even though butterflies are more generally colorful - I find the dragonflies more interesting. It is just getting warm enough to see them this season and observe their behavior: diving through the meadow and sitting on the tip of meadow grasses. Later we’ll see them near water on lotuses or water lilies and stroking over the water to lay their eggs. May camera speed is not fast enough to catch the two wings on each side moving independently.

The wing structure seen in the photograph could be a Zentangle. Are the lines veins or just structural elements?

Next time I go to Arizona, I’ll photograph my son-in-laws mounted collection of spiders and insects!

Belmont BioBlitz

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

View from the Front Door

The view from my front door is about the best of the year right now. The irises are blooming. It seems like every time I look out there are more open and plenty of buds beginning to unfurl. They seem to be thriving in their prominent location.

I got the rhizomes from my mother many years ago and planted them in a backyard flower bed and they did not do well at all. The few blooms they did produce were often unnoticed because there is not a window with a direct view to that flower bed and they did not proliferate. I dug the rhizomes a couple of years ago and replanted them in the front flowerbeds where they get eastern sunlight. And they have thrived. I seem to have more plants each year. I’m using them to fill in the flower bed until the ninebark bushes are large enough to fill the bed. Then I’ll have to find somewhere else to plant those irises but I’ll leave the plants that frame the step down from the front porch!

Belmont Manor and Historic Park - May 2015

I’ve been at Belmont several times since the Master Naturalist class - volunteering as a naturalist for school field trips. There are several trees with very showy blooms right now: a horse chestnut

I’ve been at Belmont several times since the Master Naturalist class - volunteering as a naturalist for school field trips. There are several trees with very showy blooms right now: a horse chestnut

And the tulip poplars. I was very pleased to find one with branches with blooms low enough to photograph easily.

Belmont is known for its viewshed.  From the front door of the manor house…there are no other signs of encroaching structures. It is like taking a step back in time.

Before the Europeans came - the area would have been forested. The biggest trees in that forest would have been American Chestnuts (destroyed in by Chestnut Blight in the 1900s) and the mulch on the forest floor would have been quite deep since the native biota were not as effective as earthworms at decomposing leaves.

The manor house was built in 1738. Much of the forest was cut to make fields for farming (for food and tobacco as a cash crop) and to make charcoal for iron forges (iron ore being readily available in the area. There probably were fewer trees than seen today from the front of the manor house. Over time the soil became less fertile and wheat became an important crop as well. For forests trees were represented in fence rows, along the entrance road, and on slopes as agricultural practices incorporated soil conservation practices. In the early 1900s, Belmont pastures hosted thoroughbred horses.

The pond that is seen just before the distant trees in the image above was added in the 1980s to retain water from a natural seep. It is a late addition to the view….but seems to fit.