Catbird and Winterberries

Last week when I was walking around Brookside Gardens, I heard a noisy bird in the bushes beside the path. It did not take me long to spot it among the branches of a bush with nice red fruit…and take a picture. It was grayish bird with a black head and tail….and a rush colored rump. And it was gorging on the red fruit.

I managed to get a few pictures that helped me identify the bird when I got home – a Gray Catbird – and it the red berries look like winterberries which are one of the most popular bushes planted around Brookside Gardens. We like them for their color in the fall and winter….the catbirds are evidently very fond of the fruit!

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 15, 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.

Pumpkin steel-cut oats – I am collecting pumpkin (and other winter squash) recipes. They are probably my favorite seasonal foods. I am going to use some leftover butternut squash (already cooked) for one of them today!

Salt’s Secret Success in Ancient Chaco Canyon – Evidently the salts in the soil around Chaco Canyon are not chlorides …but sulfate salts which are not toxic to maize. And the sulfate salts are useful for making pigments too which were used to color walls and pottery. The research contends that the water management systems in Chaco Canyon did not cause catastrophic salt pollution and abandonment of the area as had been previously conjectured.

A Win for the Whooping Crane’s Texas Home – I have been thinking about making a winter trip to the wildlife refuges along the Gulf Coast of Texas – seeing whooping cranes being high on the priorities for the trip – so I notice articles like this!

Thirty Years of Progress – My undergraduate degree in biology was about 35 years ago so this series of articles is a good update for me.

The London Landmark with 20,000 Skeletons in its Vault – The Museum of London – and a project to examine 1,500 skeletons from the collection and compare them with skeletons outside of London. It will be a slice through history using a lot of the same technologies used in modern medicine.

Hummingbird Whisperer Captures Close-Up Photos of Birds Visiting her Backyard – Hurray for backyard photographer Tracy Johnson – patience and persistence!

Culling of White-Tailed Deer Coming to National Parks in Western Maryland – We don’t have any natural predators for deer….so culling has become necessary. In our neighborhood, all certainly just won’t last through the spring and early summer because the deer eat them, low branches of trees are nibbled (or eaten) – even the evergreens which must be very tough eating. There are way too many deer and in a suburban area like ours culling is not an option.

Antarctic Invertebrates – Many times we only think of the larger, more visible plants and animals of an area….but biodiversity goes way beyond that view. This article makes the case about why we should care about invertebrates in the Antarctic…not just the penguins.

A Bird’s Eye View of Simmering Kilauea Volcano at Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park – Last year at this time, we were planning a trip to Hawai’i in December and we enjoyed Volcanoes National Park when we went. Now I always take a look at any article about the place. This one includes a video of the Halemaʻumaʻu Crater now – even more active than when we were there.

A Sherlock-Worthy Look at an Ancient Horse Mummy – From the steppes of Mongolia and dating from the 6^th to 8^th century CE.

Brookside Serendipity

When I walk around Brookside Gardens – I savor the little serendipities of even a familiar place. This week I made an effort to photograph some of those surprises: a yellow petal that had landed on a very green leaf,

A turkey tail shelf function on an otherwise smooth stump,

Sunflowers in the children’s garden (I imagine this is a photo stop for many groups of children; I was too early for them although there was a mother reading a nature book to a young child at one of the tables in the children’s area),

A hat on a rock (there were a lot of volunteer sin the garden but nowhere near the hat),

A chipmunk that sat still long enough for a portrait,

A bald cypress knee in the plantings just outside the conservatory (the tree is on the other side of the sidewalk and there are no knees closer to the tree).

One of the reasons, I like natural areas – including gardens – is there is always something new….something not quite anticipated.

Blue Jays on the Move

Our neighborhood has a troupe of resident blue jays that make their rounds – most days – through our backyard for the bird bath and swooping off to the maple and then the taller tulip poplars at the edge of the forest. Sometimes they stop to look through our gutters for bugs in the leaf debris. The picture below is one on our deck railing after he got his drink of water. That is the small part of the route that they are easy to see; some of the time I miss seeing them completely but I always hear them.

This time of year the numbers of blue jays are much higher because so many of them are migrating through Maryland to go further south for the winter. I’ve often wondered whether the resident ones ‘talk’ to the transient birds because it seems like we have more blue jays around than we have during the rest of the year.

While I was raking leaves on Wednesday (the first round of the chore for this year!), a flock of blue jays chattered (or is it more like arguing) in the trees above.

Mt Pleasant – October 2016

It was very damp – almost raining – last Saturday during my hike at The Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant Farm. I took a few pictures to document the day: black walnuts on the ground in various stages of ripeness,

Colorful dogwood and grass along the drive to the farmhouse….and a zoomed view of the grass.

But the biggest surprise of the hike was some chicken of the woods fungus growing high on a tree near the stream. I was leading a hike so I only took time to take one picture….and then went back again yesterday to take some more documentary pictures. The one below shows that the fungus is at least 10 feet above ground level (near the middle of the image below).

Zoomed in a little – it appears to be growing in a groove in the trunk…maybe a place where lightning damaged the tree. The tree may be standing deadwood since it had no leaves.

Zoomed some more – the groove where the fungus is growing has no bark.

I walked a little further to take some pictures from directly underneath. The underside of the fungus seemed to glow in the morning sunlight.

There were other things to see as well yesterday: the fork in the path down to the stream,

Water on horse nettle fruits and past-prime flowers (the water on the grass soaked through the tops of my hiking boots and got my feet wet!),

And the larger rocks deposited by the storms of last summer at the ‘beach’ area of the stream.

I hiked back to the nature center to get ready to hike with first graders. It was quite a change from last week’s fifth graders!

Belmont BioBlitz – Fall 2016

Last week was BioBlitz week a Belmont Manor and Historic Park. It was 4 fall days with 5^th graders from 4 different Howard County Schools. My husband volunteered as well and we worked together all 4 days. We arrived about 30 minutes before the students to get our gear (a backpack of magnifiers, identification books, a white cloth, and a ruler) and listen to the briefing about what was unique about the day. The students arrived in 2 or 3 busloads with their chaperones and we were assigned a group. The first day we had 5 girls; it was a huge contrast when we had 11 boys the second day! The last two days we had groups with boys and girls - about 10 students.

We started each group with a short introduction and then helping everyone that had smart phones get the iNaturalist app and sign on to the Howard County Conservancy’s id…then we were out in the field. I had added a pair gardening gloves to my backpack and that helped the students find things in the leaf mats, soil and rotten logs – like small mushrooms and worms and slugs!

We made a stop back to the nature center for a briefing about looking at the data they were collecting during BioBlitz after they returned to school – emphasizing the Citizen Science aspect of what they were doing. The observations of the students last week and previous Belmont BioBlitz weeks can be found here: http://www.inaturalist.org/projects/belmontbioblitz.

Most days the students were able to use a spotting scope pointing to the birdfeeders at the edge of the meadow near the nature center. I got a picture of a woodpecker one morning before the students arrived. It seemed like the house finches were gutsier and stayed around the feeders even when the students were not that far away.

And then – after all the flurry – BioBlitz for Fall 2016 was done. I took a picture as my husband and I headed out of Belmont on the last afternoon.

Fall Foliage Trips in the 1980s

Back in the early 80s when we were living near Dallas, we took annual fall foliage trips to southeastern Oklahoma – to the Ouachita National Forest Area. Sometimes we took curvy forest roads into Arkansas as well. We camped at Cedar Lake State Park in October of 1980.

We took frozen steaks in an ice chest to cook over a camp fire – little realizing that it was going to be cold enough that the steaks would take a long time to thaw!

It was quite an adventure during the night too – with skunks and racoons being used to finding food around the campsites.

The next morning, we were up early since it was cold and we all wanted to move around as soon as the sun was up. We decided to hike as soon as we scarfed down breakfast. There was a heavy dew which made for some good leaf pictures

And the sunshine was bright enough to showcase the colors of the leaves still on the trees too.

In the forest we saw ground pine

And a large spider (tarantula?).

Along the dam the sumac seed pods looked very red.

The overflow for the lake seemed pretty elaborate too.

The next October we went back to the forest again but it was very wet the entire time we were there. My husband took very few pictures – lichen,

Moss,

And a very wet campsite. We managed to spend the night but left the next morning – in the rain.

In 1982, the weather was a little better although we didn’t go until November. Many of the leaves had already fallen off the trees.

There were some startlingly red leaves (maybe sumac?)

And some beautyberries (although I did not know what they were when the picture was taken).

The highlight of the trip was the critters: a millipede

And two harvestmen – a type of arachnid that is not a spider. Unlike spiders, their body segments are fused and they have a single set of eyes. These two seem to be kissing!

We moved to the east coast in 1983 and in the fall of 1984 we made a fall foliage trip to Shenandoah National Park area. We were a little late for the fall color but we enjoyed waterfalls,

Clouds in the valleys,

And mushrooms in the forest - very different than in Texas!

All this looking at pictures of past fall foliage trips has me planning one for this year too! Hopefully it will include some post worthy items.

High Ridge Park

My husband and I are exploring some natural areas near where we live this fall. I’m using The Howard County Bird Club web site to guide our explorations. Last weekend I picked High Ridge Park (County web site for the park) from their site guide map. The path through the woods is paved – a gentle walk. The Patuxent River was just barely visible down below; we’ll go back after the leaves fall off to see it better.

I took a series of pictures of poke weed berries – green with dimples, black with dimples, then very round and ripe. The pink stems always seem very bright next to the dark purple of the berries.

There were also abundant thistle seed pods. Only the dampness of the morning was keeping the fluffy seeds from floating away.

But the new-to-me discovery for this short hike was funnel spider webs. They seemed to be everywhere – maybe more visible because of the heavy dew. I didn’t know what they were when I was hiking – and did my usual picture taking to help identify it after I got home. After loading the pictures onto my PC when I got home, I did a search for ‘funnel spiders in maryland’ and found a reference for Funnel weavers/Grass spiders (Family: Agelnidae) from Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources. Next time I see a web like this I’ll look for the spider more closely! Since there were so many of them at High Ridge Park – I am confident that I would have found at least one spider ‘at home!’

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 08, 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.

What would happen if the world suddenly went vegetarian? – Of course, it’s not likely that the world will suddenly become vegetarian but this article talks about the ‘what if’ and encourages thinking about taking steps to reduce portion side of meats we eat and/or substitute a plant protein for meat in some of our meals.

Hubble spots possible water plumes erupting on Jupiter’s moon Europa – Another discovery --- and something to look at with the James Webb Space Telescope (to launch in 2018). If confirmed, Europa will be the 2^nd moon in the solar system known to have water vapor plumes (Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, has jets of water vapor and dust that were discovered by NASA’s Cassini orbiter in 2005).

Our IQs have never been higher – but it hasn’t made us smart – It turns out that IQ is malleable over a lifetime. People that are physically and intellectually active…and are overall healthy…have higher IQs, in general, than people who are not. It does not mean that we are wiser…just that IQ is higher.

Acidity in atmosphere minimized to preindustrial levels – Result from studies of the Greenland Ice Sheet. The human-made acid pollution peaked in the 1960s and 70s and we are not back to the levels in the 1930s.

Tips for creating an introvert-friendly workplace – An article from CIO magazine. Read it as a case study on some things that need to be considered: communication, comfort zones, company culture, and the workplace structure.

New evidence shifts the timeline back for human arrival in the Americas – An archeological site in Argentina…humans were there 13,068-14,064 years ago….that’s earlier than Clovis people in North America (around 13,000 years ago).

The astronomical cost of going to Mars – and staying there – Sustaining people on Mars quickly exceeds getting them there. There is a lot of talk of getting to Mars (i.e. the transportation) and not as much about what would happen once people got there.

How the Electricity Grid Works – An Infographic. In the US there are three grids: The Eastern Grid, the Western Grid, and the Texas Grid – with the Eastern being the largest.

Washing Clothes Releases Thousands of Microplastic Particles into the Environment – Three types of textiles were examined: cotton/polyester, polyester, and acrylic. They all release a lot of very small plastic particles (acrylic releasing the most…cotton/polyester the least). Reduction of emissions will take changes in textile design and/or improved filtration of effluent for these very small particles.

Pumpkin Pie Mousse – I like pumpkin custard – one of the favorite fall desserts around my house – but this is something I am going to try. No cooking!

Goldfinches in the Fall

In late September, I was lucky enough to get some pictures of male goldfinches visiting my deck – for the flower seeds and birdbath. At first they looked like a slightly duller version of their normal selves.

As I looked closer at one feeding on zinnia seeds – I noticed that the feathers were in the process of changing over to winter plumage which is not the bright yellow that they have in summer. The new colors will help the birds avoid predation in the winter.

The change was even easier to see in this series of image of a goldfinch at the birdbath.

Soon the yellow feather will be gone – and there will be a brown-black-white bird that will stay around our feeders (as soon as I put seed in them again). I’ll have to develop more skill to recognize them!

Chipmunk in the Garden

A week or so ago, before my new camera arrived, I was out taking pictures of insects in the garden are at the front of my house. I heard rustling in the bushes. I wondered if it was the lizard I had seen on my front porch. More rustling. I decided it was something a little bigger than the lizard. I continued taking pictures and listening to the sounds of the front flower bed. Then I looked down at the tubing we attached to the outlet from our sump pump to drain the water further away from the house ---- a chipmunk was staring up at me. The zoomed setting was perfect for getting a quick picture!

Now that I think about it – I wonder if the tubing is still attached to the sump pump. It seems to be a highway for the chipmunk these days so there must be an opening on an end close to the house where the animal enters the tube.

Fall Beginnings

This past weekend, I volunteered Fall Festival held at the Howard County Conservancy’s Mt. Pleasant Farm. It was a misty day. As I drove to the event, I was using the windshield wipers and wondering how many people would show up --- but there were already quite a few people there when I arrived about 11:30 (I wasn’t the 1^st shift of volunteers). I was early enough to take a short hike through the meadow to try out my new camera. I held it so the lens would not get misted…and experimented. One of the first pictures I took was of a cabbage white butterfly that was perched on a flower; I didn’t see it move at all and it had droplets of water on its antennae!

There were lots of spider webs that were made visible by the mist. I didn’t see the spider on this one so maybe they don’t like a web full of water droplets! The sheer number of webs in the meadow – on plant stems, in the grass – was quite large and it occurred to me that they are probably always there but just not as visible when things are dry.

Do you see the bug underneath this thistle flower – using it as an umbrella?

The break in the stone wall allows the paths to connect. I like the area because the rocks are covered with lots of lichen and moss.

The bridge was warped by the storm water surge from the same event that almost destroyed Ellicot City last summer. You can tell that the water was moving under this bridge (left to right)! Before the storm the bridge was straight.

I hiked back to the Nature Center where I was volunteering in the Children’s Crafts area. They made owls with glued on google eyes and stamped feathers (using celery stalks as stamps). There were over 70 children over a 2-hour period!

Only two children make owls with outstretched wings…and one of those was a younger child that decided that using a finger on the stamp pads was more fun that the celery.

And a good time was had by all….

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 01, 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.

Images of the world’s greatest cities before they were cities – Visual history.

Internet addiction may indicate other mental health problems in college-aged students – An Internet Addiction Test was developed in 1998; this study indicates that the test may need to be updates…that there are significantly more students having trouble dealing with their day to day activities because of their internet usage. Also – are mental heal issues a cause or consequence of excessive reliance on the internet?

UK’s Oxford tops world ranking of best universities; US had 3 of top 5 – This UPI article also provides a link to the annual list (here if you want to jump there directly). There is a short blurb for each school as well.

The Good Guide to Milk: Cow: Soy, Nuts & More – I’ve switched from almond to soy milk based on this article. I’d switched to almond milk several years ago when I finally realized that almost all my stomach issues were caused by lactose intolerance.

50-country comparison of child and youth fitness levels: US near the bottom – Not good. The US is 47 out of 50. I wonder how long it has been this bad. So much has changed over the past 50 or so years. Many neighborhoods are not walkable…streets are too busy/dangerous for bicycling…parents are worried about children being outside without direct supervision.

View 3500+ Art Exhibits Online – A blurb from Free Technology for Teachers. Another source for free ebooks, specifically about exhibits at MoMA.

Greenland ice is melting 7% faster than previously thought – The hot spot that feeds Iceland’s active volcanoes is responsible. Uplift is happening a differing rate as well.

Sesame: Little Seeds, Big Benefits – Another seed to keep on hand. I use chia seeds the most but sesame seeds (and tahini) are a close second.

Ancient Skeleton discovered on Antikythera Shipwreck – From 65 BC...and now they can use DNA to learn more about a person that lived 2100 years ago.

Grading the Presidential Candidates on Science – From Scientific America. A compilation of answers on a number of science related issues from all 4 candidates.

3 Free eBooks – September 2016

So many good books….so little time. Here are my picks from my September online reading.

Reeves, William Pember; Wright F. and W. (painters). New Zealand. London: A. and C. Black. 1908. Available from Internet Archive here. The illustrations are wonderful….a rendering of what the country was like before the first world war.  The pictures of landscapes and natural areas encourage thinking about exploring there (hoping that those places still exist).

Johns, Thomas Rymer. Cassell’s Book of Birds. London: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin. 1869. Available on Internet Archive here. This books includes illustrations of Birds of Paradise. We still see them as amazing birds with improbable feathers. Think what a sensation they must have been when this book was published in the mid-1800s.

Rackman, Bernard, Read, Herbert Edward; Glaisher, James Whitbread Lee; English Pottery – its development from early times to the end of the eighteenth century. London: Ernest Benn, Limited. 1924.  Available on the Internet Archive here. Lots of good ideas for Zentangle patterns in this book! I am noticing that copyrights are expiring on books all the time and topics I have explored before on the Internet Archive have new books available. This was one example.

Ten Days of Little Celebrations – September 2016

This September includes some unique ‘little celebrations.’ Two of them occurred in Florida.

OSIRIS REx successful launch. This was only my second time to see a launch (Kennedy Space Center/Cape Canaveral). I can’t imagine that every launch I attend will not make it to the celebration list!

Pelicans. I don’t remember every seeing American white pelicans before…or if I did I didn’t realize what I was seeing. They were the highpoint of the drive around Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge for me.

Happy ‘what if’ thoughts. Both my daughter and son-in-law are close to finishing their graduate work and looking at post docs. September was the first month that there seemed to be a potential ‘what next’ and we all spun all kinds of ‘what if’ scenarios. The celebration will get bigger when we actually settle on a plan – which might not finalize until early spring 2017.

There were things that were not entirely unique – but not things that happen frequently either:

4 hikes with three and four year old children. I was very excited and keyed up while I hiked with each of the groups (about 10 children and 4 adults in each group) talking about trees in the fall and seeds. I celebrated when they were done (I was exhausted) but even more than I’d managed to connect. It was probably my best grandmother-in-training experience to date!

Stream assessment with high schoolers. Putting on boots…checking water quality…identifying macroinvertebrates….with high schoolers that are interested in what they are finding --- celebrating the fall day in the stream as much as I did.

Hummingbird moth. I’m not sure why – but I don’t see hummingbird moths all that frequently. I didn’t see one at all last year. And then there was one at Brookside earlier this month. Celebration (and lots of pictures).

Chipmunk in the garden. I heard some rustling noise in the dried leaves under then bushes then looked around….and saw the chipmunk looking up at me from the end of the drain tube from the sump pump. Yes – chipmunks are rodents…but they are the cutest ones as far as I’m concerned and I celebrate that they survive in my front flower bed.

And then there are the normal things that happen frequently enough…but that I still celebrate when they do:

A rainy day after a long string of hot and dry days. All the plants seem to be celebrating too.

Abundant fall veggies. I celebrate the amount – the colors – the flavors. The harvest time is a special kind of celebration.

Celebration being home. Every time I am away for a few days…or even a week…I celebrate returning. The ‘no place like home’ sentiment rings true for me.

Milkweed Bugs

This time of year there are many stages of milkweed bugs on just about every milkweed plant I look at. They can be anywhere on the plant – seed pods

And leaves are places where they seem to congregate.

Many times there are several different stages of development (based on size and coloration differences). Sometimes the sheds from when a bug made the transition from one instar to the next are visible (the brownish objects in the picture below).

The more mature instars have more obvious beginnings of wings.

The very young have tiny buds where the wings will grow.

Sometimes there is an adult among the group.

In the end they are all enjoying the nutritional bounty of the milkweed seed pod that are just maturing this time of year.

There are so many grouped on the leaves it is hard to fathom how there can be enough food for them all

And leave enough seeds for the milkweed to reproduce itself.

The bugs must overcome the plant’s reproduction by seeds in some cases. The milkweed has a backup plan – underground runners and roots that can come up next year as a clump of clones to try again.

Mt. Pleasant – September 2016

Earlier this month I posted some images of ‘minutes in the meadow’ at Mt. Pleasant – but fall is such a great time around the Howard County Conservancy place that I more to share from other times I was at Mt. Pleasant. The black walnuts are still green but beginning to turn. Their out hull will be oozing black before too long.

The pine trees have their cones – like decorations.

The horse nettles are still blooming

But there are fruits that are forming as well.

The chicory is still blooming too

And hoverflies abound.

But the big showy plant of September is the goldenrod – it is a sweep of yellow in the meadow –

Tall and lush --- providing food for the butterflies. The monarchs need it for their migration southward.

In our area – the fall usually peaks in mid to late October. We have had some leaves falling already – not pretty ones; the early leaf fall has been from dry weather in late summer. We are getting some rain this week but it may to too late to give us a brilliant fall. October will tell.

Zooming – September 2016

I already did a zooming post earlier this month focused totally on insects --- but there have been so many other good shots that I couldn’t resist another for this month with more than insects in the mix. I am getting a new camera soon so this might be the last set of images with the 30x in optics and digital up to 120x. Let’s start with some plants: crabapples against a clear blue sky. Most of the leaves have already fallen from the tree but I looked around to find some fruit with a leaf nearby.

A flower with its petals still in tubes. Soon they would flatten into more normal looking petals.

A cloud of pink flowers.

Lots of pollen.

Milkweed seeds on the verge of blowing away.

The long central stalk of the hibiscus flower.

And a mushroom that was greenish underneath.

Back to some animals…..this chipmunk had very full cheek pouches. It was probably collecting food to be stored away for winter.

A skipper sunning itself among the dew drops on a large flower.

A bee so focused on the flower that it doesn’t notice my son-in-law’s camera trying to get a close shot (upper left corner). I prefer using the zoom!

A molting bird…maybe a grackle?

A dragonfly.

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 24, 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.

World Heritage in the High Seas: The Time Has Come – From National Geographic – pictures and a map of some potential places on the high seas that merit World Heritage status.

Historical analysis examines sugar industry role in heart disease research – A bit of disturbing history….is dietary fat the main culprit when it comes to heart disease? What about sugar and heart disease?

Gentians: part 1, part 2, part 3 – Elizabeth’s series on a particular flower….and not just in Maryland.

Brain’s stunning genomic diversity revealed – Huge insertions and deletions in DNA…surprise.

Scientists Baffled as Hundreds of Dead Horseshoe Crabs Wash Ashore in Japan – Sad…and no definitive reason yet. Theories being investigated include: parasitic infection or disease or oxygen shortage due to higher sea water temperature.

Between a rock and a hard place: biologists unearth sandstone-excavating bees – Bees are amazingly diverse. These are from the west and southwest in the US: Utah, Colorado, California.

Eggs make a comeback – A general overview of eggs in our diet. There is also a link to an article about ‘how to buy eggs.’

How our brain slows down the effects of aging – Elderly people develop a particular selective attentiveness. I wondered if, as we get older, we realize that we are paying more attention to details?

A Newly Explored Undersea Volcano is Teeming with Alien Life Forms – On Earth but very different than what we normally see.

How much do perfumes pollute? – A study of the canals of Venice….looking at the perfumes that are part of products we use daily like soaps, detergents, shampoos and other personal hygiene products. It turns out that the perfumes are in every sample…persistent for the 9 months of sampling. But what impact do they have on the environment – that’s still to be determined.

Big Cat Rescue in Tampa

After spending most of our time on the Atlantic side of Florida (Cape Canaveral, Kennedy Space Center, Merritt Island), we spend one day on the Gulf of Mexico side and took a tour of the Big Cat Rescue facility in Tampa. The morning was normal for Florida in September – hot and humid. Each tour participant had an earphone and player. The segments of audio were keyed by the tour guide as the group walked around the large enclosures where the big cats were housed.The cats looked comfortable – relaxed or walking around their enclosures. I tried taking pictures where the cage was not as obvious.

But even when the fence is in the picture – I liked the zoomed images of the individual cats.

Many of them had been abused prior to coming to the rescue facility. They at in their ‘forever home’ at this point and it is more lush than any zoo with lots of different parts to their individual enclosure and larger areas where they are taken periodically for ‘vacation.’

Many of the cats have had their claws removed which takes some of the bones of their feet and changes the way they walk.

Even the cats that looked like they were dosing, followed the group with their eyes. Were they picking out the weakest looking?

Whiskers seem to come out in more places than I realized before looking more closely at the pictures of the big cats.

Cats seem to preserve their aura of dignity even when they are in cage.

I enjoyed the tour more than I thought I would even though the stories of how the cats came to be at Big Cat Rescue was very sad. At least now there is a home for them…and an organization focused on reducing the number of big cats that are in such dire circumstances. Big cats are not pets or entertainment.