Ten Days of Little Celebrations - May 2016

May was the height of the spring school field trip season and three was something to celebrate about all of them –

The preschoolers that earned to recognize red winged blackbirds both by sight and sound

Being remembered by a 2nd grader as his hike leader from last fall (and the hike that followed),

Getting through a very wet field trip with 3rd graders – hiking with umbrellas through the meadow,

The 5th graders on the first Bioblitz day finding a toad near the pool in a formal garden – on their sunny day,

The 5th graders on the second Bioblitz day documenting beetles and trees and slugs and flowers – in the rain making the most of their teams of two or three: one holding the umbrella and the other entering the data into iNaturalist…..and then having their picnic brown bag lunch under the chandeliers in the tent that usually hosts weddings,

And the group of middle schoolers that removed a big pile of invasive plants…..before the rain started!

The trip to Conowingo was worth celebrating. I enjoyed it while I was there and then even more once I looked at my pictures! It helped that we managed to go on a sunny day.

A wildflower talk was worth celebrating for the topic and the ‘new to me’ tidbits sprinkled through the lecture.

I am celebrating a good start to my project to digitize our slides. There are some hidden treasures there!

Another project – cleaning out stuff – is also proceeding well. In this early phase, one of the measurements is how much (paper) is going in the recycle directly or being shredded (and then recycled.

Our Backyard During a Break from Rain

After checking the front flower beds, I walked around to check out the backyard. The chaos garden needs weeding; the honey suckle is beginning to take over (again). I’ll put it out but leave the fleabane. It’s a weed, but I tolerate it because the small flowers last a long time and add some additional color next to the chives, lemon balm, and mint that I want in the garden.

The Christmas ferns I planted last year survived the winter and may be reproducing! The new fronds are splattered with dirt because the run off from the deck is so violent during heavy rains. If the stand of ferns grows, the muddy area under the deck could reduce the mud and provide some nice greenery that would not need mowing. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. The violets are also doing well under the deck since they thrive in shade.

There was a jack-in-the-pulpit with a drying out bloom in the boundary area between our yard and the forest. I’d put a lot of leaves into the area last fall and was glad to see this forest plant in bloom. I watch to see if it produces the red seeds.

The black walnut is the trey I am trying to watch this spring. The end of each branch sprouts a crown of new growth (stems and leaves) which I always think of as a ‘bad hair’ configuration. The tree is young enough that I only saw one nut on it last year. Maybe there will be more this year – but I imagine they will be well above the deer browse line.

The tulip poplar is full of flowers and buds. These trees are the most common large trees in the forest behind our house.

As I went up the stairs to our deck, I saw a crane fly – still. I left it there after taking photographs from several angles.

The old turtle sandbox on our deck has several dandelion plants that I’ve been harvesting when I need greens for a salad….and there is quite a lot of mint coming up as well.

Overall, the backyard is in pretty good shape. The main weeding work is in the chaos garden. The challenge on the deck it to make sure all the pots are draining adequately and that the bird bath water is changed frequently enough to avoid breeding mosquitos.

The Flowerbed in Front of our House

It has been so rainy that I haven’t been able to do much work in the flower beds around our house. In the front, the growth is luxuriant. The chives seem to be growing faster than I can harvest them to add to salads. Yesterday I added a handful of chopped chives (flowers and all) to pureed hardboiled egg and hummus. I spread it in a pita and used the leftover as a ‘dip’ for celery sticks and carrot chips. Yum!

All around the chives, the day lilies are everywhere and the deer have not bothered them like they have in the past few years (eating the leaves down to the ground as fast as they grew). Hopefully with all the other food this spring, the deer will leave the lilies along. Comin up next to the downspout from the gutter are two milkweed plants. They are weeds – but I’m going to let them grow and hope that some monarch butterflies visit our garden to lay their eggs.

Do you see the tulip poplar seedling? That is something I need to pull before it gets any bigger. The daylilies and Black Eyed Susans will stay.

And then there are the irises – just beginning to bloom. Some of the buds look like they got waterlogged or too cold and are not developing further. But the plants that are blooming are gorgeous as usual. I like them even more because the largest grouping of irises is visible from the skinny windows that frame our front door.

On the other side of the front – there is another milkweed growing in a bed that is being overrun by grass. Some focused pulling needs to happen all around it and the young nine-bark bush we planted a year ago.

The front of the house looks very green – and will look even better as soon as I am home on a sunny day and spend the time to do a bit of clean up and out in the front flowerbed!

Conowingo – May 2016

We made the trek to Conowingo Dam to see Bald Eagles last weekend. There was some action right away – but at about the limit of my Canon Powershot SX710 HS point-and-shot. The images are not as crisp as a photographer with a more expensive camera and big lens...but still good enough to capture behavior. It was entertaining to watch the eagles – many of them juveniles (i.e. without white heads and tails yet).

I got one sequence with an eagle coming into to land near another on already perched on a rock. Notice how the one in the air has extended legs/talons.

The eagle that he is joining appears to be vocalizing (open beak) and still has some white feathers mixed in with the brown – not quite an adult probably.

Note the 6 eagles on the dame abutments (2 adults on the closest one…and 1 adult with 3 juveniles on the far one).

A few minutes later – the adult on the far abutment has moved closer to the other adults. The juveniles are on their own.

The dam did not appear to have all its turbines in operation so there were not as many stunned fish around for the eagles. Cormorants would fly up close to the spillway and then float down river getting fish along the way.

I saw a few Great Blue Herons but then when I got home I noticed even more in my pictures…like this one flying past a bald eagle on a rock.

The Great Blue Heron I noticed the most while I was there was on a point of rocks for a very long time. I didn’t ever see it catch a fish so maybe it was savoring a fish it caught before I noticed it. The cormorants in the background are flying toward the dam (to the left in the picture) and would then float back down stream as they looked for breakfast.

Now for a little game. How many Great Blue Herons do you see in this picture (click on the image to see it larger)?

I count 6. Now for one a little more difficult. This one has Bald Eagles and Great Blue Herons. How many of each bird can you find (the smaller, dark birds are cormorants…don’t bother counting them)?

I count 6 eagles (4 adults, 2 juveniles) and 9 herons. The next one has more eagles in the air. How many Bald Eagles and Great Blue Herons in the image below?

4 eagles in the air (3 adults and 1 juvenile) and one eagle in the rocks. The herons are more of a challenge because there are so many. There are at least 12 (note – one is on the far right catching a fish, the body is hidden behind a rock but the neck and head are showing). What about the image below…the last of this game of eagle and heron counting.

There are 4 eagles (only the back is seen of one of them) – all with white heads. But there are 17 herons!

And now for one plant from near the dam. I took a picture of the Princess Tree back in back in February.

Here is what it looks like today. Still non-native and invasive…and growing beside the parking lot at the base of Conowingo Dam.

The best of the rest of Brookside

There was a lot more than fiddleheads, azaleas and goslings at Brookside Gardens last week….so this post is a ‘best of the rest’ from my collection of pictures.

The Red Buckeye near the conservatory parking lot was blooming.

I’d never looked at the flower up close before. I looked it up and discovered that it is closely related to the horse chestnut.

The jack-in-the-pulpits were coming up. These are flowers that one has to be looking for to spot although these striped ones are pretty distinctive.

Many times the leaves and the flowers are almost the same color.

The dogwoods were blooming too. Depending where they are in the garden they can be still green in the center

Or already yellow.

And there are some that are very different – from Asia rather than our native variety of dogwood.

There as a chipmunk sorting through the debris in a concrete culvert – finding seeds.

The area of the gardens that has been ‘under construction’ for the past few years was open and there were yellow irises around the pond,

A newly planted magnolia with large leaves and mature blooms, and

A robust stand of horsetails.

I noticed a bench that evidently is not used often ... judging from the plants growing around it.

I’d never noticed how the bark of this Hawthorne wrinkled as the branches flared out from the trunk!

Even the pines have interesting features in the spring.

It’s a great time of year to take a closer look at the garden!

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 7, 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.

Winding Pathway Offers Unforgettable Journey Through Portugal's Stunning Natural Landscape – A rugged area – made more accessible via a boardwalk!

Motherhood without maternity leave – Why is America one of the only countries in the world that offers no national paid leave to new working mothers? 88% of working mothers have no access to paid maternity leave!

Trouble in Paradise: Fatal Blight Threatens a Key Hawaiian Tree – The beautiful Ohi’a trees we saw are in trouble!

10 Unexpected Impacts of Climate Change – How many of these 10 were you aware of before this article?

Winners of the 2016 Audubon Photography Awards Celebrate Diverse Birds of North America – These are birds in action – not posing for a photograph!

Four Ways to Explore the News through Maps – This post was for teachers (and via them to their students)…..but could be interesting to just about everybody. It is a different way to access news.

Pulling it all together – I took a Systems Biology course from Coursera last year and realized the need to integrate what has been compartmented for study – a needed simplification until recently. Systems Biology requires computers and models that have a lot of similarities to those for research into global weather or astrophysics. This article highlights 4 strategies for hunting new cancer targets.

Dreamlike Watercolor Paintings of Iconic Skylines Around the World – How many of these skylines do you recognize?

Fructose alters hundreds of brain genes, which can lead to a wide range of diseases – Interesting research done with rates. Fructose was found to impair memory but rats given DHA (an Omega-3 oil) along with the fructose performed comparably to rats that were not on the fructose diet.

Satellite maps shows explosion in paved surfaces in D.C. region since 1984 – I moved to the Washington DC area in 1983. A lot has happened since then. On the ground, the increase in paved surfaces has not kept up with the number of cars trying to get from one place to another.

Brookside Fiddleheads

The fiddleheads were another sign of spring at Brookside Gardens last week. I enjoy seeing how the fronds of different ferns start out so tightly packed and then unfurl in graceful curves.

Some start out very fuzzy looking. It is hard to image the frond from the fiddlehead form.

Some of the fiddleheads are further along and the expansion of the frond nearest to the stem happens rapidly enough to make it look like the tip of the frond is a knot…but is simply has not expanded quite yet.

Sometimes I imagine other things that look a little like fiddleheads  - like intricate round earrings heavy enough to weight their wire

Or the tentacles of an octopus.

I generally thing about fiddleheads being near circular but there are exceptions – the oval shape shows up almost as often.

Fiddleheads are another sign of spring – the harbingers of the lush ferns of summer.

Brookside Azaleas

The azaleas were glorious at Brookside Gardens last week. The day was cloudy – the best we could do with the weather pattern that seems dominated by rainy days recently. I got 3 selective focus shots that I liked - successfully tricking the automatic focus algorithm of my point and shot Canon Powershot SX710 HS to create the image I wanted. There were dark pink with the same color blurred in the foreground and side,

Light pink with some purple azaleas making the blur in the foreground,

And yellow azaleas with yellow blur in the foreground bottom and sides.

I also tried pictures of azaleas with other plants – like these flowers that had fallen onto a bed of ferns

And some that were blooming next to a pine.

While I was photographing the azaleas near the pine – I noticed a relative of the azaleas that also blooms this time of year – a rhododendron.

Even though the clouds were pretty thick – it was bright enough to see the reflection of azaleas in the pond.

Everywhere we walked was full of azalea color. If it has been drier – the benches would have been used! Walking around it was still a celebration of springtime in Maryland.

Ten Days of Little Celebrations – April 2016

April was full of springtime activities. Volunteer activities took me

Outdoors with 7th graders in a stream looking for macro invertebrates (and seeing bluebirds and tree swallows on the way to the stream),

To my daughter’s elementary school (15+ years ago) for an outreach program with a barred owl and his expert handler

Into the flurry of activity helping preschoolers craft butterfly models (our of coffee filters, clothes pins, pain, and pipe cleaners), and

To the county STEM fair as a judge – hearing about a project that taste tested mealworm cookies!

There are multiple reasons I celebrate these volunteer activities --- the interaction with the students, the topics, and the frequent connection to the natural environment.

I saw two birds that were worth celebrating (along with the bluebirds and tree swallows already mentioned): a male wood duck at Brookside Garden and loons at Centennial Park.

I enjoyed some traveling and celebrated

Being TSA Pre for both flights – it makes the passage through security faster (and not feeling like I have to get stuff out and off…then back together)

Helping build a chicken coop,

Baking carrot cakes that turned out yummy for 2 birthdays,

Earth Day at Dallas’ Fair Park (and remembering times I had been to the Fair Park many years ago).

And finally – I celebrated a day just being at home!

Intimate Landscapes - April 2016

I skipped February and March for an intimate landscapes post (after Eliot Porter’s Intimate Landscapes book available online here) but am starting them again this month.

In the roots and moss on a path in Centennial Park – I saw a parallel to crossroads on a map or visualized a decision at the fork of a road that has been taken by others but not enough to wear away the moss.

Low growth thrives at the base of a tree and surrounds a stump. A Jack-in-the-Pulpit is blooming there too.

The skunk cabbage surrounds the trees along a now hidden stream and the ferns are filling in the remaining spaces under the trees.

The thick oxalis almost overwhelms the cairns when the sun is shining (the plant’s flowers close up at night and cloudy days). Other plants cover other items with their foliage. The lighter green in the background will be pink lilies later in the summer.

Here an old stump provides a dark backdrop to the pink and yellow of spring flowers.

About Trees

I volunteered to be the ‘tree lady’ - staffing the tree nature station at the family event following the 5K Green Run at Belmont last weekend. Some of the children just enjoyed looking at tree cross sections (tree cookies) and buds cut from trees around my yard earlier in the morning (tulip poplar, black walnut, red maple, and sycamore) with magnifiers while others were keen to fill in all the blanks in the booklet to earn the Howard County Conservancy’s Junior Naturalist Badge. Most of them left my table and headed down the slope to look at some trees up close – sweet gum, white pine, and sycamore. The sugar maple around the corner from the carriage house got some attention too.

It was a good day to be outdoors – sunny and a near perfect temperature. The turnout was not huge – but enough to make it worth the effort.  It was good to see children learning something new about the natural world…and enjoying the outdoor activities (the tree nature station was one of three stations).

I didn’t take a picture of the whole table – just two of the small branches I took as ‘living’ examples. The black walnut has leaf clusters coming out of knobby stems.

The sycamore is just beginning to pop its buds! I had some sycamore leaves pressed from last summer to illustrate how big the leaves would eventually get. Looking at the branch at it is now, that size increase hard to imagine.

The black walnut and sycamore are far behind the tulip poplar that already has leaves as big as a hand and big flower buds. The red maple is already shedding its seeds while the green leaves rapidly unfurl.

Zooming – April 2016

The images I selected for zooming collages this month – all reflect springtime. The Carolina Wren that scouted out nesting locations and selected an old gas grill that we had not gotten around to arranging to take to the landfill (not it won’t go until the wrens are finished with it, the blossoms of a fruit tree and maple samaras…

Horse chestnut leaves, gingko male flowers and leaves, and a daffodil….

Another type of maple samara, a dove in the sunlight, and dogwood flowers….

A goldfinch, robin and bluebird looking a little scruffy (getting their spring/summer plumage) and the beginning of dandelion flowering….

Morning glories and irises from Texas (they had a very mild winter in the Dallas area and lots of rain so the gardens are well developed) ….

A lizard and water lilies (also from Texas).

It’s a vibrant spring and we’re enjoying the cool mornings and near perfect afternoon temperatures in Maryland.

Texas Garden

I was visiting in the Dallas area last week. It rained most of the time so activity was skewed more to things done indoors…..but the sun came out long enough for some garden pictures. The plants are growing well with the early warmth (and following a milder than usual winter) and plenty of moisture.

Irises are still blooming. The bulbs have been moved around as they have gotten too thick in beds either in this yard or in yards of friends and families. My mother remembers where they came from originally.

Pink Preference Sage that was planted years ago by my grandmother is showing its color too. It fills it area with its pleasant pink and green. She got the first plant from one of her sisters.

Mourning doves inspect the garden from the pathways.

The Oxalis is growing in rounded mounds. The mounds grow and the flowers open when there is plenty of light then close again at night or when the clouds are thick.

Garden ornaments peak through. The plants have been propagated from a small bed that my grandmother had started in her last gardening years.

The same is true for the white and yellow clumps of flowers that interrupt the edge between the patio and grassy yard.

The buttercups started the same way. These come back from seed every year at the base of a 24-year-old rose bush my grandmother received as a gift for her 80^th birthday; it had huge blooms that were just past prime so I didn’t photograph them.

A morning glory blooms through a fence – grown from seeds found when cleaning out a room after an aunt died.

The garden is the past translated to present beauty!

Belmont Manor and Historic Park – April 2016

I volunteered for a preschool field trip and finished up a Master Naturalist project at Belmont Manor and Historic Park this month so was able to look around at the spring unfurling there. Early in the month – the maples provided a lot of color. The red maples are indeed very red.

The sugar maples are more subdued but still colorful compared to a lot of other trees that were still looking like winter time in early April.

I’ve already posted about the Horse Chestnut buds and the Ginkgo from earlier in April. Someone commented that there was a female tree somewhere because last fall there was an awful smell from some kind of fruit tracked into the nature center by a field trip group. I had somehow missed the female tree, so I made a trip specifically to photograph it. The male tree was unfurled a bit more – everything a little battered looking because of some frosty mornings.

The female tree is not as far along and the structures are not as large. The buds near the base of the tree are still tightly curled. I’ll continue to take pictures of both trees through this season (and try to avoid stepping on any fruit in the fall since they are reported to smell like vomit).

The black cherry was full of new leaves and reproductive structures by mid-April

And the Dawn Redwood (a deciduous conifer) was getting new needles.

I enjoy the stands of lilacs at Belmont. They remind me of several family homes I visited as a child.

Dandelions are everywhere.

I checked the bald cypress by the pond in mid-April. Tree swallows were buzzing past close to my head as I hiked down – they must have already staked out the nesting boxes and are defending them from anything that comes close. The bald cypress was not as far along as the one I photographed at Brookside earlier. The buds on the lower branches were still very tight.

Higher up the buds were just beginning to open.

And the dried cattails from last season were full of noisy red-winged blackbirds. They’re defining their territory too.

Mt. Pleasant Farm – April 2016

The Howard County Conservancy’s Mt. Pleasant Farm is bursting with spring scenes this month.

The pear tree in the orchard was blooming profusely at the beginning of the month;

Most of the blooms were gone within a week.

The apple trees in the orchard were just beginning to bloom when the pear tree was mostly done.

The wood frog’s eggs had hatched and the tadpoles were numerous in the Honors Garden pool.

The trees were just getting new leaves but it was enough to almost hide the farmhouse in this view from the meadow.

Montjoy Barn has more color around it – more than the old red doors.

The nesting box in the meadow is a choice place for both blue birds

And tree swallows. They had a tussle as I was walking up the path and the bluebirds were in possession as I continued my hike.

We’ll have to wait until almost May for some of the trees near the farmhouse to get their leaves.

Thundercloud Plum

Our Thundercloud Plum tree blooms at the same time as the cherry tree and is overshadowed by white frothy blooms of that tree just beside it. The blossoms of the plum are smaller and pinker than the cherry…and the leaves (purplish red) seem to come out more quickly than those of the cherry.  These pictures were taken on March 25^th.

I looked back at other posts about the Thundercloud plum and saw that the tree was blooming on April 12^th in 2013. That must have been a last spring because by April 12^th of this year the Thundercloud Plum was full of leaves with the flower petals gone for a couple of weeks.

Centennial Park – April 2016

Last week I walked part of the way around Centennial Park – observing and enjoying spring.

There were a few flowers in the raised bed by the headquarters but you had to look for them.

The boat rentals are not open yet for the season but are neatly stacked and are colorful.

Redbuds have been planted. Some are quite small. Even the larger ones have a delicate look about them.

Many of the trees are starting the process of making seeds.

Some are further along than others.

Some just seem to have leaves that start out very colorful and then turn green as they unfurl completely.

The Canadian Geese were loud on the lake as usual but some of the them were comparatively quieter --- laying low and keeping their eggs warm.

There were loons in the center of the lake. Most of the time these birds are closer to the Atlantic coast.

The lake itself took on a different character with changes in light – dull compared to the springtime shore

Or brooding as the camera adjusted to a too bright sky.

The path was rimmed with green – grass

Or moss.

Pine cones look different with the backdrop of grass and dandelions

And pine needles.

Last but not least – the dogwoods flowers are open and on the verge of expanding.

At this point, they have a tulip-like shape.

3 Free eBooks – April 2016

My picks this month range in publication date from 1850 to 2015!

King, Derrick. Cambodia, Laos, Thailand – 9900 km, 7 Weeks. 2015. Available from Internet Archive here.  I liked that this was a book with lots of pictures of these countries…and relatively recent (early 2012). Many of the pictures included people that provides scale to the rest of the structures – such as the tree and ruin in the one a clipped to include with this post. There are other books about his travels that he has posted on the Internet Archive as well.

Thomas, Edward; Cameron, Katherine. The Flowers I Love. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co. 1910. Available from Hathi Trust here. I didn’t look much at the poetry…the visuals were too wonderful.

Bacon, M.A.; Jones, Owen. Fruits from Garden and Field. London: Longman & Co., 1850. Available from Hathi Trust here. Skip the poetry (the font makes it a challenge to read and just enjoy the visuals. I liked that the flowers and fruit were almost always included….then maybe an insect as well.

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 16, 2016

Microscopic Iridescence of Peacock Feathers – I’ve always been fascinated with peacock feathers. This article zooms in closer to the feathers and uses photo stacking to get the depth of field so that the structure is in focus.

Longer maternity leave is better for infant health – The article is about a study done comparing outcomes of paid maternity leave in low and middle income countries around the world….but toward the end, there is a reminder that the US is one of the few countries in the world that has no paid maternity leave mandate. Aargh! I was lucky enough to work for a company that paid 8 weeks of maternity leave when I had my daughter; it was considered a medical leave.

Disparity in Life Spans of the Rich and Poor is Growing – Wealthier Americans live longer than poorer Americans…and the gap is getting larger. For women born in 1950, the delta is about 12 years.

Soil: Getting the Lead Out – Our soils contain our legacy --- which includes lead from gasoline and paint over many years before it was banned in recent decades. There is remediation, but one has to detect the problem

Genetically engineered immune cells are saving the lives of cancer patients – It’s still early….but the initial result are very promising.

The Four Biggest Hazards Facing Monarch Butterflies, and how you can help – Make sure to get to the end of the article for how each person can make a difference for monarchs.

Real Animals that you didn’t know existed – Hooray for biodiversity!

Could new class of fungicides play a role in autism, neurodegenerative diseases? – Yet another reason to stick with organic vegetables and fruits. The particular fungicides in this study are used on conventionally grown leafy green vegetables.

The Rogue Immune Cells that Wreck the Brain – It appears that microglia might hold the key to understanding not just normal brain development but also what causes Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, autism, schizophrenia, and other intractable brain disorders.

How NASA turns astronauts into photographers – I’m glad the astronauts have made time for photography!

Planters in the Window

I am reusing plastic bins from Organic Spring Salad Mix as planters. I had a sweet potato vine that I’ve started from a sweet potato that I didn’t eat quite fast enough this winter. I will probably eat the leaves rather than wait all season to harvest sweet potatoes in the fall.

I also planted a maple seedling that I pulled out of the flower bed last summer. It rooted in water for months. The leaves turned red in January and most of them fell off. It still has one…and I hope to see the bud at the tip of the stem begin to enlarge soon. It should enjoy having its roots in soil – although it is too early to know for sure if it will have a second season.

I’ve also planted radishes and lettuce seeds - that have now sprouted. If they do well, I’ll harvest them both for salad. Even the ones I pull to thin out the bin will be good eating. I like radish leaves and always am disappointed that the tops in the grocery store are generally wilted.

I haven’t decided whether I will transplant any of these except to bigger pots on the deck. Our area has an overabundance of deer and our yard seems to be in a main thoroughfare from the forest behind our house and into our neighborhood. Everything gets thoroughly sampled….and sometimes browsed…by the deer passing through.