Ten Little Celebrations – July 2017

A lot has happened this July…and it was easy to pick 10 little celebrations to highlight:

A successful first road trip. I finally got a road trip in my Prius Prime. I didn’t celebrate the blow out that happened on the original start to the trip (I did celebrate that the blow out did not cause an accident) but the trip that re-started the day after was so enjoyable that thoughts about by car turned positive again.

A morning walk at Mt. Pleasant Farm. I’ll get around to posting about this walk because it was so enjoyable: temperature perfect for hiking, a flock of gold finches bathing in a riffle of the Davis Branch, dragonflies everywhere, Monarch butterflies in the meadow, a ground hog ambling out of the path ahead of me, a riot of vegetation – including ripening blackberries. It was very much a celebration of summer.

Great Blue Heron interaction with a dragonfly. Sometimes being in the right place to witness the interaction of two very different organisms is a celebration. I could photograph this one. It was a juvenile Great Blue Heron it is seemed perplexed about what to do when the dragonfly perched while the heron was looking for lunch. Eventually the heron moved…the dragonfly moved. This went on for a few minutes before the dragonfly got the idea to find another place to land.

Summer camp photographers at Mt. Pleasant. I celebrated another group of 5-12 year old photographers that took excellent pictures. I have a post planned for early next week about the adventure from my perspective. One of the counselors commented that the campers seemed so engaged with the activity. There is something about having a camera in hand that is almost magic.

Milkweed bug instars. This time of year, I am always thrilled to find a plant with a lot of instars of milkweed bugs. It almost always happens in July. They start out very tiny and almost all red and go through several stages getting larger and larger and ending up as adults that are orange and black…and with wings!

Our street. I am celebrating that the street repaving in front of our house is complete…and it wasn’t too traumatic while the work was going on.

Melons. We are getting melons from our CSA – always worth celebrating so rare we have gotten sun jewel melons, cantaloupe and yellow watermelon. Hopefully we’ll get some red watermelons in August.

Then there were celebrations associated with volunteering a Brookside Gardens’ Wings of Fancy exhibit:

Butterfly laying an egg on my ring. OK – I’ll admit it was a very confused butterfly. But it was magical to have a butterfly become a part of my ring temporarily! I transferred the egg to the host plant afterward.

A 90-year-old birthday girl in Wings of Fancy. The lady was in a wheel chair but thoroughly enjoyed her family’s outing to the exhibit. Everyone that was in the conservatory celebrated with her!

Hummingbird moth at Brookside. I had been seeing the hummingbird moth on the walkway up to the ticket taker for the exhibit…and finally managed to get a picture. Celebration!

Conowingo – May 2017

We had more success at Conowingo in May than we did back in April although we first got there – all I saw were cormorants in the water.

There were no vultures on the high reaches of the dam or birds sitting on the big towers.  It was very windy and I eventually started looking lower on the rocks across the river from our vantage point. It’s a little far away for pictures…but that’s where the birds were. The first group I saw included a Great Blue Heron and some pigeons (the pigeons are usually all over the dam but seemed to prefer the rocks on the windy day).

I started taking pictures of all the rocks. How many eagles do you see in this pictures (remember the immature eagles don’t have white heads and tail feather yet)?

I count 7 Bald Eagles…and a Great Blue Heron and a Cormorant.

Eventually I saw an eagle on one of the towers

And then thought to zoom in to the platform of the tower after remembering someone commenting last month that there was a nest on one of the towers. Sure enough – it looks like there is. Hopefully no one will have to go up there until the eagles are done with the nest for the season.

I took a few none bird pictures as well. This spider web was somewhat damaged by the wind but I was pleased my camera would focus on it. The spider jumped from the web to me while it got the picture! Fortunately, I noticed and managed to get the critter to the ground somewhat close to the web.

I photographed the flowers of the Princess Tree that is growing on the cliff that is across the parking lot from the bird viewing area. These invasive trees are easy to spot this time of year because of the color of the flowers. They grow very fast….and the seeds are dispersed so I seem to see more of them every year.

Centennial Park on a Cold Day

A few days ago, it was sunny but in the 40s and I thought I’d take a short walk at the park – bundled up in my coat and hat. I underestimated the effect of the wind! It was unbearably cold so I took a quick look around for anything worthy of a photograph….and spotted a Great Blue Heron on the other side of the lake. At first I was seeing only the back of its head (I think it was investigating some trash as the edge of the lake); it was about ready to give up when the bird turned so I could get a profile shot.

The water was not a pretty color because the wind was stirring up the water. But I experimented with bordering the picture with the red railing from the fishing pier. I liked the texture of the water in motion. The ducks, geese and seagulls were off the water. I saw some gulls in a tree and two geese eating grass along the road side as I left. There were daffodils bloom in the woods (not sure why someone planted them there) and there were a couple of robins looking for worms in the grass.

It was a much shorter outing than I’d planned but I was glad to be out and about.