Birding through a window – June 2017

My favorite birding-through-a-window episode was a gray catbird at the bird bath just outside our front door. It happened in mid-afternoon on the first of the month. At first, I thought the bird had come for a drink…but it jumped in a used the bath! It seems like I am seeing catbirds more frequently this year – or maybe I am just more aware of their sounds and am looking for them when I hear them.

There are the usual birds around our house as well: the grackle,

The robin,

The dove (precariously perched on our anemometer),

Finches (gold finches and house finches both),

And blue jays.

Belmont Field Trips

I didn’t get much photography done during the times I was at Belmont for pre-school  ‘Nature Tales’ and 7^th grade ‘BioBlitz’ field trips. I am so focused on the students while they are there….my primary picture taking time is the lull before they arrive or after they leave! The grounds are lush now even though I still miss the huge elm that used to dominate the lawn in front of the manor house.

The pond has a path mowed down to it but I like the taller grass everywhere else.

I took a picture of the horse chestnut in bloom early in May (one of my favorite trees…but this is not a healthy tree, unfortunately).

There were two pre-school field trips on the same day and I had a picnic between the morning and afternoon sessions…and took pictures of birds (mockingbirds and a robin) that came to the lawn in front of the nature center.

I brought of the end of the hiking group through the woods and hurriedly took a picture of a flower along the trail.

And the BioBlitz group found some brightly colored fungi on some rotting wood….while they made their entry in iNaturalist…I got a picture too!

Photographs through my Office Window – April 2017

There has been a lot of activity through my office window this month. The squirrels are feasting on the tender samaras in the maple – early in the month

And then a couple of weeks later when the leaves are unfurling.

The squirrels have a pathway around our yard via trees and fence…rarely on the ground.

The robins are around but don’t seem as numerous as previous years.

We now have two kinds of sparrows: chipping sparrows and

White throated sparrows (with the dash of yellow above their eye).

The blue jays are still frequent visitors to the bird bath.

I haven’t seen a lot of grackles but there was one that visited our yard long enough for a picture.

We have a pair of cardinals again this year – probably nesting nearby.

Mourning doves like the birdbath and the roof line of our covered deck. This one seemed to want its picture taken!

Around my Yard – April 2017

April has been a rainy month for us – so far. I managed to walk around the yard on one sunny afternoon. There is a lot of trimming and cleanout work to be done as soon as we have a few dry days in a row. I am not a gardener so it is a chore that requires some will power to accomplish. I cheered myself up by taking some pictures of little things I noticed as I was assessing the yard: a wasp exploring a past-prime daffodil,

A dandelion – one of the first to bloom this season (pre-emergent is never totally effective),

A self-fungus on one of the larger pieces in our brush pile,

Violets beginning to bloom,

And a scruffy looking robin!

A Little March Snow

I’d taken pictures for a second post about signs of spring in our yard….but then I woke up to snow! I got a picture at first light since I was sure it would melt away quickly. There were already deer tracks through our back yard.

As it got a little lighter, the snow on the pines and back into the forest gave the scene from my office window a new look.

There was a robin that kept moving around in the red maple that is blooming.

The tulip poplar seed pods from last summer are mostly empty of seeds at this point; they make a little basket for snow accumulation.

The miniature daffodils in the front yard are blooming and they caught the snow as well. They handle it better than the larger and taller flowers that sometimes bend to the ground with heavy snow. These daffodils are progeny of bulbs that my mother-in-law bought for us over 25 years ago and I’m always thrilled that they are so durable through the snow.

Signs of Spring? – Part 1

We have had an unusually warm and snow free winter in our area of Maryland. This morning there is a cold snap and I am wondering if some of the pictures of our yard I took for this blog over the past few days are of things that will be frost damaged next time I walk around. I have been seeing one or two American Robins are warm days for the past week or so. The robin in the slide show below was in a neighbor’s yard – looking for and finding worms. It looked like a fat and healthy bird enjoying the bounty of our neighborhood lawns without a lot of others of his kind around. It is easy to associate a personality with this bird on a mission!

I’m noticing the advantage of having the 40x optical zoom on my camera (rather than 30x of my previous camera or 0 optical zoom of my smart phone). The image stabilization is good too; all these were taken hand held – no monopod or tripod.

February Mornings

I general have at least one snow post in February – but we have had no significant snow at all this winter (so far). We have had some wonderful early morning color. Here is what the sunrise looked like from my front door on February 10^th.

The color was transferred to the trees behind my house on Valentine’s Day. The color only lasts a very short period of time when it is reflected like this….I was pleased to catch it!

On the 17^th, I photographed the sunrise from the front door again. It was a little further along than on the 10^th since it was more orange than pink.

Finally – yesterday I looked out my office window and noticed a bird I had not seen since early fall – a robin in the morning sunlight that was making the tallest branches of the tulip poplar behind our house glow. Is it spring already?