Gleanings of the Week Ending June 10, 2017

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.

Is air pollution getting worse or better? – Overall, air quality has improved…but we’ve also learned more about the harm air pollution causes…and there is still a lot more that needs to be done both is improving air quality and understanding aspects that are the most problematic.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #89 and #90 – Two groups of bird pictures. Which ones are your favorites? The first group includes the mating display of the great egret. My favorites in the second group are two of birds in flight: a wood duck and a peacock.

Artist uses fire and smoke to create incredible paintings of birds – More birds....images made with fire, soot and acrylics.

Lavau Celtic Prince: 2,500-year-old royal tomb starts to reveal its secrets – A tomb in eastern France…I liked the pictures of the artifacts as they emerged during excavation.

Insects color our world – Beautiful images….and some tips on actions that can help insects in our environment.

The Kid’s Guide to How the Internet Works – When my daughter was in elementary school 20 years ago, they were beginning to teach children about how the internet works and internet safety. Now it seems like this instruction is even more needed – critical to our children’s wellbeing.

Did children build the ancient Egyptian city of Amarna? – An article about the excavation of a cemetery of children, teenagers, and young adults. Based on the analysis of the skeletons, many have traumatic injuries and degenerative conditions caused by frequent heavy labor.

The US Lags Behind in Meteorology – Europe has forged ahead at a time when the US has cut computing power, research budgets and the National Weather Service. The American weather models are increasingly being discounted for forecasts more than 3 days out.

Antarctica is turning green – Antarctica is warming at a faster rate than the global average…about 0.5 degrees Celsius each decade for the past 60 years. Instead of white, there is more and more green!

Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens – A photo guide to common damselflies and dragonflies – A two page quick reference. My husband and I will use it later this month and in July when we visit Kenilworth – attempting to photograph dragonflies.

Ten Little Celebrations – May 2017

May was a busier month than April and the change from cold to warm weather still provides a lot of variety…plenty to celebrate.

“Focus on Butterflies” session at Brookside Gardens. Our experience with a photography specific time in the Brookside conservatory with butterflies was very enjoyable. I’m still celebrating the images I managed to capture.

Conowingo. Every time we go it is a celebration that Bald Eagles have recovered from their near extinction from pesticides. We see so many at Conowingo --- along with Great Blue Herons and cormorants.

Hiking with second graders. I thoroughly enjoy the ‘Science of Soil’ hikes with second graders. It seems like every group is excited about the topic…and being outdoors in general!

Two pre-school Nature Tales field trips in one day. Even though it rained all day – both the morning and afternoon group of pre-schoolers enjoyed their field trip. My segment (which I repeated 5 times!) was about trees and butterflies. Their celebration of walking to the nature center in the rain with their boots and rain gear was contagious!

TSA Pre. Every time I see that my boarding pass has ‘TSA Pre’ results in a little celebration. It is such a relief to not have to pack so I can get my laptop and quart sized Ziploc out easily…or wear slip on shoes that can come off…and back on easily.

Family. This month I saw more of my mother’s side of the family than I have in a long time. They are getting older so every time I see them together, it’s cause for celebration.

A lull before a flurry of busy days. With all the travel going on in the last half of the month, I celebrated a day that was a calm beforehand.

Setting up the Monarch Nursery. I thought my strategy to bring Monarch Butterfly caterpillars inside so that I could gradually take the milkweed plants out of the front flowerbed was a good one – and I celebrated when I found most of what I needed in the basement. My first caterpillar seemed to be doing well…but I put him back outside on the milkweed when I left on my travels. I’ll start a nursery again when I am going to be around to give them fresh leaves every day or so.

Wood Ducks as the Neighborhood Pond. Our neighborhood looked so terrible after they cleaned it out….but the wood ducks came anyway. I celebrated their visit.

Skirts. I’ve gotten skirts out again and am celebrating how great they are to wear when the weather is warmer.

Our Neighborhood Water Retention Pond – Update 1

I posted last week about the work to clean out our neighborhood water retention pond – about the muddy mess of the banks. Since then, straw has been placed over the mud. I noticed it when I was heading out to a day of volunteering for pre-school nature field trips. When I returned in mid-afternoon, it was raining. I stopped, rolled down the passenger side window, and took pictures of the pond.

Some of the straw has already started to sluff down into the pond from the slopes; the rain was too much for the straw to hold…and some of the soil was probably going down to the pond as well. If there had been seeds put down with the straw, many were probably also in the pond. Hopefully something will start growing on the slopes quickly. I noticed some birds on the far side of the pond -probably some ducks, I thought, based on their size and the way they were moving.

I used my camera to zoom in on the ducks and was surprised; they were wood ducks!

There were 4 males and 1 female. They seemed to be finding a lot of tidbits in the straw and around the edges of the pond in general. I wondered if they had been to our pond before but had not been visible because of all the dense vegetation. With the condition of the pond now – there is probably not a good place for them to nest in our neighborhood this year.

I was so pleased to see the wood ducks – but will be happier when the pond does not look like a muddy construction zone.