Conowingo – February 2017

We picked a cold sunny day to trek to Conowingo Fisherman’s Park last week. We stopped at the Visitor’s Center to bundle up: ski bibs and footwarmers inside hiking boots. When we got to the park we added a balaclava, hat, coat, and handwarmers inside gloves. The extra layers of warmth kept use reasonably comfortable. My nose got cold because I couldn’t pull the balaclava up over it without my glasses fogging up. The first think I noticed was that weren’t many birds about. There were icicles on the railing. The churning water creates just enough spray for them to form on the section closest to the dam.

I walked back toward the entrance to see the buds of the Paulownia that grows on the cliff side of the park. They are brown and velvety already. They are an invasive species in our area but this one does not seem to be propagating itself.

The gulls that were so plentiful last time were scarce…but the black vultures were around. They seem to like the view from the top of the dam.

There were very few eagles about (we’re spoiled because there are often so many of them). My husband got a few ‘in flight’ pictures. I decided to just watch the birds rather than trying to follow their flight with my camera.

As we were leaving there was an eagle in a tulip poplar tree on the cliff side. Its feathers were fluffed against the cold. He kept looking toward the river…and eventually flew off in that direction.

Gray Day at Mt. Pleasant

I responded to a request for volunteers so was at Mt. Pleasant last Friday. It was a cold gray day – not raining but looking like it could start at any time. The construction on the Gudelsky Environmental Education Center is proceeding. I’m going to try taking pictures from this angle every time I go to Mt. Pleasant. Hopefully it will be completed by late spring.

The witch hazel along the driveway to the farmhouse added a bit of color. The flowers are not as big as the witch hazels I photographed at Brookside recently – probably not a recent hybrid.

Near the picnic area, a forsythia was beginning to bloom. The bush is protected by its position under an evergreen.

Montjoy Barn is the same as usual. The red on the barn door is more appreciated in the winter – when any color other than brown stand out!

Brookside Conservatory – January 2017

There was work replanting some of the conservatory beds at Brookside Gardens when I was there last week. There were still enough plants in bloom to enjoy….and it was much warmer than outside! I liked the view from one of the bridges over the bubbling water…so dense with foliage that the water itself couldn’t be seen.

Pink and green always seems like a beautiful color combination.

A bloom had fallen into the water and looked very much like a butterfly.

The bird of paradise flower always reminds me of a spiked mohawk haircut!

And there are plant pompoms (or powder puffs) too.

The banana palm had bananas! The plant seems to frequently be in some stage of fruit development but I’ve never been around when the bananas were any color but green.

And then there were flowers for zoomed portraits.

The tree fern had many fiddleheads. I enjoyed photographing them and savored the memory of my trip to Hawaii a little over a year ago.

Brookside in Winter

It was a very cold morning when I made the trek to Brookside Gardens last week. I made a very short hike. The first destination was the place where Skunk Cabbage grows – the boardwalk between the gardens and the nature center. The wet area around the Bald Cypress trees is think with it…but not yet. The needles of the cypress cover the ground with the cypress knees breaking the monotony. There are not skunk cabbage sprouts yet.

I headed up to the small rooms of gardens and a gazebo and made some photographs of benches and stone walkways. I didn’t pause to sit on a sunny bench.

The plant I was very pleased to find in bloom was Witch Hazel. I found one in a location I had not noticed before and two others that I had seen in previous winters. They are a welcome burst of color in winter. The petals look like narrow ribbons sometimes curled tight.

And with that…I headed into the conservator where it was warm!

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 28, 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.

Danish Study Raises More Questions about Mammograms’ Message – Evidently doctors can’t yet tell which tumors really need to be treated and which might be able to just monitor. There is a tendency to think that breast cancer screen is better than actually is….and that leads to a lot of potential unneeded (and traumatic) treatment.

Watch Geologic Machinations in Motion at Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park – About a year ago, I visited the Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park so I am always looking at items with news from the place. I don’t know that I would be up for an 8-mile hike to see the new viewing area.

An Iceberg Larger than Rhode Island is Poised to Break from Antarctica – When it goes – the Larsen C Ice Shelf will lose more than 10% of its area….and the maps of Antarctica will need revision.

Stunning photos of trains roaring through picturesque landscapes – Eye candy for the week.

Recovery: Saving the Lake Erie Watersnake, a lesson in outreach – Not poisonous but ill-tempered and smelly. Only found in the lake’s western basin on islands…French explorers found them sunning themselves in heaps, knots and snarls. It turns out that people killing the snakes was a bigger factor the reduction of numbers than habitat loss….and thus an education campaign is helping increase their numbers!

The Chemistry of Popcorn -  Probably my favorite snack. We have a special bowl that allows us to pop it in the microwave (no weird chemicals like in the bags of microwave popcorn).

Why America is Growing the Most Sweet Potatoes since WWII – I’ve always liked sweet potatoes….and it seems that more people do these days since it has become a popular crop for former tobacco farmers and over 11% of the crop is exported!

Arctic melt ponds form when meltwater clogs ice pores – In the field (of ice) and an experiment to discover how melt ponds forms on porous ice.

Ten more field guides and references for the serious naturalist – I think I might buy the one about bees.

Obesity is barely covered in medical students’ licensing exam – Not good since nearly 40% of adults and 20% of children and adolescents are obese in the US.

Centennial Park – January 2017

Late last week there was a sunny day…and I accompanied my husband to Centennial Park. He walked all the way around…I was busy taking pictures! The first subject was a red tailed hawk high in a tulip poplar tree. The angle wasn’t great – but the reddish tail feathers were a little visible in one of the pictures and the fluffing of the breast feathers was a good clue to how cold the day was.

There were Canadian Geese of course. They are always at Centennial. I experimented with different angles…reflections, near silhouettes, the awkwardness of the bird on land.

There were two types of diving ducks. Both are winter birds in Maryland. They are a challenge to photograph because the go completely under the water then pop back to the top for few seconds. The Buffleheads were on the other side of the lake from where I was…but the white on their heads make them easy to identify even in a blurred picture. The one on the left is a male; the right is a female….not enough of a side view to tell the one in the middle.

The other diving ducks on the lake were female ruddy ducks. Their tails are a stiff fan. I didn’t see any flipped upward but these ducks were actively feeding…only staying on top of the water for short periods of time.

I decided it was a little chilly to stay out longer so headed back to the car. Along the way, I tried a ‘looking up’ shot of small cones. I like the sharpness of the lines within the cones – light and shadow.

There is always something to photograph at Centennial Park!

Zooming – January 2017

I use the zoom on my camera in so many situations – to look at the details of a façade in McKinney, Texas,

A swan and coot at Josey Ranch.

And then there is the combined strategy of photographing through a window and zooming: crepe myrtle seed pods through the window of the hotel in Grapevine, TX (when it was very cold outside),

Kitt Peak (probably) taken through the window of the plane taking off from Tucson headed to Los Angles, and

A tangle of plum tree branches covered in water droplets in the morning sunshine.

Sometimes the zoom is so great that it makes the picture look more like a painting. I thought this shelf fungus looked like a stylized bird!

Hiking at Belmont

I took a winter hike at Belmont yesterday. The trek went from the Carriage House at Belmont onto the Patapsco Valley State Park’s Ridge Trail – making a big loop. It was a lot of up and down hiking through the winter forest. I had limited time to take pictures….it was a hike not a photo shoot. I liked the very green moss on this fallen tree – that has been cut up after it fell across the trail.

Sometimes the white of shelf fungus catches attention too.

This log had a mixture of shelf fungus, lichen and moss…quite a variety. There are little plants coming up through the leaves as well; we’ve been having some warmer days than usual this January.

Here we were on the trail. The trees with brown leaves still clinging are probably young beech trees.

As we came out of the forest there was a great view of the Belmont Manor House from over the rolling hills.

By the time we got back to the Carriage House, we were all ready for a snack!

Ten Little Celebrations – January 2017

January started out with a burst of travel – driving cross country between Maryland and Arizona with a stop for a week in the Dallas area. There were associated ‘little celebrations.’

Leaf earrings from a local artist in McKinney TX – I celebrated finding earrings I like a lot…and if they are created by a local artist that makes it even better. I find it very easy to remember where I purchase earrings so they are great mementos for my travels.

A day on my own – Usually when I travel, my time is full of interacting with other people and I end up exhausted after it continues for too many days. On this 9-day trip, I had one day that was almost all ‘me time’ and I celebrated the lull!

Getting to the hotel in the snow – One day I was out and about in Dallas when it started snowing. I thought it wouldn’t stick but it started before I could head back to the hotel. Dallas does not use salt and there had not been any time for sand to be out either. I was driving an unfamiliar car too. I white knuckled the drive (overpasses particularly) but made it back to the hotel without incident…and celebrated.

Then there were ‘home’ related celebrations:

Home again – I enjoy traveling but coming home again is always a little celebration.

A good night of sleep – I came home from my travels with a cold so the first night that I sleep well was cause for celebration.

A sunny day – January in Maryland has been full of gray skies and drizzle (no snow) so I celebrated one on of the few sunny days.

A new car – Maybe this is a big celebration rather than a little one. I only buy a new car about every 10 years or so…and I’m still savoring the lingering celebration of acquiring the Prius Prime.

There are instances of little celebrations in my favorite activities as well:

Anatomy of the Abdomen and Pelvis Course – This might be the most challenging courses I’ve taken on Coursera – but tremendously interesting. I am celebrating every module. Kudos to the Leiden University Medical School for producing it.

A hike and finding skunk cabbages – I enjoyed a winter hike and was celebrating being outdoors when I found skunk cabbages already up in the winter muck…and that made for a bigger celebration.

Red-tailed hawks – It seems like I am seeing red tailed hawks a lot more frequently this winter….or maybe I am just becoming a better observer. My daughter and I saw them on our cross-country road trip, there is at least one that is frequently the woods behind out house and I saw one at Centennial Park when I was there last week. I celebrate that the birds are thriving and that I am seeing them!

My New Car – a Prius Prime

Late last year, I had decided to give my 10-year-old car to my daughter/son-in-law and buy a new car for me. This weekend was the scheduled hand off and I decided to start looking at new cars last week. My husband was very leery of going down to one car for very long. At first I wanted to look at a plug-in vehicle and then decided a plug-in hybrid would be better. Most of my driving is close to home and I wanted something that would be electric most of the time but I quickly decided that I would need a hybrid if I wanted the option of taking the car on a road trip. So – when I started looking at cars, the Prius Prime was at the top of my list and the Chevy Volt was a second choice. The Prius Prime has a 25 miles estimated EV range and a 640 miles estimated total range. I was a little concerned that the dealerships in Maryland would not have the Prius Prime since so many of the cars were going to California…but there were several available at the first Toyota dealership we visited (the one closest to where we live). We took one out for a test drive. Wow! I liked the feel of the car. I had to watch that I didn’t go way over the speed limit! The car is very quiet and handles very well.

When we got back from the test drive some additional Prius Primes had been delivered to the dealership – including a red one with a white interior which is what I thought I wanted based on my web-based research. So – to shorten the story – I bought it! It was home in our garage about 4 hours later and charging at the regular outlet in our garage (it takes about 5.5. hours to charge on this type outlet).

There are three versions of the car and I got the middle one (Premium); the ones the dealer had were all this version and it is probably the most popular one they sell. The car has all the must-haves (navigation system is the highest on my list) except for the Homelink mirror (that includes a garage door opener) which I ordered; it will be installed next Wednesday.

I’ve driven it for a few short errands and put my key addresses into the navigation system. It is easy to drive and I’m thinking about what road trip I can take. My husband installed a hook to coil the charging cable when it is not in use.

This is an easy step toward a greener lifestyle!

(I’ll be posting about the next phase of my experience with this new car in about a week. This is the most different car I have ever bought…quite an adventure. Hopefully there will be some sunny days so I can get some better pictures too!)

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 21, 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.

What’s Your Sleep Animal? Find out with this quiz. – A little self analysis…about how you sleep. I’m a lion!

What teeth reveal about the lives of modern humans – It turns out our teeth are not adapted very well for modern diets. And it not just cavities and plaque buildup. It also has to do with jaw growth.  Did you know that wisdom teeth (third molar) impaction became 10 times more common after the Industrial Revolution?

The Chemistry of Bodily Fluid Colors – An infographic summarizes how blood, bile, urine, and feces get their color.

Appendix may have important function – I thought the diagram of the appendix shapes of different animals was as interesting as the idea that the appendix may serve as a reservoir for beneficial gut bacteria.

It’s Time to Give Nature the Credit It Deserves – Nature as water infrastructure! Hopefully more areas of the US will include these strategies in their long-term water planning. Good for people, the economy, and the planet!

20 of the Most Stunning Photos Captured by Drones in 2016 – Eye candy that I couldn’t resist sharing.

The Most Precious of Gifts – About gold, frankincense, and myrrh…from the Manchester Museum

The Chemistry of Fireworks Pollution – Wow….there are a lot of bad things that are exploded into the air by fireworks. I’m glad there are efforts to make ‘greener’ fireworks. No one ones a celebration to lead to respiratory problems and exposure to toxic metals.

Designation of Bear Ears National Monument in San Juan County, UT – Some great pictures of one of our newest National Monuments.

Meet Your Newest Organ: The Mesentery – I’m taking a Coursera course on the anatomy of the abdomen and pelvis…and the mesentery is part of the discussion. I just finished a module about how it develops with the gut from an embryological perspective. It’s quite a complex membrane – and now maybe it will be researched as an organ.

Skunk Cabbage in January!

I walked down to the swampy areas on the other side of Mt Pleasant Farm when I was there earlier this week (away from either Construction Zone) and looked at a couple of places I knew Skunk Cabbage grows. The first – closer – place was still like winter – no sunk cabbage coming up in the muck. But the second place had lots of new shoots of the plant coming up!

Once I saw the a few plants – I started seeing even more of them. We’ve been having a warmer than usual January so the plants may be coming up a bit earlier than usual. They are some of the earliest flowers of spring. The early insects (including bees) are attracted to their not-pleasant-to-us smell. They often show up when snow is still on the ground but this year it hasn’t been necessary so far.

One of the shoots has been cut (by a mower?) so the structure of the coiled up leave is obvious.  The structure coming up next to it might be a flower.

As I walked back along the small stream (East Branch), I spotted two green shoots in a relatively narrow and rocky part of the stream bed…probably a new stand of skunk cabbage from seeds produced in the large stand a little upstream.

It will be interesting to observe what happens to these plants if we do have some very cold weather. After all – it’s only January…still some winter left to go.

Mt. Pleasant Construction Zones

There are two construction zones at the Howard County Conservancy’s Mt. Pleasant location right now: the expansion of the Gudelsky Environmental Education Center and the restoration (by Howard County) of the Davis Branch. There are some vantage points that look the same as always – looking over the rock wall to the meadow,

The view toward the west from beside the community garden

And toward the Gudelsky Center.

Even though a lot of the construction on the Center is going on inside on the lower level, there is still evidence of activity – fencing and mud! It’s fairly contained compared to the stream restoration.

Earlier this week, I was with a group that hiked down to see the progress. There are big pieces of equipment to move dirt (and mud) – creating a new channel for the stream that will reconnect with its flood plain more easily and create some wetlands too. The bridge warped my last summer’s storm surge is being straightened so that it can be used to cross the new channel. Gray chunks of rock are being placed to create riffles and drop the run of the stream by about a foot. And everywhere there are hoses to pump the water around the work site; this has been a bigger job that originally planned since the rehabilitation of a pond upstream (and not part of this project) is happening simultaneously and releasing more water than expected to the stream. All the hoses and pumps, big machinery, rocks and temporary erosion control measures made me think of this as a ‘stream on life support’ during this reconstruction; hopefully the stream will come out in better condition than when everything started!

Texas Canyon Rest Area

About an hour east of Tucson on Interstate 10 is the Texas Canyon Rest Area. I almost always stop there – whether I am headed to or from Tucson. Last week, I was headed to the city after a very long day of driving from Texas. It had been very cold when we left the Dallas area and still cold when we left Abilene…but the day had begun to be warmer by the time we passed through El Paso and we were glad to leave our coats in the car. The stop as Texas Canyon was very pleasant and I took a few pictures of the rocks.

It was sunny afternoon with enough clouds to make the sky more than a blue backdrop – if I didn’t zoom in too much. It was the desert in winter – but the rocks are the highlight of this landscape all the time.

Highway through El Paso, TX

The best highway art on our drive between Abilene, Texas and Tucson, Arizona on Interstate 10 was through El Paso. My daughter was driving so I could indulge in photographing some of it. I had remembered some of the structures from previous road trips when I was driving and thus unable to do any photography. There is quite a variety: decorative supports, stripes and medallions on the sides of the decking, elaborate railings, metal sculpture, towers on abutments, and colorful retaining walls. The colors send to be muted…very much like the colors of the surrounding mountains and desert.

The road was in good repair and not too busy on the Sunday (a week ago) that we drove through. The city crowds to the sides of the highway…and the University of El Paso campus is within site of the highway. It is easy to image the interstate as the backbone of the city.

Wind Turbines in West Texas

Last Sunday, we left Abilene while it was still dark to drive to Tucson. I ask my daughter to take the first driving stretch because I wanted to photograph wind turbines at sunrise as we drove. The timing was good since we started seeing the big turbines almost immediately along Interstate 20 – and they continued for miles and miles. Most of them were set away from the highway but there were a few close enough to see the colorful sunrise light on the blades. The area must be one of the largest (if not the largest) in the US for wind power generation.

There were a lot of RV parks that looked full in the area and I wondered if RVs have become the housing of choice for temporary workers. There were people out and about – buddle up for the cold and working. Ranching, oil, wind….all industries big in the area that require outdoor work even when it is cold and a Sunday morning.

Surprisingly the wind did not bother the car as much in that stretch of highway as it did in the up and down area as we got further along – past Pecos. The terrain channels the wind into swirling gusts that we could feel in the car steering. We watched the big trucks more closely and minimized our time passing them….kept moving along at the speed limit – which is 80 mph for a lot of the drive through West Texas.

Grackles and Mockingbirds – Grapevine, TX

Earlier this week I posted some sunrise pictures taken through the hotel window in Grapevine, Texas. I was at the hotel later one day during our stay and enjoyed photographing grackles and mockingbirds through the second-floor window of our room. It was a very cold and breezy day. All the mockingbird pictures show them looking fat with fluffed feathers. It’s always surprising how much bigger and rounder a bird can look when it’s cold.

The grackles (probably Great-tailed Grackles based on their size, tail, and location in north central Texas) didn’t seem bothered by the cold. They are all sleek and full of assertiveness. They seemed to be aware that they were being watched…and they glared back at the camera! Notice how robust the toes/talons are; they make the mockingbird look delicate.

Birding through a window…the way to go on bitterly cold days!

Josey Ranch Lake – January 2017

I saw some of the same kinds of birds I saw back in February 2015 when I walked around the lake last week. It was cold --- and the wind made it feel colder. We did not dawdle but I did manage to take a few pictures. As if 2015: There were lots of Lesser Scaup (the first picture is of 3 males and 1 female) but they were all over the lake with their oddly shaped heads. These birds are only in Texas for the winter.

The Northern Shoveler is also a winter bird.

The swans were still around too. They stay on the lake all through the years.

This time I also noticed American Coots. All About Birds says they are in the area throughout the year but I don’t remember seeing as many of them as I did this year.

There were the Mallards too – another year round resident.

I spotted a Cormorant too.

Finally – the tail and back feathers on this duck seem to glow. It was such a gray day that the feathers stood out. There are also water droplets on the head and breast. I don’t know what kind of duck it is.

Grapevine, TX Sunrise

I traveled with my daughter to the AAS Conference in Grapevine, TX last week. We didn’t stay in the conference hotel (the Gaylord Texan) – opting for a less expensive hotel near the Grapevine Mall. The plan was that I would drop her off at the conference, visit with family in the area during the day, and pick her up when her sessions/dinner were done for the day. We planned to go down to hotel’s breakfast as soon as it opened each morning. The very first morning we came back to the room after breakfast to a spectacular sunrise as soon as we opened the drapes! These were taken from our hotel window.

The next day – we were a little later getting back to the room…and the sun was already up – muted by clouds. It was a lot more orange...still a nice sunrise.

A good breakfast and a beautiful sunrise. I like to start my day that way.

McKinney, Texas

My sisters and daughter took a walk around the old down town of McKinney, Texas – a place none of us had ever been. It’s a small town that has been around for a long time but is not feeling the encroachment of Dallas. The down town has become a place of repurposed buildings. It has a lot of boutique type shops and eateries. We did our walking around before lunch.

There is a courthouse at the center of it all that has been repurposed to be a performing arts center. Most of it was not open on January 2^nd but we appreciated the outside part of the building. Most of the visible façade was built in the 1920s.

There are also two ‘bank’ facades. When they were built, the thought must have been that they would always be banks!

There are bits of whimsy along the sidewalks too. I’m not sure how many painted frogs there were. I managed to photography two of them.

One store had a metal giraffe with a scarf outside the doorway.

There was a cotton boll wreath in one of the store windows. At one time, the town economy was based on cotton and it was prosperous enough to enable to remodeling of the courthouse to its present form.

The store fronts themselves are interesting and the businesses appear to being doing well enough to maintain them. Unlike a lot of small towns that are overcome by a nearby big city, McKinney seems to be thriving as itself. There were people enjoying a sunny (and warm) winter day all around the square while we were there and the Irish Pub where we had lunch filled up while we were eating our lunch.

If you are in the area – it’s worth spending a few hours browsing the shops and having a meal.