Tracks in the Snow

Last week we got a little bit of snow. It was an easy snow to deal with: less than an inch, pavement warm enough to melt it. There was no delayed opening for schools or cancelled events. It was pretty on the surface of our deck and the grass in the yard. The juncos were out at our feeder and in the snow. I took some pictures of their tracks on the deck floor. Some areas had been so heavily used that the tracks were overlapping – showing the density of bird traffic for the whole morning. The tracks look a lot like the theropod (dinosaur) tracks I used as a Zentangle pattern with the summer campers! The campers were quick to tell me that birds are our ‘living dinosaurs.’

Of course, I made my own print in the snow when I went out to take the photographs.

By the end of the day, all the snow and footprints had melted away. Maybe the next time it snows there will be enough to make snow ice cream.

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 14, 2019

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.

The Two Genomes in Every Eukaryotic Cell | The Scientist Magazine® and Infographic: How the Mitochondrial and Nuclear Genomes Interact | The Scientist Magazine® - A lot has been discovered about mitochondrial DNA (and genetics) since I was in college in the 1970s!

Yellowstone's Wolves: Infusing Wildness into The Landscape – The story of wolves in Yellowstone over the past 25 years – the positive impact on the ecosystem as a whole

Sunlight-Tracking Polymer, Inspired by Sunflowers, Could Maximize Solar Power | Smart News | Smithsonian – Another way that solar panels can gain efficiency.

Springfield Plateau: Yellowjacket Nest – A yellowjacket tale from Springfield MO. I was surprised that ice was the treatment for a sting. I’ve always used baking soda with ice as the backup plan if there isn’t any baking soda available.

Why biodegradables won’t solve the plastic crisis - BBC Future – There are only pieces of a solution at this point….nothing comprehensive. It seems like the best strategy for at home is to reduce all single use plastic as much as possible. There are some easy things like reusable shopping and produce bags, but it becomes hard quickly. So many groceries and toiletries only come in plastic containers.

Remote Sensing Data Advances Soil Health Science – Cover crops and no-till practices were an advantage in record-breaking rainfalls of spring 2019.

How the House Finch Conquered Your Feeder…and A Continent – A little history of House Finches – originally from the southwest and Mexico…now in found widely across North America.

How the Aztecs could improve modern urban farming: Chinampas: An old technique might provide new solutions to sustainable urban agriculture -- ScienceDaily – The article made the multiple harvests per season seem feasible in tropical wetlands…not so much in the temperate zone where the artificial islands would go through a real winter although maybe it would just mean the use of cover crops during that time period.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week: December – Bird photography to enjoy!

Listening to Nature: The Emerging Field of Bioacoustics - Yale E360 – An up and coming technology for remote sensing of birds, insects, frogs and other animals.

Blog: Insect Collection Photographs – Part II

I remember my own experience making an insect collection during the summer between my freshman and sophomore year of high school. I used thin black pins from the local university book store and found some light green Styrofoam that I cut to fit in a rectangular box. One of my friends and I made insect nets: Netting sewn into a sock-light shape with the open end gathered onto clothesline wire that was looped and duct taped to a dowel or old broom handle. They worked reasonably well! Butterflies and moths were my favorites – but I also was very pleased with dragonflies I captured as well. I included at least 2 cicada killers but not captured with the net; I put a jar over the hole I saw them disappear into! It was a memorable experience  from the late 1960s.

I never did see a cecropia moth back then…but my son-in-law has several specimens. The one with the bushier antennae below is the male. The female is the larger of the two.

There are adult and pupae in my son-on-law’s boxes.

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He even managed to preserve a caterpillar with emerging parasitoid larvae! I never developed the expertise to find and preserve anything like that.

Insect Collection Photographs – Part I

My son-in-law has an insect collection that he’s mounted in wooden boxes – carefully labeled – to use for reference and outreach. He took the top covers off to make them easier to photograph.

The dragonflies look very much as they do when alive.

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He pointed out the Dobson flies – what hellgrammites (benthic macroinvertebrates) grow up to be. It’s always very exciting to find the larvae in our stream surveys…we don’t see the adults as often. Both specimens appear to be females since the males have longer mandibles.

Not an invertebrate I want to see in a house when it’s alive!

Some of the insects are pinned to display their wing patterns with one side folded…the other unfurled.

I’ll share more for other boxes tomorrow….butterflies and moths.

Maryland Water Monitoring Council Annual Conference

The 25th MWMC Annual Conference was held last week. It was my third time to attend and it was, once again, a great opportunity to catch up on water-related research and Maryland specific plans, activities, and accomplishments. The two themes in the sessions I chose to attend were watershed health and remote sensing. I am hoping the agenda with links for the presentation material will come out soon since my note taking is not all that legible.

I also enjoyed the vendor tables. One of the companies that did the stream restoration at Howard Country Conservancy’s Davis Branch had a table – and a post card picturing the project (before last summer’s drought)!

One vendor had a great ‘Got Bugs? Banner and another had macroinvertebrate stickers.

There were other giveaways too – lip balm, pens, a frog shopping bag, and a folding card Field Guide to Aquatic Macroinvertebrates.

The conference was the largest every – with over 600 attendees.

Last 2019 Student Event at Mt Pleasant

Last week the annual Howard County Conservancy ‘Weather to the Extreme’ conference was held for 6th grade students from half the middle schools in our county. I volunteered as a session moderator. As usual – I was too busy to take pictures after the students arrive…but there was a little time just after I arrived. As I got out of my car, I heard a noise in the trees just above me and the squirrel continued to work on the black walnut long enough for me to take pictures. It’s amazing that the squirrels can get through the tough shell of these nuts.

There was a tiny amount of snow overnight…still evident in a few areas…no enough to cause any traffic challenges.

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The witch hazel is still blooming, and the seed pods will be forming soon. There are buds on the witch hazel that blooms in February now. I’ll try to check them every time I go to Mt Pleasant over the winter.

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Very few of the cone flower seed heads look intact. The birds enjoy the seeds….and probably knock some to the ground that will grow next spring.

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There are always things to see around Mt Pleasant….even on a cold and damp day!

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 7, 2019

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.

Red Tides Under the Microscope | The Scientist Magazine® - It’s surprising what we don’t yet know about the organism responsible for red tides – Karenia Brevis. Spanish explorers of Florida in the 15th and 16th centuries described fish kills in Gulf waters. The first official documentation was in 1882 – published in the Proceedings of the US National Museum. This article is about what we know….and where more research is needed.

The woman who reshaped maths - BBC Future – Hilda Geiringer…a refugee from the Nazis. A BBC Future column celebrating a ‘missed genius’ whose contributions are still notable in the world today.

NOAA weather balloons find no zero-ozone regions above South Pole during 2019 ozone hole season | NOAA Climate.gov – A little science…a little history…a projection. The positive message – if the trend continues, it’s estimated that the ozone layer will recover around 2070.

Abrupt shifts in Arctic climate projected: Likelihood of an abrupt increase in wildfires also noted -- ScienceDaily – With specific modeling of permafrost as it continues to degrade….it appears that the changes won’t be as gradual as  previously assumed.

Lake On Bottom Of Halema‘uma‘u Crater At Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park Now Bigger Than Football Field – The lake was noticed back in July….and is being studied with instruments on drones. More information is at the National Park Service site for the park.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week: Wild Birds – National Geographic Society Newsroom – I always enjoy the bird photography compiled by National Geographic every week.

Offshore Wind Has the Potential to Fulfill Global Electricity Demand 18 Times Over - Yale E360 – Hurray for this potential….the transition is the challenge.

AP: At least 1,680 dams across the US pose potential risk – There is a link to an interactive map that shows where the 1,680 dams are located. The last paragraphs of the article are the most troubling. There are a lot of dams with unknown status. Roughly 45% of Texas dams are exempt from regulation…in Missouri safety inspections are only done on 650 of its more than 5,000 dams. And states that know about problematic private dams often can’t identify the owners to address the dam’s issues.

Aging in good health: The inequalities are widening -- ScienceDaily – A study with over 11 million people tracked for 25 years!

Susquehanna Sediment in the Chesapeake Bay – Imagery of big rivers and the Chesapeake Bay after a storm at the end of October…. close to where I live. On a positive note - the sediment (even after the record rains earlier this year) has not damaged the underwater grasses on the Susquehanna Flats as much as was initially feared.

Springfield Conservation Nature Center

One of the places I wanted to see while I was in Springfield, Missouri was the Conservation Nature Center. The weather was wet and cold when we arrived. I took a few pictures of the oak trees in the parking lot – noting a school bus (a group that might have been on a field trip) too.

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The triangular logo was on the building as we made our way to the door.  The emphasis is on conservation rather than natural resources or nature as in Maryland where we have a Department of Natural Resources. It seems to be a semantic difference that may have some broader implications although it wasn’t obvious looking at the displays in the Springfield Conservation Nature Center.

The foyer space was used for bird shapes – on the floor and overhead. It was a good display to compare relative sizes of birds.

There was a wall of windows that looked out onto a small pond and bird feeders. The November birds in Missouri are the ones I recognize from my feeders in Maryland: titmouse, Carolina wren, downy woodpecker, red-bellied woodpecker, nuthatch. I talked with the volunteer there about the types of naturalist groups in Springfield…and volunteer opportunities. It would be easy to find similar volunteer gigs in Springfield that I have in Maryland; another bit of information for when (and if) we move to Missouri.

There were some live exhibits – turtles, frogs and snakes….some fish.

I enjoyed the kite-sized mobiles of butterflies and moths overhead in one of the display areas.

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It was a good short outing for a late November day. Next time I am in Springfield, I will take to the trails around the nature center.

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 30, 2019

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.

US-born residents more than 5 times likely to use prescription opioids than new immigrants -- ScienceDaily – Evidently new immigrants are often healthier than non-immigrants despite their poorer background….which is a clue that there is something about American culture that influences opioid use.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week: Spectacular – National Geographic Society Newsroom – Enjoy the birds! We are enjoying the birds coming to our feeder and (heated) bird bath…in the trees around our house. They are easier to see now that the leaves have fallen from the tees.

50 Fish, 50 States: Small Stream Wonders – Cool Green Science – Lots of small fish! When we are in the streams with high school students, we often find small fish but since they aren’t what we are looking for – we simply put them back without identification. Maybe I should look for a simple small fish ID to take a long and start to photograph them too.

A Giant Treehouse 'Like A Castle' Is Destroyed By Fire In Tennessee: NPR – My sister and I visited this giant treehouse in 2012 when we were in that area of Tennessee. Sad that it’s gone.

Hurricanes have become bigger and more destructive for USA -- ScienceDaily – An expensive trend.

When Turkeys Attack – I’m glad the wild turkey population is recovering….hope we can develop strategies to co-exist!

Scientists study impact of sediments and nutrients from Conowingo Dam on Chesapeake Bay -- ScienceDaily – Close to home. The base of Conowingo Dam is where we go to view Bald Eagles. There is a lot of concern now about the sediment build up in the reservoir --- state governments and the utility are working to determine best options for prolonging the energy generation capacity of the dam and improving water quality into the bay.

Big Box Stores Leading the Shift to Renewable Energy - News | Planetizen – Wal-Mart and Target are all in….what about other big box stores? What about owners of shopping centers? Lots of stores are in leased spaces.

Five Architectural Firms Retained to Redesign National Mall Tidal Basin – Another ‘close to home’ in this set of gleanings. This one is in the District of Columbia. Think of the Jefferson Memorial and the cherry blossoms. Flooding has increased over the time we have living in this area (now over 35 years). Hope they can develop a good design and get the funding to implement it.

Manta Ray Populations Have Complex Social Structures | The Scientist Magazine® - A study of the reef mantas as they aggregate around the reefs of the eastern Indonesian archipelago Raja Ampat. The study showed two distinct groupings: one dominated by older females and the other a mix of sexes and ages.

Zooming – November 2019

November was busy with activities that didn’t include a lot of photography…..but still enough to show off some great zoom photos. Museum photography is easy using the zoom since I can get the shot I want while standing well back from the object to avoid reflections off glass cases. Usually the lighting of objects is concentrated so that my camera’s autofocus works very well. Then there are the pictures from outdoors – birds and autumn scenes. The zoom allows me to frame the picture the way I want – avoiding the need to crop later.

All the images this month were taken with my small point-and-shot Cannon SX730 HS rather than my larger Canon SC60 HS bridge camera. The smaller camera is easier to carry in my purse and faster to turn on and get the pictures of birds at my feeder!

Mt Pleasant in November 2019

The Howard Country Conservancy fall field trips for elementary students are over for the season. I took a few pictures at Mt Pleasant as the place moved through the fall – between hikes with the students. The meadow is shades of brown now. The students almost always ask about the yellow fruits of horse nettle that are nestled down in the grasses; the color makes them stand out. Many times, we see black or turkey vultures soaring over the meadow.

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Some of the dried foliage and seed pods are worth a closer look….for their complexity or the seeds attached to fibers that easily carry the seeds away (thistles and golden rod and milkweed).

There are vines on some of the trees that are colorful – invasives like oriental bittersweet usually.

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On a very cold day, I rolled over a small log. I didn’t see any squiggling critter but there was a small mushroom and amber droplets (maybe fungus?).

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On a log at the edge of a brush pile, fungus was continuing its decomposition; the bark had already sluffed off.

There is always something interesting on every hike….I’m always in awe of what the student notice and ask about….glad that they enjoy being outdoors as much as I do.

Red-Bellied Woodpecker

My favorite birds in our backyard this month has been a pair of Red-bellied Woodpeckers. They are probably the largest bird that comes to our feeder. They contort themselves to move seeds around until they can get the larger sunflower seeds. Both the male and female take turns. The red feathers extend to the top of the head on the male…and are just on the back of the head/neck on the female. These birds both look like they are in prime condition.

I’ve also discovered that our neighbors have a feeder that the birds frequent. The birds are getting a lot of support in this neighborhood!

Sometimes the birds fly away with their seed and sometimes they seem to take it to the roof edge of our covered deck. I am beginning to wonder if they are slipping the seeds under the shingles for storage. Both the male and female seem to be doing it.

Most of the time I haven’t been able to photograph the birds in the trees but now that more of the leaves are gone in the red maple, maybe I’ll see them more frequently.

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 23, 2019

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.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week: Seed Eaters – National Geographic Society Newsroom – Quite a variety. Some are small and somewhat drab…but with the camera’s magnification – it’s easy to see that many are more interesting..

The best and worst countries to be a woman – Inclusion, security and justice. Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria, and Pakistan are the worst….Norway, Switzerland, Finland and Denmark are the best. The US scored 19 of 167 countries.

We asked women around the world these 6 provocative questions – Thought provoking and a good read for the answers from women.

Computer science classes break down cultural barriers, study shows -- ScienceDaily – This was certainly true for computer science classes and gender barriers in the US during the 70s and early 80s….and then it wasn’t. Hopefully the same does not happen in the future to this project and projects like them.

Renaissance Nun's 'Last Supper' Painting Makes Public Debut After 450 Years in Hiding | Smart News | Smithsonian – A little art history -- Plautilla Nelli. The article includes pictures before and after restoration of the painting.

California's crashing kelp forest: How disease, warming waters, and ravenous sea urchins combined to kill the kelp and close the red abalone fishery -- ScienceDaily – An ecological horror story that happened between 2013 and 2017.

Infographic: Red Tides Still Hold Tantalizing Mysteries | The Scientist Magazine® - There have been more stories about red tides in Florida again recently, so this article caught my attention. It appears that there is still a lot to learn about the organism.

Horrifying True Stories of Insect Zombies – Cool Green Science – Insect parasitized by fungus, worms, other insects….the amazing complexity of natural interactions.

Replacing coal with gas or renewables saves billions of gallons of water -- ScienceDaily – This is a big deal – particularly in areas that are water challenged (like much of the western US).

The fragrance factory: Roure-Bertrand Fils and the perfume industry in Grasse | Europeana Blog – Perfume history…from the early 1900s.

Through my Office Window – November 2019

There has been a lot of bird traffic visible through my office window in November. The Blue Jays are frequent visitors – at the icy bird bath (we’ll put the heated bird bath out soon), in the trees, on the gutter, and in the yard.

Both male and female Northern Cardinals enjoyed the seeds on the deck and from the new feeder.

The Downy Woodpecker pair comes to the feeder and finds seeds between the deck railings and insects(?) in the knots of the deck boards.

The House Finches have returned

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As have the Dark-eyed Juncos. It took the juncos a few days to discover the feeder. They were finding enough seeds on the ground underneath it before that.

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The Mourning Doves are always around.

The Northern Flickers (yellow shafted) rarely come to the deck but they are around – probably more frequently than I see them. The pictures are not as good because the birds are farther away from my window – usually on a neighbor’s roof or in the red maple. One picture shows the yellow shafts very clearly.

The White-breasted Nuthatch is fun to watch – sorting through the seeds until it gets a sunflower seed. The bird has a unique shape and behavior!

The Tufted Titmice move around a lot but are frequent visitors to the feeder. They always look like their eyes are too big their head.

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There are other birds that come to the feeder as well. The chickadees come frequently but are so fast that it’s hard to get a picture of them.

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The squirrels stay in the trees most of the time. They come to the deck for water – but are frustrated by our feeder that has turned out to be as ‘squirrel proof’ as advertised.

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Gleanings of the Week Ending November 16, 2019

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.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week: November – Enjoy the birds!

Common nutrient supplementation may hold the answers to combating Alzheimer's disease -- ScienceDaily – Choline….not sure I am even getting the recommended intake very often. Taking a supplement might be worthwhile.

Female scientists gaining recognition for their breakthroughs – A little history….and hope that things are changing for female scientists working now. This article is from the November 2019 special issue of National Geographic, “Women: A Century of Change.”

New report highlights Alaska’s last five years of dramatic climate change | NOAA Climate.gov – There are often stories about dramatic high temperatures in Alaska…but this is an overall look at what is happening.

A Field Guide to Commonly Misidentified Snakes – Cool Green Science – The first photograph is labeled ‘#NotACopperhead’ – lots of snakes have probably been killed by people thinking they were a poisonous snake.

Image of the Day: Stick and Leaf Insects | The Scientist Magazine® - The article includes a link to the full study too (here). The figures alone are worth a look.

Non-pharmacologic treatments may be more effective for psychiatric symptoms of dementia -- ScienceDaily – Outdoor activities, massage and touch therapy may be more effective that drugs….and they don’t have the side effects of the drugs. I hope the findings of this study are incorporated into care decisions.

Image of the Day: Brains and Braincases | The Scientist Magazine® - The human skull shows adaptations for walking upright more than changes because of our brain structure.

Photos of the Week – October 18, 2019 | The Prairie Ecologist – Milkweed seeds.

Textile technology: Joseph-Marie Jacquard and the loom that changed the world – Some textile history from the early 1800s.

Luna Moth

A few weeks ago – a Luna Moth was found on the parking lot of Howard County Conservancy’s parking lot at Mt Pleasant. It was not able to fly very well (probably injured) so was taken into the nature center. The first time I saw it, the long ‘tails’ were still relatively intact…but I didn’t have my camera with me.

The next day it had managed to fly up to the ‘exit’ sign in the nature center and I had my camera. The ‘trails’ had broken off, but it is still a beautiful moth. The creamy green jade color is very appealing.

This was the second Luna Moth for me this year. The other was at a rest stop on I-44 in Missouri back in June.

Both sightings were cause for a little celebration!

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 9, 2019

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.

Infographic: How Air Pollution Could Affect the Brain | The Scientist Magazine® - A quick and disturbing summary. The evidence of harm: particles like those produced by vehicle engines found in frontal cortex (postmortem), reduced volumes of white matter, slowed development of children, inflammation related damage to brain cells, and higher accumulation of Alzheimer-associated proteins.

Happier Babies Have an Edge - Scientific American Blog Network – The more children experience happy emotions, the more time they spend building skills and relationships that help them in the future.

900 Pythons Removed from South Florida – That’s a lot of snakes. Kudos to the Python Action Team. There are other organizations (government and non-profits) working on this too. I wish the article would have included information about what they do with the snakes after they are captured. Presumable they are killed.

Study: 95 percent of baby food contains traces of toxic metals - UPI.com – Not good. The full report referred to in the article is available here. I wonder if pediatricians are changing their recommendation when it comes to some foods (like rice cereal for babies).

Newly discovered virus infects bald eagles across America -- ScienceDaily – Over 1/3 of America’s Bald Eagles are infected…and it might be causing a fatal disease – Wisconsin River Eagle Syndrome.

BBC - Future - What life might be like in alien oceans – Lots of possibilities. It will be interesting to get some probes (submersibles, etc.) out to the moons of other planets in our solar system that have alien oceans…maybe life.

From quills to typewriters: how the industrial revolution changed our writing culture | Europeana Blog – A little history lesson.

National Science Board highlights Skilled Technical Workforce shortage in new report - The Bridge: Connecting Science and Policy - AGU Blogosphere – “Without immediate action, the US risks falling behind other nations that are making significant investments in their Science and Engineering workforce and the Science and Technology enterprise.”  The whole report can be found here.

The Platypus Is Weirder Than You Ever Imagined – Cool Green Science – They don’t have a stomach, their venom can help treat diabetes, their milk can help fight antibiotic resistance….the list goes on.

Photography in The National Parks: Your Armchair Photography Guide To Olympic National Park, Part 2 – The Forests – National Parks….always a great destination for nature photography.

Staunton River State Park – Chaos Star Party

Continuing the posts about our trek to the Chaos Star Party at Staunton River State Park….

The Virginia LOVE theme cares to the state parks. Staunton River’s included the date the park was established…1936.

There were various signs for the star party in the areas of the park dedicated to it. The field was full of tents and campers and trailers. We were in our roomy tent with a screened area for my husband’s electronics and chair….with the telescope just a few steps away. Some people probably were staying in the cabins and coming to the field with their telescope at night. We preferred a place to sleep near the telescope…makes it easier to lay down once the clouds roll in or the dew gets too heavy for observing. My husband had two clear-sky nights and had some observational successes (I slept relatively well through it all).

Someone did an excellent job with a pumpkin near the cantina.

We managed a short hike. We’d been hearing a lot of birds, but they must have been migrating through – stopping for the night on the water. They’d flown off by the time we were up and about. We did see a juvenile Red-headed Woodpecker making a hole in a dead branch (hanging upside down). I didn’t know what it was until after I got home and could check references. It was the drabbest woodpecker I’d ever seen! It will eventually have the distinctive red head.

The woodpecker was in some trees that were around the cabins at the park. Most of them were oaks and the acorns were plentiful….lots of food for the woodpecker and squirrels. There were some other nests around too but we weren’t seeing many other birds.

The sweet gums were full of color – reds and yellows. And the seeds…prickly.

A Great Blue Heron was one of the few birds we saw on the water. It was at the limit of the zoom on my camera.

I turned around on the beach and caught some motion in the leaves. A spider moving over the sand and onto a leaf where it was not as well camouflaged.

On the way back we noted the solar system model that has been set up starting with the sun (yellow orb) close to the observing field and extending along the road.

The morning we were getting ready to leave there was a sun dog. What a great serendipity for our last morning at the park!

Conowingo in October – part 2

Continuing the post about our trek to Conowingo Dam….

There were quite a few birds on the rocks just past the abutment. The camera zoom is put to good use to identify what’s there. I posted about the Bald Eagle and Black Vultures yesterday. The other two types of birds (other than gulls) were Double-crested Cormorants and a Great Blue Heron.

At first, I noticed cormorants that were in the water – and yes, those are rafts of bubbles (soap?) in the water.

Then I noticed one that had caught a fish. It maneuvered it toward the rocks on the side of the river near us and the fisherman. The bird struggled to control the fish and orient it so it could be swallowed. I never saw the swallow….and it looked like it would be a tight fit. The fish was probably a channel catfish…and it was bleeding from its fight with the cormorant.

I saw another cormorant with a fish. This time the bird had pierced the fish.

Back to the rocks on the far side of river, the cormorants open their wings in the sunshine like the black vultures. Sometimes there seems to be an interaction between birds with their wings open.

There was a heron that I first noticed near a rock at the end of the abutment.

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It then flew to the rocky spit of the central island. That place has always been a favorite for herons, but it was altered by the floods. The rocks that extended further toward the dam must have been rolled away by the floods last year.

We’ll be visiting the dam again before the end of the year….hoping to see even more eagles (and maybe a bigger variety of gulls too).

Conowingo in October – part 1

A couple of weeks ago we headed up to Conowingo Dam. This time of year the local Bald Eagle population is supplemented by birds coming from further north to enjoy the bounty of fish at the base of the dam through the winter. It was a clear and cool morning with the moon still visible near the treetops.

The water was much lower than earlier this year when the water was very high and fishermen/birds were elsewhere.

Fall was in full swing. The drought had reduced the color but there were still burst of color and seeds to notice while we were looking for eagles.

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My best eagle pictures of the day were of one that flew into a tree on the slope above us (i.e. we were between the bird and the river. I zoomed in for a picture of the head and the talons. The bird flew back toward the river a few second after the talon shot.

There are always a lot of Black Vultures at Conowingo and this time was no exception. They like the vantage point of some of the high structures on the dam and the abutment down closer to the water. Vultures are the bird version of a ‘cleanup crew.’ Based on the number of black vultures always around Conowingo, there must be a lot of carcasses (fish?) around there. This time we didn’t see any congregate near the parking lot gate….they were all out on structures or rocks…in the morning sun.

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Now for some challenge pictures. How many eagles do you see in the pictures below? Remember that juvenile eagles do not have white heads or tails. They are clearly different than the black vultures in the pictures.

There are 3 juvenile and 1 mature Bald Eagles. What about the next picture?

In this one there is only one juvenile Bald Eagle, but I took the picture to show how distinctive the wing tips of the Black Vulture are. They often spread their wings like this --- very dramatic black and white bird. In flight the white tips are also visible and make them easy to identify when they soar overhead.

Tomorrow I’ll post about the other birds we saw at Conowingo.