Road Trip to the Eastern Shore

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My husband and I signed up for the field trips offered by Delmarva Birding the last weekend of January. The first one was on Friday afternoon, so we finished packing and left after the morning rush hour. I was still up early enough to see the sunrise. There were enough clouds to hold the light.

The clouds had thickened by the time we left. By the time we got to the Bay Bridge, the water and sky were very gray. The bridge going from east to west is being renovated…I took a picture as we crossed the other span….intending to take more on the way home.

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Our first ‘birding’ happened on the road. As we drove near Bridgeville, Delaware - a flock of snow geese flew up from a field. I took a picture as we drove past. That field was the only one we saw with a flock of birds like that. Maybe more grain had been spilled in that field?

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The Sunday afternoon, as we were driving back, was cloudy again. The view of the part of the bridge under active construction showed a lot of barriers to catch debris, concrete barriers closing off one lane…and scaffolding.

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The view of the other side of the bridge is the same ad usual…the Bay Bridge is an awesome bridge. The traffic was moving smoothly both times we crossed the bridge; I don’t want to be making this drive during the warmer months when the construction with make the traffic more challenging than past summers.

Stay tuned for upcoming posts about our Winter Delmarva Birding Weekend!

Hike at Mt Pleasant

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A couple of weeks ago – I went on a hike with fellow volunteers at Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant. We hiked on some of newer trails that avoid the muddy areas that had developed on some of the older trails in recent years. We headed down toward Hodge Podge Lodge. The stream nearby was frozen, but the Christmas ferns still provided a bit of greenery along the banks. It’s easy to see the stream with so much of the undergrowth in winter mode.

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Some old logs always seem to have new shelf fungus.

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The new trail passed a stand of large black cherry trees – with beautiful bark.

As we walked through an area planted with native trees in the past few years – we spotted some egg cases of mantises.

I always enjoy photographing seed pods too. The dogbane pod (to the right) must have popped open recently….the puff od seeds to be carried away on the next breezy day. The Queen Anne’s Lace seeds have already been distributed.

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There are some non-native grasses that probably started out as ornamentals in someone’s yard….and the seeds somehow got to the meadow.

Finally, we came to the area that I wanted to check for skunk cabbage. I noticed the frost on the plants along the stream.

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And then we saw the skunk cabbage. We’ve had some warm days and then it was in 20 and 30s again. The plants have overcome much of that; they can generate some heat with their chemical processes and draw themselves down into the muck when it gets cold.

But the big new things for me on the hike was skunk cabbage seeds! Most of the time the seeds are down in the muck, but we found some on the surface looking like some odd deer poop at first glance. I’m glad the stand of skunk cabbage is producing seeds…probably expanding.

Another good thing about the hike on a cold day is that the boggy places were frozen. We could hear the crackles of ice in the grass under our feet….and we didn’t come back with muddy boots! We looped around to an older portion of the trail and I saw the 2 logs that crossed the stream have now  rotted enough to clearly not be good ‘bridges.’

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As we made our way closer to the Nature Center, we talked about a stand of paw paws that are popular at least one week of the summer camp (for their fruits). I noticed some ferns that had dried in interesting shapes.

There was also a picked apart seed pod (maybe sycamore?) on a bed of oak leaves….a last picture before checking out the witch hazel before we went inside to get warm.

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Gleanings of the Week Ending February 1, 2020

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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.

Unusual Urban Bobcat Spotted in Washington, D.C. | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – Wow! There is more open area where I live (between Washington DC and Baltimore)…maybe there is a bobcat around here too.

Low doses of radiation used in medical imaging lead to mutations in cell cultures -- ScienceDaily - Discovery that radiation creates breaks that allow in foreign DNA must be confirmed in animal studies. Maybe this is just a pathway to learning more about how cells cope with natural amounts of DNA damage….or maybe we need to look again at the risk/benefit of some routine diagnostic testing.

Stunning Chronophotos of Powerful Osprey in Mid-Hunt – Very dramatic!

Surprising Beauty Found in Bacterial Cultures – The video is less than a minute…worth watching.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week: #Feeding – National Geographic Society Newsroom – They all must eat. I kept track of what they were eating in the pictures: snail, insect or other small invertebrate, frog, rodent, fish, lizard, algae, carrion, nectar, skink, or seeds.

Walnuts may be good for the gut and help promote heart health -- ScienceDaily – I like walnuts….now just to eat them more consistently!

HEADING TO THE FOREST: Bringing Joy, Accomplishment & Hope to Children | Children & Nature Network – Forest days for kindergarteners and nature kids from preschool to high school…backyard to back country. More examples of how education in nature is happening. This was part 2…the earlier article can be found here.

America's most widely consumed oil causes genetic changes in the brain: Soybean oil linked to metabolic and neurological changes in mice -- ScienceDaily – Start reading labels….there is soybean oil is in a lot of processed foods like mayonnaise and salad dressings….the list goes on and on. Evidently other soy products (edamame, soymilk, tofu, etc.) don’t cause the same changes observed with soy oil.

Blue Jay: A New Look at a Common Feeder Bird – Our feeder is not accessible to blue jays….but we see them at our birdbath frequently….and hear their calls in the forest and our yard trees.

Macro Photography Shows Stunning Details of Carnivorous Plants – Some botanical pictures to finish out the gleanings for this week.

Zooming – January 2020

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The beginning of the new year….sunrises, birds, snow. It was a busier-than-usual January – but not for photography. I still had plenty of zoomed pictures to choose from. Most of them were taken at home but there are a few from Conowingo (the eagles and crane) and one from Belmont (the sparrow). It was a good start to the year.

Enjoy the slide show for January 2020!

Horseshoe Crab Shedding

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The big excitement when I volunteered at the Robinson Nature Center Touch Tank last week was watching a horseshoe crab shed it’s outer shell. When I first came in, I was surprised that one of the horseshoe crabs was on the top of the sand rather than buried underneath like they usually are. Then – over the course of about an hour the crab shed….moving relatively quickly in the last 15 minutes. The first place the process is visible is at the top front edge. I took pictures along the way from two perspectives so that it’s possible to see the upper shell separating and the legs/body underneath.

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Finally, the main part of the crab was free of the shed although the shed was still resting on its tail

I took a sequence that shows that the tail is very flexible when the crab is newly shed. Its shell is soft as well. We don’t pick up or touch the horseshoe crabs that are shedding or newly shed.

We moved a nearby rock and the shed floated a short distance away. The horseshoe crab was still on the surface of the sand and its shell was probably beginning to harden. This would be a vulnerable time for the horseshoe crab in the wild. The shed was upside down in the tank, showing part that had covered the legs and body of the crab. The shed is almost clear…with some brownish highlights.

It was an interesting sight to everyone that was in the Discovery Room at the time….doesn’t happen all that often.

Ten Little Celebrations – January 2020

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2020 has started out with more activity than I anticipated….more volunteering, more classes, more events…and some travel at the end of the month.

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Bluebird passing through: We don’t see bluebirds around that much….so it’s a special day when we do see one.

47th wedding anniversary: It doesn’t seem like such a long time…compared to my parents celebrating 67 years. I’m going to think of something special for our 50th coming up in 3 years!

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Children enjoying the Touch Tank: There are moments in every hour that I spend volunteering at Robinson Nature Center’s saltwater touch tank that are little celebrations for me and for the children. Whether it is awe from something an animal does…or how they feel…or just understanding something new.

Conowingo Eagles: Even on a morning I don’t get any particularly good pictures – I enjoy every trip we make to the Conowingo…and that the eagle population is back from the brink!

Hot tea with cream: Or maybe with just milk. It’s my favorite winter beverage.

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Middle Patuxent Water Monitoring: I always enjoy getting in the river and then doing the gleaning of the macroinvertebrates to identify. Since it was winter, I was braced to get very cold…but we had a wonderful sunny (not too cold) day!

Honing skills for volunteer gig: None of the classes were very long but were informative and applicable to me becoming a better volunteer. The topics ranged from autism, Howard Country Green Infrastructure Network, sensitivity training (impact of microaggression), outdoor wear fashion and function, and the spotted lantern fly. Wow – quiet a range of topics and all the presentations were excellent.

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Snow in the afternoon: So beautiful. I celebrate every snow these days because I don’t have to drive in it!

Zentangle® with Howard County Conservancy volunteers: I love guiding group Zentangle sessions. This particular group seemed to enjoy the session…and had some ideas about ‘next steps’ in a practice. And like the campers last summer…got a little Zen as well.

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Cooper’s Hawk on a Snowy morning: Often a ‘little celebration’ is a surprise that just happens. Seeing the Cooper’s Hawk fly into our sycamore was that kind of celebration – although I am glad the hawk is not around my backyard more frequently (since I enjoy the other birds).

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 25, 2020

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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: January 2020 – Starting out with wild and wonderful birds this week.

Infographic: How does nature influence human health? – Most people intuitively know that nature has a positive impact…but now there is more and more research to quantify that impact.

The Plastics Pipeline: A Surge of New Production Is on the Way - Yale E360 – Just when I really want manufacturers to find ways to package products in something other than plastic….the industry has plans to ramp up production of plastic. Consumers can still make a difference with our purchases (or lack of purchase). I’m slowly but surely reducing the items I buy that come in plastic….always looking for alternatives.

New aqueous lithium-ion battery improves safety without sacrificing performance: Non-flammable, cost-efficient, and effective battery -- ScienceDaily – Hurray for all the battery research going on right now….hopefully there will be more and better options near term. It would certainly boost the speed we can transition away from fossil fuels.

Pylos Tomb Artifacts Suggest Trade Links - Archaeology Magazine – Amber from the Baltics, imported carnelian, pendant depicting an Egyptian goddess….the Greek site might have been a stop on a trade route.

Happy New Year from Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station – Kelly Brunt posted this on January 3rd….and I just got around to looking at it. She was one of our hosts at NASA for my HoLLIE class and then the keynote for our graduation. It was good to read about her recent activities!

Super Resilient Protein Structures Preserved a Chunk of Brain for 2,600 Years – Wow – what an amazing and surprising find! And there is has been some research to figure out how it managed to be preserved.

Towards Ecophilia: Being hopeful in spite of it all -I enjoyed the pictures and activity descriptions about children in nature.

How US sewage plants can remove medications from waste-water – Using granular activated carbon and ozonation….more than 95% of certain antidepressants and antibiotics can be removed. This is important to help reduce the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria and maybe other environmental harms as well. But it can be expensive.

The oldest person in the world turns 117 – I liked the last paragraph of the story the best: Last year, when Tanaka received her record for the world’s oldest person, she was asked about the happiest moment in her long life. Her reply was simple: “Now.” Wouldn’t it be great if we all could feel like that no matter how old we are!

Through my Office Window – January 2020

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It’s easy to photograph birds through my office window – when I am in the office and not totally focused on something else. I’ve positioned my computer and raised the bird feeder slightly so I can see activity in my peripheral vision while I am working at the computer. I just grab my camera, stand up, make a few steps, and take pictures!

The Dark-eyed Juncos are around all the time although I rarely photograph them. We have our own little neighborhood flock. They are fast moving…like they are nervous all the time.

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We have a pair of Northern Cardinals that are around every day. Their color and sounds stand out.

The raucous groups of Blue Jays come to our trees and sometimes to our bird bath. I go to the window based on the sounds. One day this month there was a big thump on the roof above my office. Three blue jays (silent) flew off to the sycamore as I made it to the window and a single blue jay feather drifted down. Was there a fight? Did there used to be four blue jays and a hawk got one?

The Carolina Wren is at the feeder and the bath almost every day. Sometimes I am drawn to by their song and it takes some looking to find the bird. We have at least two around. We’ve had several instances where they’ve found their way into our screened deck….and we open the door for a while to help them escape.

The Red-bellied Woodpeckers come to the feeder almost every day. We have at least one pair….although the female comes more than the male (Could there be more than one female?...Maybe). The dig around for the larger seeds they like at the feeder.

Mourning Doves are frequent visitors as well. They are too big for the feeder, but they do clean up the seed underneath and they drink from the birdbath.

The House Finches have returned after a hiatus of a few years.

I like the White-breasted Nuthatch for its orientation and postures. It is head down on the feeder more than upright!

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The Downy Woodpecker comes to our feeder less frequently although I see them in the trees. Maybe that’s a positive indicator that they are finding enough food they favor in our forest.

There are birds that don’t come to our feeder but are probably frequent visitors to our yard since we are at the edge of a forest. Common Grackles pass through frequently. They look like small black birds at first glance but with a little zooming the different coloring is distinctive…and the yellow eye.

There are also flocks of Red-winged Blackbirds that come through. They very rarely come to the feeder. They must be finding plenty of food elsewhere.

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We have the Reolink camera monitoring our birdfeeder all the time these days; that gives us a great opportunity to catch more bird interaction. I’m saving that for an upcoming blog post!

In the Middle Patuxent River – January 2020

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Last week I was in the Middle Patuxent River at Robinson Nature Center for the quarterly (winter) water monitoring. The temperature was in the 50s and sunny – an easier sampling than most years. I always like to take some pictures from right at or in the river. It’s a different perspective that being on a forest or meadow trail.

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I was the only one of the sampling crew with just boots….everyone else had waders. But the river level was not too high. I didn’t get water in my boots…and no one fell in either.

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We caught a madtom (catfish) in one of the collection nets (collecting macroinvertebrates). We took pictures and let it go before we headed up the hill to the Nature Center.

In the lab, we divided the buckets of samples into plastic bins and we all started collecting macros from our bins and randomly putting them into the two partitioned trays.

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Then random numbers were drawn to determine the compartments we would id and count until we got to 100….and then we looked at what was left for anything unique. Almost everyone took a few pictures of macros. The most unique thing we found was a white worm!

This was the first time I participated in a winter monitoring and it might have spoiled me – being as warm as it was.

A Few Minutes at Belmont

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When I got in the car to go to Belmont Manor and Historic Park last week, it was evident I hadn’t been there since November; it was so far down the ‘recent’ list in my navigation system that I switched to the ‘saved’ list! Once there I finished my errand quicker than expected so took a few minutes for pictures.

Inside there was Katrina, the diamondback terrapin. She was very active.

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Outside on the side of the building, there were the familiar signs.

The red maple planted by last year’s HoLLIE class looked healthy (red tinged twigs) – dripping from the mists that were swirling around.

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But the small birds that seemed to be everywhere were what drew my attention. I’d seen a mockingbird as I walked toward the building earlier, but the small birds moved around closer to the ground in larger numbers – in the leaf and brush – blending in. I managed to photograph one – song sparrows!

Reeve’s Conchologia iconica

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I usually select three eBooks to feature in a monthly post…and I’ll do that in a week or so. Today I want to feature a series of books I found recently on Internet Archive: Conchologia iconica, or, Illustrations of the shells of molluscous animals by Lovell Augustus Reeve. There are 20 volumes (Vol v.01 (1843), Vol v.02 (1843), Vol v.03 (1845), Vol v.04 (1847), Vol v.05 (1849), Vol v.06 (1851), Vol v.07 (1854), Vol v.08 (1855), Vol v.09 (1856), Vol v.10 (1858), Vol v.11 (1859), Vol v.12 (1860), Vol v.13 (1862), Vol v.14 (1864), Vol v.15 (1866), Vol v.16 (1866), Vol v.17 (1870), Vol v.18 (1873), Vol v.19 (1874), and Vol v.20 (1878)) all published in the mid-1800s. The author died in 1865 and the series was continued by George Brettingham Sowerby. Soweby did the plates for most of the volumes. I found a reference about the books that said: It will always remain a standard work, although many of the species which Reeve created are now held to be invalid. That’s probably to be expected given the many years since they were published; science is always learning more. Still – the plates are beautiful and provide a broad view of the variety of shells known at the time. I collected one plate from each volume to use with this post.

The question that I wonder about is how many of the mollusks that produced these shells have gone extinct in the intervening years. How many types of shells represented in the books are no longer grown? The International Union of Conservation of Nature lists 310 recently extinct species.

Birds on Busy Days

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Sometimes I manage to see something interesting from my office window even on a day I am not in my office very much. Back in December I walked into my office, glanced at the tulip poplar at the edge of the forest….and stopped because there was a hawk in the tree. I grabbed my camera for a quick picture and then it flew away. It looked like a red-tailed hawk.

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This month – right after we got the board set up for our birdfeed camera mount, I came into my office and discovered that the doves had already discovered the new perch. The camera is only big enough for one but there are other perches nearby – the gutter above and the solar panel to the side are popular.

Overall our back yard seems to be a popular place for birds. Fortunately, the predators are infrequent and don’t stick around. Our feeder and bird bath have busy times during the day…and other times are very quiet. Some visitors come every day while others come only occasionally. I’m always thrilled to find bird action when I first walk into my office!

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 18, 2020

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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.

Earth at Night – This is an eBook from NASA that was last updated in December 2019….lots of pictures of the earth at night, analysis, and the technology behind the images.

Genomes Sequenced for Every US and Canada Butterfly | The Scientist Magazine® - Work by an evolutionary biologist at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. 845 butterfly species were studied.

Adding copper strengthens 3D-printed titanium -- ScienceDaily – Current titanium alloys used in 3D printing were prone to cracking and distortion. The copper alloy seems to overcome that problem.

When the best way to take notes is by hand - BBC Future – I like to take notes by hand….it always seemed easier to me than using a laptop (although I tried using a laptop to take notes in meetings during my career). Now it seems that it is better for internalizing concepts too. No need for me to try to change to anything else!

Blue Whales’ Hearts Can Beat Exceptionally Slowly | The Scientist Magazine® - As low as 2 times per minute! The high was 37 beats per minute.

Image of the Day: Ochre Paint | The Scientist Magazine® - Evidently ancient people heated aquatic bacteria mats growing in iron rich water to make a bright red paint which was used for rock art. The paint contains microfossils of the bacteria (Leptothrix ochracea). The red color is highly thermo-stable…something that has applicability to manufacturing.

Crows could be the smartest animal other than primates - BBC Future – Clever crows. Not so long ago we thought humans were the only ones to make and use tools.

Incredible Winners of the 2019 EPSON International PANO Awards – Panoramic photographs…a little eye candy for the week.

Trashed farmland could be a conservation treasure -- ScienceDaily – Interesting idea…but how much land is in this category and what happens to the people that are still trying to eke out an existence on that land.

Future For Silversword Plants At Halaeakalā National Park Dark – Rare plants…have not recovered as well as the Nene (Hawaiian goose) – for several reasons. Plants around the world are having to adjust to changing climate and some will not be able to change fast enough to continue to exist in the same places…some may become extinct. I hope the Silversword survives.

A Little Snow

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Last week we had a little snow…a few inches one afternoon and evening…enough to delay the schools opening the next morning. I took a picture as it was coming down in the afternoon before the day got too dark.

The next morning, I started before sunrise then took several pictures catching the changes in light as the sun came up and from behind the morning clouds.

The sycamore has a few leaves that caught the snow…but there were also branches acting like skewers for ribbons of snow on the tree.

The evergreens always hold a lot of snow. This time it wasn’t enough to break any limbs.

The red maple twigs already look a little red against the snow they hold.

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The tulip poplar seed pods act as little cups for the snow…the branches of the tree like a candelabra. The snow was wet enough to stick to almost all the branches.

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The big surprise of the morning was a hawk. When it first flew into the sycamore while I was getting my breakfast, I thought it was a mourning dove, but then decided it was a little larger…and then it turned its head and I knew it wasn’t a dove. The pictures were taken through a window with a screen but the shape of the tail is distinctive enough to indicate that it was probably a Cooper’s Hawk (rather than a sharp-shinned). No wonder there weren’t any birds around our feeder at the time!

The snow melted slowly over the course of the day. I was glad I didn’t have anything I needed to do away from home.

Touch Tank – January 2020

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I enjoy the volunteer gig at the Robinson Nature Center Touch Tank….getting more experienced every time I spend an hour there. The Discovery Room, where the touch tank is located, is full of activities for pre-school through elementary school aged children with the Touch Tank being available when there is a volunteer to open it.

There are two kinds of sea urchins: the slate pencil with spines that look like slate pencils from the 1800s and pin cushion with spines that are more prickles. Both names are somewhat historical for young children. Some have never seen a pin cushion! Even the adults haven’t seen slate pencils that look like the sea urchin. Everyone enjoys seeing how the pin cushion urchins ‘hide’ by holding shells and little hats to themselves. The pin cushion urchins can also hang on well enough to hang upside down for a little while on my hand…always a surprise to the children.

Sometimes the sea urchins attach themselves to something else – a rock or a conch. Do you see the pin cushion urchin on the back of the milk conch in the pictures below? The conch was on the move with eye stalks extended and vacuuming up its food from the sand.

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There are three conchs in the tank. The largest is usually the most active.

And then there are the sea stars. I like to look at them through the glass of the tank…with their suction-cup feet out and hanging on. I pick them up for the children to touch – back and front – but I like them better through the glass.

Overall, I am getting more comfortable with the animals in the tank and better at controlling the flow of people (children) around the tank. An hour at the touch tank is always an hour well spent!

Eastern Bluebird – January 2020

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On the second day of the year, a male Eastern Bluebird appeared in our backyard. I saw him first near the bird bath. By the time I got my camera, the bird was in the sycamore…looking serious. It was a relatively cold day so the bird’s feathers were a little fluffed to provide more warmth; he looks very rounded.

I thought he had flown way but when I checked the videos from our birdfeeder, I found that the bird had attempted to visit the feeder….but headed to a perch was too high to get and seed. It quickly backed away and I didn’t see it again. Even though the clips from the Reolink video are a little blurry – it does show how the bird maneuvers to back away from the birdfeeder.

We don’t see bluebirds very often so this it was a pleasant surprise to see the bird. In January 2018, I managed to photograph 3 bluebirds at our birdbath!

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 11, 2020

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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: Seabirds – Starting with the birds this week. I’m thinking about the Delmarva birding sessions later this month…they’ll be sea birds and more to see.

Clearing damaged cells out of the body helps heal diabetics' blood vessels -- ScienceDaily – Interesting….but still a lot of research needed before it could potentialy be used in treatment.

The toxic killers in our air too small to see - BBC Future – Nanoparticles – 90% of particles by busy roads are nanoparticles below 100nm. The smaller the particles, the greater potential toxicity. Anything smaller than 30 nm can make it to through the lungs and into the blood stream (larger than that doesn’t gets past the lungs). The Global Burden of Diseases study estimates that air pollution could account for 21% of all deaths due to stroke and 24% of deaths from ischaemic heart disease.

A little prairie can rescue honey bees from famine on the farm -- ScienceDaily – Food crops can provide good food for honey bees…but maybe not for the whole season.

Adult Humans Can Regenerate Cartilage: Study | The Scientist Magazine® - microRNA may have potential in human regeneration of tissue.

Agar Art Contest 2019: See this year’s winners – Art made with live bacteria.

Infrared Reveals Egyptian Mummies' Hidden Tattoos | Smart News | Smithsonian – 7 mummies – 3,000 years old. All the mummies with tattoos at the site were women.

Gabapentin: A Risky Answer to the Opioid Epidemic - The Atlantic Gabapentin has become the 10th most-commonly-prescribed medication in the US. It is viewed as a safer alternative to opioids for chronic pain….but it is problematic in combination with other sedating medication and it doesn’t work as well as hoped….particularly for back pain. It appears that looking for a quick fix for chronic pain is – again – not working as advertised.

Photography In The National Parks: My Favorite Spots For Great Photos – From Arches, Bryce Canyon, Big Bend, Acadia, and Padre Island.

Scientists Don't Know Why Freshwater Mussels Are Dying Across North America | Smart News | Smithsonian – It’s not just in one place….and may have multiple causes. But this just highlights that some mussel species that have already gone extinct…and our rivers are very different than their ‘natural’ state.

Camera on the Birdfeeder – Setting Up

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I posted some initial results of our bird feeder camera back in December. This post is a little more about our experience…now that we’ve settled on a configuration. The camera we are using is a Reolink Argus 2. In December, we were experimenting by using a ladder to temporarily mount it; our goal was to decide where to mount the camera and the best settings.

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Our first attempt at more permanent mounting (and one that would not show in the pictures like the ladder did) was on a bracket just below the eave of the covered deck. We discovered almost immediately that the bracket was not as stable as we had thought it would be; a breeze could cause the camera to move. So – we started thinking through alternatives.

Even with a wobbly camera,  we did capture a good sequence of a male and female red-bellied woodpecker interaction at the feeder (the male is the one that has red from front of his head all the way back to where the black and white feathers begin). The female was there first but flew to the support for the covered deck when the male arrived – pecking the wood (in frustration?) then flying off.

Our next mounting scheme was to mount a board to the supports for the covered deck and then the camera with its solar panel on the borad.  So far it is working well. We’ve been tweaking some settings. I’ll post some results in a few days.

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I use the Reolink Client on my PC to view the videos captured by the camera. I download the ones I want to clip for my blog – either as single images or a sequence of images. It’s been a lot of fun to watch the antics of birds that I didn’t catch from my office window. So far, we haven’t had any unexpected visitors…but I am enjoying the views of behaviors I would not have seen otherwise.

My 2019 in Review - Photos

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I managed to pick 26 pictures that were my favorites of the year either because I liked the way they turned out or because of a memory they evoked. I noticed some themes after I had collected them.

All except one are outdoors (although two were taken through my office window so I was standing indoors when I took them).

Many were pictures of plants: bare trees, witch hazel, red yucca seed pod, button bush, joe pye weed, cardoon, sunflowers, beautyberry, and red buckeye (nuts).

7 were pictures of animals or evidence of animals (other than birds): whelk shells, horseshoe crab beginning to roll over, northern red-bellied cooter (turtle), tiger swallowtail butterflies, cicada, spider, gray tree frog.

6 were pictures of birds or feathers: pelican, ibis, gallinule, bald eagle (wet), red-bellied woodpecker.

There are two sunrise pictures: one from my front porch on the first day of 2019 and one from October when we were camping in southern Virginia.

More than half the pictures are from places I go that are close to where I live (i.e. not requiring an overnight trip).

My 2019 in Review - Travel

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The Space Coast of Florida….Providence, Rhode Island…Carrollton, Texas…Cape May, New Jersey…Springfield, Missouri… Smith Island, Maryland…Scottsburg, Virginia --- these were the places we traveled in 2019.

The Space Coast of Florida was for a birding festival held in January. I had quite a few blog posts about it. That road trip got the year off to a fast start for birding.

In late March/early April, I traveled to Providence, Rhode Island on the train to take the CZT class (Certified Zentangle Training). I posted about the experience of the trip and the training here.

The only plane trip of the year was in April – to Carrollton for a niece’s wedding. And it was perfect timing for the pocket prairie (posted about here).

In May, the Cape May Birding Festival…another road trip and lots of birding…blog posts.

There were multiple trips to Springfield, Missouri during the summer to help get my daughter and son-in-law moved from Pennsylvania to Missouri. It’s a 2-day road trip in each direction…often with very full carloads of fragile stuff.  And then I was back for Thanksgiving too! I did a little exploring – the botanical garden, the art museum, and the conservation nature center. The posts are here.

The first attempt at a boat trip to Smith Island in the Chesapeake Bay was cancelled due to wind in April. The re-scheduled time was in October…and we enjoyed the trip. I posted about what we saw. The pelicans were the high point for me.

2019 10 h IMG_0990.jpg

Later in October, we were camping at Staunton River State Park near Scottsburg, Virginia for a star party. We’ve been going every year that the weather permits for the past several years. It’s always cold at night but we survive - enjoy ambience of a field of telescopes, tents, campers and cars. This year we took a short hike on one of the mornings.

Looking back – our travel was full of variety (places, activities, and seasons)…a good mix. I’m already primed for more adventures away from home in 2020!