Red-Shouldered Hawk

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Sometimes the more frequent handwashing results in a surprise observation through the window above my kitchen sink. After putting away some groceries last week…just as I was finishing up the soap and water routine, I glanced at the sycamore tree and saw a larger bird that I expected there. It was a red-shouldered hawk! I alerted my husband and he grabbed his camera to try to get a picture. I went upstairs to my office because all my cameras were there. I got three pictures from my office window before it flew down into the chaos garden at the base of the sycamore…not visible from my vantage point upstairs.

My husband got a picture too, but he groused that the window had too much glare.

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It was the most exciting minute of our day!

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There are two virtual birding festivals coming up this weekend…visual treats for the Valentines weekend:

The Niagara birding festival is free – Feb 12-14 - http://www.birdsontheniagara.org/ - 19 species of gulls….sometimes arctic species like snowy owls.

The Laredo birding festival is $25 – Feb 13 – this is the one we went to last year just as the pandemic was beginning – not sure how much will be virtual local field trips but that area is very unique with lots of tropical and subtropical birds…I got the best look ever of a great horned owl there….and road runners…and an Audubon’s oriole and white pelicans feeding together (like a ballet, all dipping their heads to feed in unison) https://riograndeinternationalstudycenter.formstack.com/forms/9th_virtual_laredo_birding_festival

I like the little surprise of seeing a bird I don’t expect to see in our backyard…gives a little serendipity to the day. It’s also a good feeling to realize that I am learning to recognize birds that I didn’t a few years ago. The pandemic has given us all a time out….and an extreme ‘learning experience.’ I am choosing to focus on the positive lessons.

Moon Set

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Late in January, we had some clear nights, and I noticed the light streaming in from the full moon when I first got up…well before sunrise. At first the moon was still high enough that it was clear of the treetops. I used the ‘night scene’ setting on my camera to get some reasonable handheld pictures.

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A bit later, the moon was down in the upper branches of the tulip poplars and the pines – depending on which window of the house I was photographing through.

The next morning, I photographed it again while the moon was still above the treetops. Look at the lower left of the orb…notice the edges are not smooth: the craters of the moon.

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The natural world is full of things to notice – even in the cold of winter through a window. Somehow starting off the day noticing something like the moon setting, the sun rising, the frost on the rooftops, a breeze moving a pine branch….fills me with joy in the moment and anticipation of the day to come.

Gleanings of the Week Ending February 6, 2021

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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.

Human egg cells are imperfect surprisingly often -- ScienceDaily – More than 7% of human oocytes contain at least one exchangeless chromosome pair…and the frequency is not affected by maternal age. Our species is hardwired to have significant numbers of miscarriages and babies with extra or missing chromosomes. The finding is interesting, but I immediately thought of some questions…has this changed over the past 100 years (i.e. have we changed our environment enough that we are impacting our reproductive success) and how does this frequency compare to other mammals?

Why our pursuit of happiness may be flawed - BBC Future – A thought provoking piece about how seeking ‘happiness’ often sets the stage for disappointment…rather than contentment.

Pollution from cooking remains in atmosphere for longer -- ScienceDaily – Eating deep-fat fried foods is not just unhealthy…the cooking of foods that way contributes to air pollution. In London, 10% of the PM2.5 particles are from deep fat frying….in Hong Kong 39%!

2nd Annual Threatened And Endangered Parks: Natural Darkness And Sounds – My husband and I are looking forward to more dark sky opportunities in national parks. So far – the ‘star parties’ we’ve been to have been at state parks and hosted by amateur astronomy clubs in the area. The dark sky venue requires a bit of infrastructure to support a field full of camping amateur astronomers with their telescopes (electricity for telescopes/computers and bath rooms with red tented windows).

Top 25 birds of the week: Colouration! - Wild Bird Revolution – Lots of color in this post to break up mostly brown and white winter color outside my window! 

U.S. Breaks Record for Billion-Dollar Climate Disasters in 2020 | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – Not a good record to be breaking…and they happened during a pandemic year too. There were 22 disasters that caused at least $1 billion in damages across America in 2020.

Q&A: Global Insect Declines Due to "Death by a Thousand Cuts" | The Scientist Magazine® - In every case researched….it’s not just one thing that caused the decline…it a cluster of primary factors (6 or more) and then other factors that are difficult to quantify.

Texas Wind Power Dominates Coal In Crossover Year – Hurray! Hopefully, the coal plants will begin to phase out in Texas and across the country as they become less and less competitive with renewable sources of power.

On the road to invisible solar panels: How tomorrow's windows will generate electricity -- ScienceDaily – I am always reluctant to consider replacement windows….but if they were cost effective solar panels…that would tip the decision toward ‘buy’!

Caligula's Gardens, Long Hidden Beneath Italian Apartment Building, to Go on View | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – A subterranean museum beneath the streets of Rome to open this spring.

eBotanical Prints – January 2021

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22 new books for the botanical prints list in January – all from Internet Archive. 7 are a continuation from December: the annual publication from the Georgia Botanical Society (Tipularia).  I started through the magazines of the Arnold Arboretum (Arnoldia) toward the end of the month. There are a lot of them still go…fodder for the browsing in February and maybe beyond.

The dates for the publications range from 1822 to 2018…close to 200 years but not as broad as some recent months. There is one image for each of the 22 new books; click an any sample images below to get an enlarged version. Enjoy the January eBotanical Prints! The whole list of 2063 eBooks can be accessed here.

Tipularia - 1993 * Georgia Botanical Society * sample image * 1993

Tipularia - 1992 * Georgia Botanical Society * sample image * 1992

Tipularia - 1991 * Georgia Botanical Society * sample image * 1991

Tipularia - 1990 * Georgia Botanical Society * sample image * 1990

Tipularia - 1989 * Georgia Botanical Society * sample image * 1989

Tipularia - 1988 * Georgia Botanical Society * sample image * 1988

Tipularia - 1987 * Georgia Botanical Society * sample image * 1987

The fern portfolio. All the species of British ferns are included in this volume * Heath, Francis George * sample image * 1885

Our woodland trees * Heath, Francis George * sample image * 1878

Autumnal leaves * Heath, Francis George * sample image * 1885

Garden Rockery: How to make, plant, and manage it * Heath, Francis George * sample image * 1908

The Fern World * Heath, Francis George * sample image * 1877

Monographie des prêles * Kornfeld, Albert (editor) * sample image * 1822

Phillipine Hoya species: a monograph * Kloppenburg, Dale * sample image * 1991

Flora and ecology of the Santa Monica Mountains * Southern California Botanists * sample image * 2007

Arnoldia -  v.48:no.1-4 (1988) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 1988

Arnoldia -  v.76:no.1 (2018) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2018

Arnoldia -  v.76:no.2 (2018) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2018

Arnoldia -  v.75:no.1 (2017) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2017

Arnoldia -  v.75:no.2 (2017) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2017

Arnoldia -  v.75:no.3 (2017) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2017

Arnoldia -  v.75:no.4 (2017) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2017

3 Days of Snow

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Today our forecast is mostly cloudy…after three days of cloudy skies and snow. The streets are already clear, and the driveway has some clear patches without us ever shoveling. We enjoyed our snow days but are glad to see a bit more sun!

On the first day we had a lot of webinars from the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife which we were watching on the biggest screen in the house (the television) and had a fire going in the fireplace. We had a power failure a little before 8 AM for a few seconds and the cable/internet was out for about an hour afterward. It’s a good thing the first festival session of the day was recorded so we could watch it later!

I tried some snowflake photography twice during the day. I used my phone with a clip-on lens that included a light and a red glass plate to catch the snowflakes. The temperature was about 30 degrees which is on the warm side for good snowflake photography.

The flakes during the first session about 8AM were clumping although there was one that seems to look like a pyramid with a hexagonal base! Even though I had cooled down the plate and lens for over an hour, there was still some melting.

During the second session shortly after noon, it was easier to see individual snowflakes, but they were heavily encrusted with tiny ice spheres.

I tried to capture some scenes from our back and front yard over the course of the day. Our deck and bird feeder still drew the birds even while it was snowing.

I made snow ice cream in the afternoon – after enough snow had accumulated. We ate the whole big bowl!

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Overnight there was freezing rain so there was an icy crust on everything the second day.

I cracked the ice of the top of the snow on the deck and made snow ice cream again. It was too icy, but we ate most of it anyway.

It snowed more overnight than we though it would so the third day had snow on top of ice. I worried that it might be too heavy for some of the trees because there was some wind as well….but we didn’t hear or see any breakage.  I took pictures of scenes through several windows.

Two of my favorite pictures of the day were taken through the windows on the side of the front door. The vertical ice and snow covered thread in the azalea is an old spider web that’s been there since last fall! The seed pod with a hat of ice and snow is a black-eyed Susan from last summer.

Our plum tree was so full of snow that it obscured the evergreens across the street. The view through the skylights was different too; one had patches of ice partially obscuring the branches of the sycamore in the background.

As always – the view from my office window was the best in the house.

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Red-Bellied Woodpecker and House Sparrow

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My husband has started setting up his camera and tripod out on the deck pointed focused on the birdfeeder at times we anticipate high in bird activity. The most interesting interaction he has captured so far is between a House Sparrow and our resident female Red-bellied Woodpecker. The sparrow was there first;  when the woodpecker arrives, it threatens the sparrow. The sparrow moves to the other side of the feeder. The woodpecker moves and threatens again…driving off the sparrow completely. Enjoy the slideshow action! (Use the arrows to move between frames to see the encounter.)

The woodpecker is the top bird at the feeder as far as I can tell. It even drives starlings away! The smaller birds like finches and chickadees scatter when the woodpecker swoopes toward the feeder. The White-breasted Nuthatch often trades off with the woodpecker and may be the next up in the order although it is sometimes willing to share the feeder with a smaller bird. Fortunately, the woodpecker has other sources of food so the rest of the birds get a turn.

Ten Little Celebrations – January 2021

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And 2021 is off to a roaring start. Even with the jarring events of Jan. 6 and the pandemic still raging, there were plenty of reasons to celebrate in January 2021.

Bluebirds at our bird feeder –I celebrate when a bluebird group comes to our deck since it doesn’t happen very often. They seem to show up most frequently when there is snow and ice!

Piliated woodpecker in our forest – They don’t come to our deck…but are in our forest. I see them a few times each the winter when the leaves aren’t in the way. Their red heads are like flames. I think I saw a bald eagle a few times too this January. Even the fleeting sight of these birds is a celebration.

Amanda Gordan and the transition to a new President – A young poet and a shift toward hope for our troubled country toward a ‘forming a more perfect union’

Tennessee Crane Festival (virtual) – Lots of good webinars….dreaming about going to the place in January 2022. Celebrating learning about the place this year…and anticipating a visit.

Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival (virtual) – We went in 2019…hope to go to Florida again in January 2022. Celebrating the virtual version this year.

Success making a cheese omelet – I tend to make scrambled eggs but have omelet pans to cook them.  This month I opted to try making an omelet – perfect on the first try…celebrated the accomplishment (and the meal)!

Steak lunch – Our January days have been pretty cold, but my husband grilled on one of the warmer sunny days. A special lunch.

Carrot – coconut – chicken salad – I’ve discovered that if I layer a spoonful of orange marmalade, carrots, canned chicken, and coconut in a bowl….microwave it for a minute…stir…it makes a warm version of a favorite salad to enjoy in winter. Celebrating warm salads!

Howard County Sustainability Legislative Breakfast – Getting an update of what is happening locally re sustainability. I celebrated that good things are being worked at both the county and state level!

Tree trunk macros – It was a short project that I enjoyed a lot. The color and texture of winter tree trunks in our yard were celebration worthy!

Bluebirds Visit

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On the 26th – we had bluebirds at our birdfeeder! I heard a lot of chatter coming from the birdfeeder so got up to look. There was quite a crowd around the feeder with birds jostling for a perch. It was a cold icy day too. I took a few pictures from my office window then went downstairs where I took pictures through the panes of the French door in the breakfast area. The birds were moving so quickly I didn’t get a good count…but there were probably 6-8 birds…maybe only one male (he is the one that has the brighter blue feathers).

The birds that were not on the feeder were often directly below looking up!

I was using my new camera and took advantage of the zoom and vantage point of our first floor to capture some bluebird portraits…all females (not sure where the male went….the birds were very active).

I looked at the All About Birds entry for Eastern Bluebird – and found that the birds usually don’t come to feeders because they eat primarily insects and fruits. These birds must have been hungry! One of the foods they like is raisins so I’ve put some on my list for the next grocery pick-up!

Back in January 2016, I posted about bluebirds coming to our birdbath. It was a similar kind of day from a weather perspective. There were about the same number of birds in that group. There are many nesting boxes in our area which helps support the birds’ nesting. But we probably need to have more native bushes that have berries for our birds in winter; something to consider for an upcoming landscaping project.

Through my Office Window – January 2021

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I seemed to be busy with other things during January…so I was a little surprised that there were enough pictures to make a ‘through my office window’ post this month. This time of year, the heated bird bath is popular with many birds. I managed to get pictures of blue jays, Carolina chickadees, and a mourning dove there.

 Both the male and female northern cardinals are coming to the deck and feeder. The male prefers the seed under the feeder, but the female takes her time there…stays on the feeder perch of minutes rather than seconds.

The gold finches come to the feeder in small flocks. There are often 2 or 3 of them at a time.

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The white breasted nuthatch comes to the feeder but has started checking around the shingles of the covered part of the deck. I wonder if the bird stores seed there or there is something else the bird is looking for there.

I photographed the red-bellied woodpecker at the feeder but also in the maple tree. There is one in this series where the bird is getting ready to take off from the maple to make a run at the feeder. We only have a female around right now. I hope a male shows up by the spring.

Deer come through our yard frequently. Their route is always on the south side of our house – either heading to or coming from the forest. Sometimes they seem to be looking right at the camera. I saw two males butting heads at dusk, but the light was too poor to get a picture.

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There is a small flock of house finches in our area. They enjoyed nibbling the red maple buds on a warm afternoon, but they are often at the feeder this time of year as well.

My favorite pictures this month were of a group of crows finding tasty things in the back yard. They were digging down into the leaf mulch and grass; note that one of them has dirt on his beak! Also – one has white feather.

Mini Road Trip: Mt Pleasant for Skunk Cabbage

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I am realizing that I haven’t driven very much in the last 6 months. There are at least 2 problems with that: the almost full tank of gas is about 6 months old and I’m getting out of practice when it comes to driving. If my plan is to make some road trips after I get vaccinated and the pandemic begins to fade, I need to keep my car operationally sound and my skills honed. My solution for now is to start making some mini road trips. The first was to Howard County Conservancy’s Mt. Pleasant to see if the skunk cabbage was blooming yet.

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There were cars in the parking area when I got there…but no people around. I put on my masks and gloves and set out toward the Community Garden…turning into the path through the forest

Toward Hodge Podge Lodge. It’s gotten some fresh paint on the trim and curtains on the inside.

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I crossed the bridge to continue toward the largest stand of skunk cabbage in previous years – taking a picture of the small stream below with some ferns on the banks. The water made pleasant trickling sounds. I noticed some areas of lighter sediment through the water– cleared of the darker colored debris.

I always look for shelf fungus. The two prettiest I found had green markings. Is that the fungus or a partner organism?

As I walked along the path, I checked the stream periodically and soon found some cones of sprouting skunk cabbage.

Once I got closer to the marshy area, there were a lot more plants. The reddish cones will eventually have the flowers inside them (they look like golf balls). I didn’t see any that were that far along. Right now, the plants are growing slowly – speeding up with it is warmer, slowing down and sometimes pulling themselves down into the muck when its cold.

I’ll make another mini road trip to see them again next month.

I hiked back toward the parking lot and made a stop at the witch hazel near the drive to the farmhouse. The flowers haven’t opened yet, but the buds are large. I’ll check them again too since the tree typically blooms in late winter…or very early spring.

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Tree Trunk Macros – Part 2

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A few days ago, I posted some macro images of our sycamore and cherry tree trunks. Today the macro images are of our Thundercloud Plum and Red Oak tree trunks.

The plum tree bark has fissures and a reddish tinge – maybe from the same pigment that makes its leaves red purple in summer. There are small growths of lichen. The tree is not as well colonized as the cherry but seems to have some the same type of lichen.

The red oak is a mini-ecosystem complete with the lichen (some with a dendritic type of growth) and moss. I appreciate the moss in the winter because it is the greenest thing in our front yard!

The oak also supports some Virginia Creeper vines…with moss and lichen growing under them. The suction cup like attachment to the tree are covered over by the moss.

Overall, this photographic project in our yard has encouraged me to try it someplace else. Maybe I’ll do some tree trunk photography down by the neighborhood pond or into the forest behind our house. Stay tuned.

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 23, 2021

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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.

Ice sheet uncertainties could mean sea level will rise more than predicted -- ScienceDaily – There are warning signs that the current models aren’t accurately predicting ice sheet dynamics.

How mail-order frogs could save Colombia's amphibians - BBC Future – Carefully breeding frogs to keep them from going extinct in the wild.

Meet Amanda Gorman, the U.S.' Youngest Inaugural Poet | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – Leading with eloquence and hope for the future….pushing us to strive for a country that is a ‘more perfect union.’

House Agrees Saguaro National Park Should Grow By 1,200 Acres – Hope this happens…when my daughter was in Tucson we enjoyed this park many times.

Diet and lifestyle guidelines can greatly reduce gastroesophageal reflux disease symptoms -- ScienceDaily – Exercise seems to be important – perhaps because it helps clear stomach acid that causes heartburn symptoms.

Top 25 birds of the week: Wild birds Photos! - Wild Bird Revolution – Birds – always great to look at in the wild and in photos.

How Codebreaker Elizebeth Friedman Broke Up a Nazi Spy Ring | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – Some history…about how a woman did work she wanted to do…made significant contributions…didn’t get credit or pay that she should have. It happens again and again. We can’t assume that it isn’t still happening just because we have some very visible examples of women with power, recognition, and pay.

Are sleep trackers accurate? Here's what researchers currently know – It’s not always good to track sleep….particularly if it causes anxiety. I am in the group that generally has good sleep, so the tracker data doesn’t cause me anxiety, but it probably doesn’t improve anything either!  I might get a much simpler tracker next time that doesn’t provide sleep metrics.

The Wintertime Wonder of Unusual Ice | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – The short video of hair ice forming is interesting.

How Africa's largest city is staying afloat - BBC Future – Lagos, Nigeria. Part of the city is known as the ‘Venice of Africa.’ And there is a ‘Great Wall of Lagos’ to reinforce the coast.  The claim is that Africa’s largest city is leveraging its ingenuity to stay afloat….but whether it succeeds in the coming decades will be the real test.

Tree Trunk Macros – Part 1

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A sunny day in the thirties…I decided to take a quick walk around the yard with my new camera for some landscape pictures and my phone with a 2x magnifying lens with a built in LED light (and clicker) for macro shots. The best images of the morning (before I got too cold) were the macro shots of tree trunks. My gear is simple. I wear both the clicker and the phone with the magnifier around my neck. I can easily hold the phone close to the tree trunk with one hand (often bracing my hand on the tree) and use the clicker to take pictures with the other.

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The sycamore bark is full of texture…fissures old and new. Some parts of the trunk are very smooth, but I am more interested in the cracks and crevices.

I noticed some Virginia Creeper stems on the painted surface of the exterior wall of our basement. They retain some reddish color even in winter. The way they attach to the brick looks like a suction cup!

The cherry tree has lichen and moss growing on it…and a different texture than the sycamore even though there are some occasional curls of bark.

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A larger branch had fallen from the tree and I took a picture of the end of the branch.

I’ll post the macro images of other tree trunks in our yard next week. I’ve also added ‘pick up sticks/branches’ to my list of chores!

The White House in 1940

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As I watched the Inauguration, I remembered an old magazine I’d browsed through recently on Internet Archive – the July 1940 edition of House & Garden that included an article about the White House as it was in 1940…and some history of the White House up to that point. I clipped some of my favorite images (click to get an enlarged version of the image).

Much has happened to the building in the intervening 80 years. The White House is still the architectural symbol of the Executive Branch and home of the President for his term. I hope that President and Dr. Biden quickly acclimate to the place…make it into their home…and forge ahead in their roles for the country from its rooms.

The article also included images of some of the other building of Washington DC. Some things have changed since 1940…some not.

I am relieved that the we have a new President as I write this….that we have survived the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6th and anticipating a positive path forward. Amanda Gorman, the youth poet laureate, was the highlight of the event with her “The Hill We Climb” at the Biden inauguration! And now the work begins for the new administration….

New Camera Experiments – Creative Filters

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I got a new camera for Christmas – a Canon PowerShot SX70 HS. It’s a slight upgrade from a previous camera but I am taking time to browse through the manual to try a few things. The Creative Filters Mode is the topic of today’s post. The mode provides a series of image effects that are can be easily selected. My experiment was to try the different ‘filters’ with the view from my office window.

Filter 1: black and white, rough and gritty

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Filter 2: soft focus, gentle ambience

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Filter 3: distorting fish-eye lens

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Filter 4: art bold, like oil painting

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Filter 5: watercolor painting

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Filter 6: miniature effect, blurring of image outside a selected area

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Filter 7: toy camera with vignetting and different color balance

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I took a second series with the bouquet of flowers…using the art bold

And then the watercolor painting filters.

These are fun to play with but I’m not sure how often I will use you them in the field. At least I am more aware they are a feature of the camera after experimenting with them. I might try them in a garden or forest…but make some notes for myself so I remember what I used; they skew reality….and I am usually trying to capture what I am seeing rather than going for a special effect image.

2 Mornings in January

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It is easy to catch the sunrise this time of year from our house: the leaves are off the trees so we have a better view of the horizon and sunrise happens well after 7 AM. I’ve discovered that the view is better from the second floor of our house rather than the first – even though that means the pictures are taken through a window. I’m sharing 2 recent sunrises in this post:

The first is from the 15th. The east was getting brighter, transitioning from red to orangish hues (left image)…but the pink haze of reflected light in the west (right image) was my favorite of the morning since it only happens occasionally…it was a great way to start the morning in my office.

On the 17th, the east had more cloud texture than on the 15th and it was a little redder…earlier in the sunrise sequence.

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Ten minutes later, the view from my office (looking toward the west) caught the special morning light ‘coming down from the trees’ as it came over the roof of our house. Most of the trees looking full of orange light are tulip poplars. The dark trees in the foreground (in shadow) are pines, black walnut, and red maple. The forest is lovely all the time…but the early morning is probably my favorite during the winter…do drab browns in sight!

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Gleanings of the Week Ending January 16, 2021

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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.

Wingspan and Other Tabletop Games for Naturalists – A new indoor activity for during the winter?

Square Structure Detected Under Monte Albán’s Main Plaza - Archaeology Magazine – The plaza was in use for 1,000 years….and evidently the structure detected with ground penetrating radar, electrical resistance and gradiometery is 60x60 feet…and about 3 feet thick. More study of the data might reveal if the building had stairs, tunnels, and columns.

Leaf microbiomes are a neighborhood affair in northern forests -- ScienceDaily – The microbes associated with trees have been an active research area in recent years. This study looked at Sugar Maples and discovered that their microbiome was similar to the trees around them…whether it was other sugar maples or conifers….other species entirely.

A warm pool in the Indo-Pacific Ocean has almost doubled in size, changing global rainfall patterns | NOAA Climate.gov – The impacts on large-scale atmospheric circulation and rainfall are expected to intensify in the future.

Top 25 birds of the week: January 2021 – This collection includes a photo of a red-breasted nuthatch…a bird we’ve seen at our feeder this year!

Photographer Nathan Myhrvold Captures Snowflakes in High Resolution – I enjoy trying to photograph snowflakes…but I do it close to home where the challenge is higher temperatures. That tends to cause them to clump rather than be easily separated into single flakes. It’s still a fun activity for snow days.

New mammogram measures of breast cancer risk could revolutionize screening -- ScienceDaily – Improving the way mammograms are analyzed…giving results at the time of screening instead of later then moving toward personalized screening thereafter rather than ‘one size fits all.’ I wonder how long it will take for this to trickle through the industry.

Flapper style | Europeana – Our family has a picture of one of my grandmothers in a flapper dress. She probably made it herself – as the article indicated…they were easy to make and patterns were available. The dresses have a timelessness to them even though they are associated with the 1920s. They look great as party dresses even 100 years later!

'Sparkling' clean water from nanodiamond-embedded membrane filters -- ScienceDaily – The problem the researchers are addressing is filtering of the hot water from oil recovery and other industrial processes. We’ll need more technologies like this to clean up water we can’t afford to leave polluted forever….but we should concurrently move toward technologies that don’t leave toxins in water. Technologies should be designed with the goal in mind of 0 waste.

Researchers Catch Oldest Tropical Reef Fish Known to Science | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – An 81-year-old midnight snapper! They also caught a 79-year-old red snapper in the same area. Climate change is already warmed the reef enough that the life-span of the fishes there is expected to be shorter in the future. The record for oldest known vertebrate in the world is also a sea creature – a 400 year old Greenland shark.

Anniversary Celebration

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My husband and I have been married for 48 years! We celebrated a day early with red velvet cake (for me) and carrot cake (for him) that we enjoyed a day early because that is when we did a pickup of other items from a store that included a bakery that makes good cakes.

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I’m thinking back to the decades of our marriage

We spent the 1st 10 years in Texas. We were both in college – he was full time and I was part time. My career in computer programing was becoming well established. At the end of the 10 years, he had a PhD in Physics and I had a Masters in Mathematics.

Early in the 2nd 10 years we moved to Virginia for his post doc and I went to work for IBM. During the decade we moved to Maryland (after his post doc ended) and had our daughter.

The 3rd decade saw us moving in Maryland to the house we are in now. Our lives were focused on our daughter and our careers…trying to blend everything together at every opportunity. For several years, my work required trips to Colorado once a month. My husband and daughter joined me for before or after the workdays so often that my daughter thought everyone got on an airplane for Colorado frequently – was surprised that she was the only one in her Montessori class with Colorado t-shirts and sweatshirts. Our daughter was old enough to consider putting her on a plane to see her grandparents in Texas by the time 9/11 happened; we delayed that milestone to well into the next decade.

Our careers were important during our 4th decade – but the milestones of our daughter took the fore in our family: driver’s license, high school graduation, Cornell for undergraduate degree, internship at Northern Arizona, beginning graduate school at University of Arizona, marriage. My husband began his glide path to post-career. My last grandparent died. We dealt with some health issues of our own that slowed us down temporarily. I retired in the last year of the decade.

In the past 8 years, I’ve settled into post-career activities including volunteer gigs. My husband continued to work part time for a few years and ramping up of post-career. We both enjoy traveling (birding festivals in particular) until the pandemic stopped that; we’ll pick it back up in a year. Our daughter’s milestones were ones we shared vicariously: PhD in Astrophysics/her husband’s PhD in Biology, post docs at Penn State/University of Pittsburg, tenure track faculty positions at Missouri State University. Our health has been stable, but my sisters and I are partnered to assist our aging parents as they face health-related challenges.

We’re enjoying the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency’s Online Celebration of Cranes right now and are tentatively planning to be at the in-person festival next year to celebrate our 49th anniversary!

Moon in the Morning

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Last Sunday morning, I noticed the moon just before sunrise and grabbed my camera for a few pictures. It was cold standing on the front porch in my stocking feet – not taking the time to put on a coat or shoes because I wanted the photograph with the light as it was. Things change fast at that time of the morning.

I zoomed in for a final group of pictures. In the evening I loaded the pictures onto my computer to check what I got. The pictures like the ones above didn’t surprise me but the zoomed ones did. There are craters visible right at the edge of the shadow! I was pleased that my small Canon Powershot SX730 HS did the job….that my hands were steady enough for the camera’s image stabilization to do the rest.

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Starling Shelter

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Our neighbor’s house is missing a triangular cover on part of their eaves…and it appeared that some starlings moved into the protected space on the last day of 2020.

Fortunately, the birds are almost to heavy to get seed from our feeder so I see them more on the gutter and roof of our covered deck.

I saw one that came to the top of the feeder while the female red-bellied woodpecker was there and the woodpecker became very territorial…moving toward the starling and making threatening sounds/moving its open beak like a pair of open scissors toward the starling. The starling made a hasty retreat!

There are times that I appreciate the look of the starlings. Their feathers do have a green or purple sheen ….and the black tipped beak is interesting too.

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