Christmas Cactus

My daughter got a cutting from her grandmother’s Christmas cactus a few years ago. It is much travelled; the cutting originated in Texas…was potted in Pennsylvania… moved to Missouri last summer.

It has grown into a lush plant and is getting ready to bloom – right in sync with the season. It is on a glass topped table in front of a window…making the cloudy and cold days more cherry.

I took some closeup views of the buds. I like the curves and the color fade from white to pink to red. The spines at the base of the buds show up as well.

Road Trip to Springfield

The Friday before Thanksgiving I started my drive to Springfield MO. The route was familiar from the trips last summer – with scenery changes with the colder season. I was also driving on my own. I took pictures at every stop. The first was at the South Mountain rest stop on I70 – western Maryland. The stones and signs encourage more exploration off the highway, but I had a long driver ahead, so I simply took my pictures and continued on.

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I stopped at the Sidling Hill rest stop on I68. I hadn’t remembered the building looking like something in the southwest! It was too cold and damp to walk for a better shot of the large road cut.

By the afternoon I was in Ohio

And then Indiana. The sun was getting low on the horizon during the last hour of my drive. I saw sundogs and then contrails from flights in-out of Indianapolis turn pink with the sunset. I didn’t stop for a picture. I was anxious for the drive to be over.

I stopped for the night in Cloverdale, Indiana – just off I70. The hotel room had a US map made of license plates.

The second day of the trek to Springfield MO started shortly after 7 AM. I had taken in the plants I was taking into the hotel (to avoid them getting too cold). I was glad I could park close to the room since it took more than one trip to get everything into the room.

It took 2.5 tanks of gas to get to Springfield. The day was gray and damp.

Illinois had signs about wildflowers in one rest stop…but none bloom in the cold.

In Missouri, I stopped at the Route 66 rest stop less than an hour from Springfield. I was glad to be near the end of the trip.

Eight days later I reversed the trek…driving back to Maryland.

30 years ago – December 1989

30 years ago – I did my first airplane travel with my daughter. She was 3 months old and I flew from Maryland to Dallas to introduce her to my family in early December. My husband went off to a conference in San Francisco the same week. We had two suitcases to check --- or maybe I checked three. I know I carried the diaper bag on the plane and the baby was in a denim carrier on the front of me….so that I could use my coat to keep her warm and have both hands relatively free. Note the old style suitcases; one had wheels but they were tiny for the size of the suitcase. At least the security at the airport was not as strict as it is now – no taking off shoes and all outerwear and all liquids in 3 ounce sizes in a quart sized Ziploc.

I had barely gotten the baby to enjoy formula from a bottle before the big travel day….making it easier to feed her on the plane. I’d taken the bottle with water in it and used powdered formula so that it didn’t spoil. The plane was not full for the trip to Dallas. My sister and her husband met us as at the airport and wondered where the baby was (in the front carrier almost completely hidden)!

3 months is a time of more baby smiles and interactions with others. She had a growth spurt will we were in Dallas and wanted to nurse all the time…and then sleep. My father snapped a picture of us both getting a quick nap between feedings.

When she was awake, the baby was holding toys and trying to roll over.

Once we were all home again – there was more snow and Christmas cards. It was a very family and friends focused month. I was still on leave from work; a few of my colleagues came by to see the baby. I was still adjusting to motherhood…my husband was feeling a little neglected!

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!

Ten Little Celebrations – November 2019

Today is Thanksgiving here in the U.S….so I’ll start out my list of celebrations for this month with that holiday. It’s a day to reflect on what we appreciate in our life. There is so much to be thankful for. I even remembered to put the Indian corn on our front door the day after Halloween so I could enjoy it all month.

Robinson Nature Center - I am celebrating the new volunteer opportunities…more indoors that my other gigs. This winter won’t be a lull in volunteer activities!

Fennel – I celebrated that there was organic fennel in my grocery’s produce section!

HoLLIE lecture – An interesting lecture….and a reminder to celebrate the richness of learning opportunities close to where I live.

A sunny fall day – The month had some cold temperatures. I realized that seeing the sun on those cold days (even if through a window) is a little celebration.

Zentangle Christmas ornaments – I managed to start early making designs on both sides of paper coasters with a red Ultra-fine Sharpie. They are a celebration to make…to display…to give away.

Witch hazel blooming – Something blooming in November…with streamers…just when the trees are losing their leaves. Worth noticing and a celebration.

Mowing leaves – It works! The yard looks good and my back doesn’t hurt. A strategy to celebrate.

Howard Country Conservancy preK – 3rd grade field trips – October was the peak of the field trip season but the ones in November had their own challenges – some cold, some wet…some windy. Overall – they were a good time in the outdoors for all – celebrating fall.

Road trip to Springfield MO– Road trips on my own are always a good time to think and enjoy the open road…celebrating with family when I get there.

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.

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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Witch Hazel

Some witch hazels (Hamamelis virginiana) bloom in the October-November in our area. I noticed one blooming earlier this month at Howard County Conservancy near the junction of the walk from the front of the Gudelsky Environmental Education Center and driveway. The shrub is one of the few plants blooming this time of year and the flowers are rather understated. The color of the flowers on this plant were a pale yellow. There can be a pleasant fragrance from the plant too. On the day I saw it, the weather was cold and breezy….I saw it in bloom rather than smelled it.

Looking more closely – the flowers have petals like streamers. They start out curled up then unroll into gentle curves.

The shrub also had pods on it from last year. All the ones I checked had already ejected their seeds.

Fall Foliage

The drought of late summer and early fall impacted our fall this year. There wasn’t as much color and the it did not last as long. The leaves turned brown very quickly (either on the tree or the ground). I didn’t take as many pictures as usual but there were enough for a slide show to celebrate the season (below). Most pictures were from around home – sycamore and red maple and black walnut and tulip poplar. I noticed that the young black walnut at the edge of our forest kept its leaves longer than the older black walnut trees at Mt Pleasant; our tree must benefit from the protection of the bigger trees around it. The dogwood picture with colorful leaves and seeds is from Brookside Gardens. There are a few pictures from Conowingo and Staunton River too. But most of them are from around our house…the trees visible from my office window every day…that are now in winter bareness.

Enjoy the fall finale slideshow!

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!

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts – Part 2

Continuing the highlights from our visit to the Virginial Museum of Fine Arts….

The Ancient gallery is dedicated to Egyptian, Greek, Roman and Etruscan art. I was glad the museum permits (non-flash) photography because there were lots of Zentangle prompts in the pots. Thinking about how old some of them are…how amazing it is that they survived…that they still appeal to us now. Some of them appeared to be more functional objects than art but may those pieces tell us more about the lives of long-ago peoples that things intended only for display or another special purpose.

I’d never seen an Egyptian bust that was intentionally made from a rock with a vein of another color across the face. It is quite striking and was the ‘style’ for a short period of Egyptian history.

In the East Asian gallery, there was black screen with botanical images. It did not look as impressive until I zoomed with the camera and made out the detail of the images.

Other items from the East Asian gallery provided a diversity of styles and materials. The small bowl is made from agate.

Back for a last look as some pieces from the Ancient gallery….gold piece from a crown, more pottery, jewelry and two small friezes.

For a short walk around, we saw a lot of interesting (and beautiful) things!

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts – Part 1

As we drove home from Staunton River State Park, we stopped in Richmond for a couple of hours to explore the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. It was not enough time to see everything….but we enjoyed the time we were there. I’ll be featuring the highlights of our visit in today’s and tomorrow’s post. Near the entrance was a new acquisition. See the butterfly shape first….then the hummingbirds! The artist is Susan Point and is titled Butterfly Whorl carved from red cedar, copper, and paint.

This ceramic piece reminded me of a fennel bulb!

Beautiful glass from the early 20th century….from sconces

To lamp shades (dragonflies!)

To windows. I took pictures of the whole window and then zoomed in. The waterlilies seem to come alive in glass the same way they do in life when one takes a closer look.

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There were pieces of jewelry, inlaid piano cases and a crown of leaves that caught my attention to.

The Art Deco and Art Nouveau galleries were overwhelming at times. I found myself enjoying the graceful curves and sometimes the complexity but realized that I would not want this type of furniture in my home!

My husband preferred the ancient art….highlights from those galleries will be in tomorrow’s post.

Chuy’s Tiles as a Zentangle® Prompt

We stopped at a Chuy’s restaurant on our way home from Staunton River State Park and I photographed a few of the tiles because they were excellent Zentangle prompts.  

I combined several ideas into one and made a reticula that I tangled in 3 orientations on Bijou tiles (2” squares). What fun! The same pattern with different orientations.

The idea reminded me of a symmetry course I took on Coursera back in summer and fall of 2014. It’s no longer available from Coursera and my notes are more about crystals and the semantics to talk about symmetry than the videos of symmetry in plants and tiles that were side lectures for the course. Still – I remember enjoying the course more because of those side lectures.

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The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. "Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

Staunton River State Park sunset and sunrise

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

The sunsets were not spectacular because the sky was clear. I took a few pictures the first night we were camping just before sunset…when the light on the trees was golden and the campground was buzzing with activity – getting telescopes and other equipment set up for observing.

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The last morning in camp was the best sunrise – because the clouds were rolling in. The forecast was for the clouds to remain for the duration of the star party and we were going to pack up. These pictures were taken from the door of our tent. It was a cold morning and I went back in to drink hot tea, put my feet on a warmer pad, cover my legs with a flannel sheet…huddled in my camp chair to eat some breakfast and read.

Once the sun came up there was enough direct sunlight through the clouds for, the tent to warmed up and the dew to start drying. It was still cold outside the tent. The deflated our mattresses and stuffed the sleeping bags into their containers. By 11 AM we were loaded up and heading to the showers to clean up before we started the trek home.

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!

Staunton River State Park Road Trip

Toward the end of October, the annual Chaos Star Party was held at Staunton River State Park. It was rainy early and then cloudy later in the week, so we were only there for two good nights. The drive between home and the park is between 4 and 5 hours. We waited to leave home until after the morning rush hour around Washington DC was mostly over.

The Virginia rest stops on I95 prior to Richmond had a few late flowers…and their LOVE signs.

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We stopped for lunch at an Arby’s….and I enjoyed their chicken salad on flatbread.

On the way home, I appreciated that the carrier bag on the top of our car accommodated enough of the normal expansion of packing up after camping; we didn’t feel like the car was overstuffed.

The drive on the narrow roads between the park and US-360 was full of fall color. And we relaxed into the drive home.

The drive on the narrow roads between the park and US-360 was full of fall color. And we relaxed into the drive ho.e.

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I’ll be posting more about this trip into next week. What’s not to like about a fall camping trip (cold at night but no rain)!

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).