Zooming – June 2024

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Lots of opportunities to capture images of some of my favorite subjects in June 2024: big cats, birds, butterflies, and (of course) flowers. Some were close to home (Dickerson Park Zoo, Lake Springfield Boathouse) while others were from our two days in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.

Big cats. The animals are obviously in some kind of enclosure. The cheetah at the Dickerson Park Zoo was photographed from a high deck over the enclosure…maxing out the zoom capability of my camera; it was the only one that did not have a fence between me and the cat! The other three images had the fence challenge; it is most visible in the lion image. It’s always a little unnerving to realize that a tiger, even looking very relaxed, is following me with his eyes!

Birds. I always see birds the best after I get home and look at my images on a big monitor. The optics of the camera allow me to get very close views without being close to the bird! The peacock (head and feet) images were taken at Dickerson Park Zoo and the bluebird and purple martin were near the Lake Springfield Boathouse.

Butterflies. The three butterflies on rocks were taken in the parking area of the Eureka Springs & Northern Arkansas Railway. The insects were fluttering around looking for moisture. The butterfly on a flower was in the meadow near the Lake Springfield Boathouse. Butterflies are as challenging to photograph as birds, but it does help to keep a distance. If the insects are on a flower or looking for moisture, they might sit for long enough to capture an image; sometimes a little bit cooler temperatures help too.

Other wildlife. The lizard shedding its skin must have been terrified of the people walking on the boardwalk; it would have felt the vibration. We stood back once we realized it was there…and I got my picture. The same was true of the cicada although it flew to the post (I saw it in the air and followed with my camera already zooming) and then flew again within about 30 seconds.

Flowers. And then there are flowers.  I love to take pictures of flowers filling the frame. I like that using the zoom blurs the background – often to various shades of green. Depending on the light, the background can also go black (the leaf on a vine). My strategy it to capture the ‘as is’ in a way that appeals to me. The blade of grass almost like a pointer to one of the stamens in the day lily image was a bit of serendipity!

As we near the end of the month – I am savoring these zoomed images!

Ten Little Celebrations – June 2024

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June 2024 ---- the transition to the heat of summer ---- celebrating June days.

Sunflower in the window…following the sun. I cut a sunflower from my wildflower garden and put the vase on the windowsill in my office…and celebrated when that it followed the sun!

Peachicks. I had never seen a peachick before and had walked more than halfway around the Dickerson Park Zoo in Springfield, MO before I spotted three peachicks with a peahen. Celebration! The young birds already had the beginning of the topknot on their heads but none of the iridescent color.

Corn muffins. Sometimes deciding to make a food remembered from childhood is about celebrating more that the food itself. The dash of cayenne pepper in the batter provided an extra flavor pop.

Mowing the whole yard. My plan at the beginning of the season was to mow the front yard on one day and the back another…but I am doing great mowing both on the same day. I am celebrating that I am physically able to do more than I anticipated!

Blueberries. Picking blueberries was another first this June. I celebrated the experience – and that the orchard is less than 30 minutes from my house.

Breakfast with my daughter. My daughter wanted to try breakfast at a coffee shop she frequents…invited me to meet her there. I celebrated the serendipity of the event (and savored the breakfast  and spending more time with my daughter too).

Hummingbird. I’ve seen a hummingbird buzzing around our yard several times. I celebrate every sighting and am determined to plant some ‘big nectar’ plants for them for next year.

Young robin. I celebrated seeing a small robin – about half the size of the adult feeding it – on our backyard fence. And it could fly!

So many good books. There are so many books available electronically from my local library and Internet Archive that I am never without reading material. I celebrate living at a time when technology makes books so available.

Scissortail flycatchers in the neighborhood. I hadn’t seen scissortail flycatchers in our neighborhood during the two previous summers….so am celebrating seeing a pair of them this month!

Dickerson Park Zoo on Father's Day

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My daughter noticed that Dickerson Park Zoo was opening an hour early for members on Father’s Day and suggested we should visit as our celebration of the day since we’ve all joined. My husband and I picked her up (her house is ‘on the way’ for us) and we were at the zoo a few minutes before 8. The day was warming up…still pleasant rather than hot. We spent an enjoyable 2 hours at the zoo.

There were peacocks around the entrance. One on the roof of the entrance buildings displayed but didn’t have any of the long tail feathers!

Another male was very close once we passed the entrance so I took a portrait.

There was one that was walking up the stairs that didn’t have the typical topknot of feathers on its head. When it got to the top of the stairs, I noticed that it stood with toes crossed…and that peacocks have spurs!

In the flamingo enclosure the flamingos were relatively calm, but the roseate spoonbills were moving about and vocalizing

…and then two of them mated!

The daylilies were blooming in beds interspersed throughout the zoo but I also noticed stands of lambs ear, bamboo….and some very large catalpa trees.

The trumpeter swans vocalized…but not as often as the peacocks. There are only 2 of them. I like the swirls in the water around the swan….breaking up the reflection of big trees.

After seeing a lot of peacocks at the beginning of our visit (and continuing to hear them) …we saw a female with three peachicks about an hour into our visit. They moved away from us, but I managed to get close enough for some zoomed portraits.

The ostrich enclosure is viewed from above…but the deck’s wood most have supported some insect (?) that the bird found tasty because it spent a lot of time pecking at the wood directly below where we were standing! I managed a good picture of the head – large eye and nares.

There were two cheetahs moving around in their enclosure. The tiger was pacing and vocalizing nearby…seemingly upset at the keeper for sequestering him in his larger enclosure while his smaller cage with den was being cleaned.

The Crowned Cranes are always photogenic subjects. During this visit they were in an encloser where capybaras had been moved to control the grass that was getting too high…and the animals seemed to be gorging on the greens. Only one capybara had been left behind in the normal capybara enclosure which we saw as got close to the zoo’s exit.

The zoo turned out to be a good choice for Father’s Day!

Zooming – April 2024

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Flowers (Nixa and Springfield MO, Sherman TX),  – birds (Nixa and Springfield MO) – solar eclipse (Poplar Bluff MO)….a lot of zoomed images this month. Enjoy the 2024 slide show!

Dickerson Park Zoo (1)

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We enjoyed the Dickerson Park Zoo (Springfield MO) on a cool sunny day in late March. My husband and I got a gift membership from my daughter, so we’ll go several times this year. The zoo is always a great opportunity for photography.

The peacocks that roam freely are always photogenic. The birds are very acclimated to people although all the visitors gave them plenty of room too. I only saw one in full display – tail up and expanded; there was no females around, so it wasn’t clear what prompted the display.  The males seemed to be the only ones out during this visit; I wondered if the peahens were sitting on eggs.

The flamingo enclosure is one of my favorites because there is an area where there isn’t a barrier (mesh or fence) between my camera and the birds. I zoomed in on one I thought was sleeping; I liked the arrangement and color variation of the feathers; I discovered when I got home that the bird was evidently awake!

The Trumpeter Swans were living up to their names as the made their way around the pond…very noisy. Beads of water on the swan’s back show how well the feathers keep the swan from feeling wet!

The zoo still has a lot of daffodil/narcissus flowers. Our shifts between warm and cold days (and back again) seems to be prolonging the blooms this year. They are planted around naturalized rivulets.

More pictures from the zoo tomorrow….

Ten Little Celebrations – March 2024

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Picking 10 little celebrations is only challenging because there are so many of them to choose from! I help myself by only noting one each day, but I realize when I look at the list at the end of the month that there are even more, in retrospect, worthy of celebration. Here are the top 10 for March 2024.

My mother’s life. The phrase ‘celebration of life’ is more like a savoring because there is an overlay of grief that is part of every gathering after a death. I stayed focused on making sure that someone was with my dad for the duration and providing narration of the images in the slideshow for him…varying what I said a bit each time it repeated and realizing that she had a very full 92 years!

Getting the check deposited after the sale of my parents’ house. What a relief to not be carrying around a big check!

Home again. I made multiple short trips to Dallas for various reasons and was always very glad to be home again. Even though the time away is only a couple of days, the stress of driving, my task while in Dallas, and staying in a hotel takes a toll. I don’t really relax until I am at home. Hopefully, when I am only going down to see my dad, it will not be as stressful.

Sequiota Cave Boat tour. What a great tour. I liked the non-commercial nature the tour…seeing the tiny bats roosting.

Springfield Botanical Gardens. Full of spring blooming trees.

Dickerson Park Zoo. My daughter gave us a membership for Christmas, so we’ll be enjoying the zoo often over the next year. I liked the roaming peacocks (and other things too). The post about this visit is coming day after tomorrow.

Feeling better. I got sick with something that caused sinus and throat problems. I tested for COVID for 3 days…and was negative for that. And then I recovered rapidly and I celebrated. Also celebrated that my husband did get whatever it was.

Creating more hosta locations. I divided some of my hosta plants as they first began to come up and was pleased that the new plants adjusted very quickly to their new space. I am looking forward to their lush growth this summer…and will divide more plants next spring!

Burning sticks. I enjoyed the fire in my chiminea after cleaning up the small branches and pine cones around my yard….celebrating with some pictures of the fire!

Butterfly and pollinator seeds planted. I celebrated getting the beds prepared and the seeds planted…right at the mid-March suggested planting deadline.

Dickerson Park Zoo

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We made our first visit to Dickerson Park Zoo last week. It’s on the north side of Springfield MO – the closest zoo to where we live. We got there about an hour after their opening; the close parking lot was almost full…others taking the advantage of the cooler than usual August morning.

Colorful birds seem to dominate my pictures. Many times, I was photographing through fencing; sometimes you can see the blur/shadow of that barrier.

The preening Scarlet Ibis was one of my favorites. The surprise was seeing the nictitating membrane (an eyelid that is hinged on the inner side of the eye and closes horizontally across the cornea).

Flamingos were in the same enclosure as the ibis – feeding and preening. They feed with their bill toward their bodies. One of the birds had a range of colored feathers.

In the trees above the flamingoes, there were several roseate spoonbills. Their bodies are colorful…their heads and large bills are bare – at odds with the body.

Peacocks (and pea hens) roam the zoo; they are relatively acclimated to people. There were no males with full tails. All the birds I saw appeared to be juvenile birds (younger than 3 years).

There were two Gray Crowned Cranes. I had seen similar birds at the St. Louis Zoo too. The birds at Dickerson Park Zoo were better positioned for a photograph!

The turkey enclosure had one male and a lot of hens…some immatures as well. I heard a mother telling her child that it was a mom and babies; I guess she thought the male was the ‘mom’!

Black swans are dramatic. The pair seems to have more ruffled feathers than I expected.

There were several parrots; we heard them before we saw them! The one I photographed was using its beak like an appendage for balance as it moved around its enclosure.

There were two types of tortoises in different parts of the zoo with signage that they bite! The first one was large but not giant…and I was intrigued by the pattern of the shell…plates like flatted pyramids.

The second was a giant tortoise --- looking well fed!

There were monkeys – somehow they tend to look sad to me. The one I photographed had companions that were moving about, but he was sitting still.

The zoo was working on the giraffe exhibit (they usually have giraffe feedings) so we did not see them like they would normally have been out and about in the morning.

The zoo has a rescued bald eagle – large but one of its wings was not right. It didn’t move from its perch but kept a watchful eye on movements outside its enclosure.

There were metal statues for climbing on (with signs warning that the statues might get hot in the summer) and backdrops for photographs.

There was one elephant with the explanation that when the matriarch died, the two remaining females did not get along…so they each are outside on their own. They get socialization time off exhibit with a male elephant.

There were other animals to see but not easily photographed. The big cats and bears were either in their dens or sleeping.

We didn’t ride the train (I photographed it with a giraffe sculpture in the foreground) – but I like that it is available – another dimension to a visit to the zoo that we might try on a future visit.

The Dickerson Park Zoo might be my favorite. It is not overwhelmingly big or crowned…and its design provides plenty of shade along the paths.

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 14, 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.

Mapping out rest stops for migrating birds: New metric can help determine when birds fly over a site or stop to refuel or rest -- ScienceDaily – Stopover-to-passage ratio during migration research involves analysis of weather radar data collected since the 1990s…teasing out bird movement from precipitation! Results so far have included some surprises (and there are probably more to come as more of the historical data is processed and the processing becomes more and more sophisticated).

This Crocodile Dad Gives Over 100 of His Kids a Lift – A large species (gharial) with a narrow snout…in India.

Top 25 birds of the week: November 2020 – Birds from around the world….so much beauty in the natural world to see…and try to protect.

Top Solar States Per Capita 2012 vs. 2020 — CleanTechnica Report and US Energy Dept. Aims For Affordable Solar Power – Two posts about solar power. The first article shows the growth since 2012. In states where there wasn’t much growth, I wondered if the utilities in the state or the state government posed barriers to solar power. It seems like the whole country  should be in the mode of getting out of the way or encouraging renewal energy. The second article was about community solar programs from DOE with a mission to ‘bring affordable solar power to every household in the US by 2025’ – a worthy goal but is there enough money in the pipe to do it? This is not a technical problem as much as ‘are we ready to just do it.’

Lullabies in any language relax babies -- ScienceDaily and Baby Bottles Can Shed Millions of Microplastic Particles: Study | The Scientist Magazine® - I’ve been thinking recently about how much things have changed since my daughter was a baby over 30 years ago. I had a lullaby tape (in English) that I played for her in the evenings (although when she got old enough to choose – she wanted soundtracks from Disney movies as often as the lullabies). Now – we’d have digital music playing (rathe than cassette tapes) and maybe there would be lullabies in different languages too. The second article is about some worrisome research and I hope that pediatricians are keeping up and advising parents on best approaches.

When Domestic Birds Go Wild – Chickens, turkeys, ducks, swans, guinea fowl, peacocks, ornamental pheasants, doves and pigeons, emus, and parrots.

Picturing Earth: Astronaut Photography In Focus – A video – just under 70 minutes….with good imagery and discussion.

The return of Europe’s largest beasts - BBC Future – Bison, wolves, and elk…will the agricultural sector of Europe learn to cope with the big herbivores…and a predator?

As Waters Warm, Ocean Heatwaves Are Growing More Severe - Yale E360 – It’s easier for us to notice the heatwaves on land…but the ocean is taking the bulk of the increased heat on the planet and research on marine heatwaves is just beginning. The precise definition of the phenomenon was only proposed in 2016.  

See the World in Detail Thanks to the Close Up Photographer of the Year – Ending the gleanings list this week with some eye candy….enjoy the visual treat.

3 Free eBooks – March 2019

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In some months it’s hard to pick just three books to feature for the monthly eBooks post. March 2019 was one of those. I cheated a little and picked a periodical…with lots of issues available online…for the first one.

Baer, Casimir Hermann. Moderne Bauformen. Stuttgart: J. Hoffman. 1902-1923. Hathi Trust has volumes for each year here. A German periodical about architecture and interior design with many illustrations – some in color. It’s a slice of history of the period. Many of the interiors look modern…others dated. I realized again how appealing I find glass bricks, window seats, alcoves with benches and sometimes a table or a wall of windows and comfy chairs for reading, and curtains to divide a large room into segments. There were quite a few ideas I’ll use in Zentangle tiles as well.

Trouvelot, Etienne Leopold. The Trouvelot Astronomical Drawings. 1882. A slide show of 15 drawings is available from Internet Archive here. Trouvelot was well-known for his astronomical drawings made from observations at the Harvard College Observatory and the US Naval Observatory. Unfortunately, he also is the person that introduced the European Gypsy Moth into North America.

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Day, Lewis Foreman. Nature in Ornament. New York: Charles Scribner’s sons. 1892. Available from Internet Archive here. Lots of ideas for Zentangle patterns in this book. I particularly liked the different stylized peacock feathers.