Zooming – March 2017

I decided against creating collages this month for the zoomed images and tried to pick images I had not used elsewhere. Early in the month there is a little winter weather and I used the camera to create some zoomed images through my office window: snow on maple blossoms and

The top of our bird feeder.

Then it was onto some warmer March days: new leaves on a rose bush trimmed last fall,

Dutch iris in a garden in Texas, and

A cat surveying the neighborhood from the top of a gate (also in Texas).

A few days later – there were lots to zoom items at the Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh: a slipper orchid,

A Chihuly bowl, and

The inside of a tulip.

The following day there were the birds at the National Aviary: an ibis,

Flamingo feet,

A hornbill (with feathers that look like very long eyelashes and a lot of cracks and scars on the bill), and

The complex features of an Andean condor.

Back in Maryland – the bark of a persimmon tree and

The delicate petals of a daffodil that survived snow and ice a few days prior to this picture.

Ten Little Celebrations – March 2017

March was a more hectic month than usual….but full of lots of little celebrations!

Potluck lunch. There was the potluck lunch for volunteer naturalists at the Howard County Conservancy – celebrating our time together for training…getting ready for the field trips that will start in the next few weeks and continue until June. The food is always luscious.

Snow. We haven’t had much snow this year…the first one of more than an inch was this month – much later than usual. I celebrated the beauty of it all and that I didn’t have to get out in it until the streets were all cleared by plows and salt application.

Ancient Egypt course. I celebrated the last modules of the Coursera course --- and am savoring the book written by the teacher.

There were three celebrations involving travel in March:

Old friends. I celebrated visiting with people that have known me my whole life…savoring the time with them. I also celebrated renewing friendship with someone I had not seen in 40 years!

Phipps Conservatory. I like conservatories…and this one in Pittsburgh was one to celebrate.

National Aviary. The walk around the National Aviary in Pittsburgh was a hours long celebration of the diversity of bird life --- and becoming very aware of the fragility of that diversity around the world.

And then there were outdoor activities and photography to celebrate:

Brookside Garden skunk cabbage. It finally was up even though the plants looked like they were trying to hide again under the bald cypress needles from last fall.

Rockburn Branch macroinvertebrates. Yes – is was part of training…but I always celebrate that we find the creatures so easily.

Pileated Woodpecker. We had one the visited our yard – scouting apparently. The birds was on the sycamore at first, then on a neighbors deck, then the trunk of a pine tree, and the roof of our covered deck…finally into the maple tree. I had lots of opportunities for pictures.

Khepri (morning) light. I liked the Ancient Egypt class so much – I am calling the excellent light for photography that happens as the sun comes out after the Ancient Egyptian god for sunrise and rebirth…celebrating that time of day!

National Aviary – Pittsburgh

We got to the National Aviary in Pittsburgh just after it opened at 10 AM....early enough to find parking very easily in the aviary’s parking lot. It was a good outing on a cold day just as the Phipps Conservatory had been the day before. A few of the exhibits are birds in large cages or enclosures but most the birds are in open areas and sometimes they will walk right up to where you are standing on the walk. It makes taking pictures a lot easier.  I developed a strategy for causing my camera to autofocus on the bird rather than the wire mesh or smudged glass (pick birds further from the wire mesh, point the camera at something else that was about the distance to the bird…then go back to the bird). The snowy owl in the slide show below was photographed using that technique. All the birds were inside except for the snowy owl, bald eagle, and Andean Condor (near the end of the slide show).

Something l learned that surprised me was about penguin’s beaks. They get furrows in them starting at the part closest to the head and extending further toward the tip as they older. This is an old penguin!