Photographs through my Office Window – March 2017

I travelled enough during March that I missed seeing some birds that visited our backyard. I did see a Northern Flicker that seemed very interested in the area where a large branch was torn from a forest tree behind our house…probably insects there.

The crows come to inspect the debris in the gutter of our neighbor’s house. There are plenty of tulip poplar seeds still flying from the trees.

The blue jays are frequent visitors. This one is fluffed against the cold.

The juncos are still around and chase other birds away from our feeder. They’ll be leaving to head north soon. This one was in the maple tree…on a cold day.

The doves were around to get a drink of water from our heated bird bath…this one flue up to the roof of our covered deck afterward.

The most exciting visitor was the pileated woodpecker. My husband saw the bird first – in our sycamore…and then it flew to a pine. It inspected all the pots on a neighbor’s deck then flew to the roof of our covered deck.

I managed to photograph a squirrel in the sycamore just before it made the leap to our deck. It gets a drink at the heated bird bath and sometimes tries to get seed from our feeder (but has not succeeded in dumping the feeder yet!).

And then there was the landscape pictures of our backyard: highlighted tracks (human) through the snow and

The forest on a foggy day (yesterday).

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!

Road Trip to Pittsburgh

Our Maryland neighborhood was snowy when we started out after the morning traffic. The roads were clear and my husband savored the adaptive cruise control in his new car once we got on the highway.

We’re becoming more familiar with the South Mountain rest stop in Interstate 70 these days. The walks and roadways were clear but there were piles of snow everywhere else. It was cold and breezy at the place….this picture makes it look a lot warmer than it was.

I liked the side at Pennsylvania Welcome Center further on. By this time in our drive, the clouds had come in. The closer we got to Pittsburgh the colder it seemed to get and at one point it started to snow sideways (because of the stiff breeze).

I attempted to get pictures of ice flows that were on many of the roadcuts through the Allegheny Mountains. My favorite is the one with the truck since it demonstrates how big some of the icicles were.

More posts from our time in Pittsburgh over the next few days….

A Little March Snow

I’d taken pictures for a second post about signs of spring in our yard….but then I woke up to snow! I got a picture at first light since I was sure it would melt away quickly. There were already deer tracks through our back yard.

As it got a little lighter, the snow on the pines and back into the forest gave the scene from my office window a new look.

There was a robin that kept moving around in the red maple that is blooming.

The tulip poplar seed pods from last summer are mostly empty of seeds at this point; they make a little basket for snow accumulation.

The miniature daffodils in the front yard are blooming and they caught the snow as well. They handle it better than the larger and taller flowers that sometimes bend to the ground with heavy snow. These daffodils are progeny of bulbs that my mother-in-law bought for us over 25 years ago and I’m always thrilled that they are so durable through the snow.