Christmas morning in Carrollton was very cold. It was a rare morning when my car had been outside overnight…and the conditions were right for frost flowers (fortunately on the metal rather than the glass). I was bundled up well enough to take a few pictures with my phone (Samsung Galaxy S10e) before I left the hotel. It was just after dawn…a little serendipity to begin the day.
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.
Macro Photos Highlight the Diverse Beauty of Butterfly Pupae – The pupae are Asian species….so no Monarch chrysalis (which is my favorite).
Good hydration linked to healthy aging – The findings don’t prove a causal effect…but hydration is linked to serum sodium…and chronic high serum sodium (i.e. when a person is dehydrated frequently) increases risk of developing chronic diseases like heart failure, stroke, atrial fibrillation and peripheral artery disease, etc.
The Infrastructure Sector Is Bleeding Workers – The workforce is aging…more are nearing retirement…and younger people are not coming into the jobs fast enough.
This new year – decarbonize your life – The beginning of a series about a family of 4…taking steps to dramatically reduce emissions and sequester carbon.
Gradient Arrangements of Food Highlights Biodiversity Not Often Seen in Supermarkets – Wow – what a range of colors and shapes in common fruits and veggies like: tomatoes, corn, potatoes, pears, peppers, squash, cucumber, kale, and beans.
Heat and cold as health hazards – Controlled experiments on how the body reacts to hot and cold…and the health consequences.
Water Worries: Threatened and Endangered Cultural Sites – Climate change has caused increasing severe rainstorms in the Southwest impacting the adobe walls in Tumacácori National Historical Park in Arizona and Pecos National Historical Park in New Mexico. Storms, flooding and sea level rise are impacting other parks including Statue of Liberty National Monument, Colonial National Historical Park and the Jamestown Settlement, and Castillo de San Marcos National Monument. The tidal basin in Washington DC is crumbling as flooding increases as the Potomac River rises.
Researchers identify bird species depicted in ancient, finely detailed Egyptian painting – Click on the images to get a larger view of the birds. Key to the second image: a–f rock pigeons (Columba livia); g red-backed shrike (Lanius collurio); h white wagtail (Motacilla alba); i pied kingfisher (Ceryle rudis); j–l unidentified.
How microplastics are infiltrating the food you eat – Right now microplastics are viewed as a contaminant but research is revealing they may have harmful impacts….and should be studied and regulated as a pollutant. Will systems that use sludge as fertilizer need to change dramatically? It appears likely.
2022 Year in Review: Top Stories from Around the National Park System – Flooding at Yellowstone, Mauna Loa eruption, drought at Glen Canyon, maintenance challenges, invasive species …crowds…a lot of big stories.
A few days after Christmas – a cold morning in Carrollton TX.
I ventured out a little after sunrise – when the clouds were still tinged with orange.
The oxalis edging the pavers that had all been green when I arrived a few days before Christmas had transformed to a layer of frozen, deteriorating leaves protecting a green layer underneath.
Even the kale was different after the very cold temperatures – oddly looking more like a light-colored flower with green leaves below.
As few minutes in the cold…the sky had brightened…I took one last picture and went indoors.
When I visited Josey Ranch Lake on a cold winter afternoon, there was a father with 2 children feeding the birds. I took a bird group picture that included most of the species on the water; it’s not a great picture with the shade/sun challenge but is probably good enough for some id. Can you find American Wigeons, American Coot, Mallards, Northern Shoveler, and Lesser Scaups?
Here are some better views of American Wigeons. It was challenging to see the green sheen on the male’s head.
There seem to be more male Mallards than females.
The Northern Shovelers were very active. They even climbed up on the bank to scarf up breadcrumbs after the children left.
Lesser Scaups have beautiful markings and rich color even in winter. They are smaller than the mallards.
A Great Egret was stoic in the regrowing reeds and cattails on the other side of the lake.
Gulls (immature ring-billed?) dive bombed for bread while it was being tossed…then gathered toward the middle of the lake…sometimes making a lot of noise.
The swans had participated in the bread eating frenzy, then regained their composure when it was over and calmly left the scene together. A male and female scaup looked on.
Overall – not a bad visit to the lake, but it was cold; I didn’t dawdle…took my pictures and headed back to the warmth of the car.
The landscape views of the pocket prairie looked very wintry during the cold snap at Christmas this year. The Pocket Prairie is sleeping.
I switched into macro photography mode (with my Samsung Galaxy S10e)…and found a few blooms, wilted greens, and lots of dried textures. Can you spot the dandelion flower in the slideshow below? There was more than one even though the nighttime temperatures were in the 20s and the sunny day temperature when I was walking around the area was barely into the 40s. I noticed that the flowers were very close to the ground and wondered if there was a microclimate that was sustaining the dandelion growth.
I noticed that the gardeners of the Pocket Prairie had put cardboard under mulch; it’s a good way to reduce weed growth and improve the soil at the same time. Some of the mulch had blown or washed away making the cardboard visible in some places; if the cardboard is too dry, the microbes and bugs won’t find it very palatable. I’ll have to remember that issue since I am going to use cardboard as part of the prep for the area I’ll plant with native shrubs in my back yard!
(Side note – January 3 was my grandfather’s birthday…122 years ago. He died in the 1970s but I have lots of memories of him that always flare into my thinking in the days around January 3rd.)
The ending of a year…the beginning of the next. I don’t stay up until midnight to make the transition, but I do like to get up to photograph the sunrise. Somehow dawn seems like the better time to welcome the new year just as it is for starting the day….and it is not so early to be hard to do!
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.
Best of 2022 - A Fun Map Puzzle – There are parts of the world where political boundaries have changed a lot since my elementary school geography class. The MapPuzzle game is a fun way refresh (or relearn) countries/states/provinces.
The year in chemistry: 2022’s biggest chemistry stories – I like these summary articles…and think about which one of the stories will be the most impactful in 2023.
Top 7 Building Decarbonization Wins In 2022 – Finally….now to maintain the momentum of these ‘wins’ and more into 2023!
Ten Remarkable New Plants Discovered in 2022 – And one of them is the largest waterlily on Earth…from Bolivia.
Shrinking Pollinator Populations Could Be Killing 427,000 People Per Year – The world is losing 3-5% of its fruit, vegetable, and nut production because of shrinking pollinator populations and lower pollinator diversity. That translates into less healthy food available…and associated health conditions like diabetes and heart disease. In Honduras, Nepal and Nigeria, the pollination deficits are responsible for a reduction of 3-19% in crop yields. This highlights the importance of making changes to support pollinator populations such as limiting pesticide use, maintaining existing natural habitats, and restoring others, and planting more flowers and diverse plants.
Overlooked Gems of The National Park System – In the cold of winter…time to plan some trips to parks for the year…including a few of the overlooked gems highlighted in this article.
Snow Day in Delmarva – Reminder of the area where we enjoyed a lot of day trips while we were living in Maryland….
Stunning Satellite Images of Our Changing Planet in 2022 – The before and after pictures have different elapsed times…be sure to read the captions.
22 Photos Honoring the Triumphs and Challenges That Face Wild Cats – A collection of pictures from Panthera, the world’s leading wildcat conservation organization.
Home Depot Does a Big Energy Deal, But It Does More Behind the Scenes – The Home Depot commitment is to produce or procure 100% renewable electricity equivalent to the needs of all its facilities by 2030 and they are taking actions to make it happen. Hope more big box stores will be taking similar actions.
Kittens – holiday lights – plants in winter – a great blue heron….pictures made possible by the Zooming capabilities of my three cameras: phone (Samsung Galaxy S10e), small point and shoot (Cannon PowerShot SX730 HS), and bridge (Canon PowerShot SX70 HS). The one I have with me all the time is the phone; the point and shoot fits in a coat pocket so it is easy to take along, the bridge camera I need for the optics (i.e. the greatest optical zoom of my cameras). Enjoy the December zoomed images!
Ten little…and big…celebrations for December 2022. The big ones include:
A 70th wedding anniversary. That’s a lot of years for a relationship to thrive….and for both to still be healthy enough to enjoy life and the celebration!
Winter holiday. They happen every year, but it doesn’t reduce the joy of the virtually back-to-back family celebrations that flow into January: a birthday, an anniversary, Christmas, New Years and then another big anniversary. I’m celebrating now and savoring the anticipation of more still to come!
And then there are the little celebrations that are more like the other months of the year:
Finding puzzles. When I first started looking for puzzles, I didn’t find any that I likes and then I found 2 at a thrift store and another 4 at a pharmacy….and celebrated the finds!
Gardens Aglow at Mizumoto Japanese Stroll Garden. Celebrating a walk-through holiday light display in Springfield MO. If we hadn’t found it, I would be missing the Brookside Gardens lights in Maryland.
Getting the wreath on the door. The kittens prolonged the time it took to get our house decorated this year (some trial and error with how they would respond). The wreath was one of the last things we did…and I celebrated that the decorating was done!
Getting to stay home on a rainy day. Celebrating that I can usually rearrange plans to avoid getting out on a cold, rainy day!
Hot tea with orange peel. Celebrating a little hint of citrus….and probably the vitamin C as well.
Macro photography at Springfield Conservation Nature Center. Celebrating the beauty of native plants through all the seasons…..particularly close-up.
New glasses. This is my first time to get transition lenses. I am celebrating not needing to juggle my sunglasses on and off on road trips!
The plastic vase works. I was a little skeptical that the flat plastic vases would expand and hold a large bouquet....celebrated when the one I tried worked great! Now I feel more confident giving them as gifts!
I picked some favorite photos from the year for a slide show. They are all outdoors. Thematically there are birds and insects more often than lizards or turtles. Some are documentation type pictures and others are artsy. They were taken in four states: Maryland, Virginia, Missouri, and Texas. For some reason – the fluffed up Eastern Bluebird is my favorite. Enjoy the show!
We are having colder temperatures in southwestern Missouri…. changing the scenes around our neighborhood. I was out on a sunny morning when the temperature was in the 20s and the ‘feels like’ temperature was 15 – noticing that the Lamb’s Ear in our back flower bed is curling in the cold.
I headed over toward the neighborhood ponds with an idea of photographing some ice. The first place I stopped was dry!
Turning in the other direction to the main body of the pond, I had more luck. The water froze in the shallow area – making frozen patterns of ice shelves connected to the bank. Some leaves were frozen into the ice. In one area, the ice was breaking with the movement of the water (either from the pumps or the wind).
The surprise of the morning were birds on the water. I spotted the Great Blue Herron first. It was standing very still…. until it noticed me in my red coat and flew away.
A pair of mallards was enjoying the pond as well.
I made the short loop aroud the largest pond. My new coat with its hood and hiking boots kept most of me warm; my hands (even with gloves) and my nose were cold. I should have worn a mask for my cold nose…and need to inventory my gloves for a warmer pair!
I walked around my yard on a cold, windy, cloudy day….not a good day for landscape compositions; it was a good day for macro photography, though.
I had some fun with a bush with colorful leaves. One of the leaves looked (to me) like a green alien figure surrounded by a yellow and red prison!
There were seed pods and colorful leaves from last season, buds on the rhododendron for next spring, greens of pine needles and rich browns of cones, and lambs ear with water droplets in a flower bed.
The rose bush was caught by the abrupt and very cold spell in late October. It is putting on some new leaves which probably won’t last much longer. I decided to look at the thorns more closely….staying far enough away to not get caught!
I’ve also noticed that the two boxwood bushes at the front of the house have brown leaves on the ends of their branches. It took some time for the damage of that early frost to show…but it is very evident now. I guess in normal years, the bushes stop growing as the season cools down and the new grown is better prepared when the first days down in the 20s occur – unlike this year when it happened abruptly and early.
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.
Winners of 2022 Environmental Photographer of the Year Use Art to Tell Important Stories of Our Planet – Photography with a message
Rare good news from the Amazon: gigantic fish are thriving again – Pirarucu, an air-breathing fish that must rise to the surface every 15 minutes or so…can grow to be 10 feet long, weigh up to 450 pounds…are valued for their meat. The fish are making a comeback thanks to sustainable fishing programs in northern Brazil.
Stunning Winners of the 2022 Landscape Photographer of the Year Contest – Capturing a place…and a tiny amount of time.
Top 10 Discoveries of 2022 – from Archaeology Magazine
Remains of last surviving Tasmanian Tiger discovered in museum cabinet – Finding and following the trail of an older female thylacine that was trapped and sold to the Beaumaris Zoo in mid-May 1936. She died in September 1936. The zoo transferred her body to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery where taxidermist preserved the hide, and the skeleton was broken apart and positioned on 5 cards. Both hide and skeleton were used by the museum for educational purposes…and then forgotten. They were found recently in a cabinet in the museum’s education department.
Best of 2022: Top Astrophotography That Captured the Beauty of the Cosmos – Quite a few from the James Webb Space Telescope.
Volcanic activity increases worldwide – There are 47 volcanoes around the world that are in ‘continuing eruption status’…more than double the normal. The article includes short videos of several of them.
The rich marine life under frozen ice – Phytoplankton and organisms that eat it….discovered by geologists trying to get a mud core, hitting rock, then seeing organisms when they reviewed what the camera on their equipment recorded!
Top Websites for Urban Planning – 2022 – From Planetizen. This year they highlight an increased attention to the social and environmental outcomes of planning…enabling identification/resolution in the intersections between the built/natural environment and the lives of people.
Exploring a forgotten Jewish Land – The Beta Israel in northern Ethiopia. The 100,000 strong population fled to Israel in the 1980s to escape war and famine.
We walked through the Gardens Aglow event at the Mizumoto Japanese Stroll Garden in Springfield, MO last Friday. It was a wonderful way to celebrate our first winter holidays in Missouri…will become an annual tradition from now on.
We got there shortly after the opening at 5 PM. There were a steady stream of cars arriving but there were people directing parking which eliminated confusion; it was a short walk from where we parked to the entrance and there was no line although next year I will plan to buy tickets in advance.
My husband and I had enjoyed the Brookside Gardens lights during the many years we lived in Maryland and found ourselves comparing the two displays. The lights in both places used the gardens as a theme and the trees as scaffolding. The lights at Mizumoto seemed brighter (maybe slightly larger LEDs?) and they had more water to use for reflections/dark areas of the display.
In some ways it was easier to photograph the lights this year because the animations were changes in light color within a fixed grid rather than across a space. I liked the wall of color…watching as it moved through a cycle of colors.
There was a weeping cherry in lights; the tree underneath was probably a weeping cherry too!
The arched bridge over a water feature became magical with all the lights and a shed looked like a gingerbread house.
I managed to notice two Japanese lanterns and maybe next year I will try to photograph more of them. They don’t have lights themselves but offer a link to the place that is not as obvious looking at the lights.
There were several butterflies along the way that were photo opportunities…a person could become the body of the butterfly! This was something new to us…lots of fun; I was glad they had a small butterfly too (but didn’t see any children getting their picture taken).
We spent about an hour strolling the loop through the garden…enjoying the lights and happy noises of people around us.
It was a foggy morning at the Springfield Conservation Nature Center; I opted to do macro and zoomed images rather than landscape compositions…and am relatively pleased with the way they turned out. There are remnants of the native plants in the area around the nature center: berries providing splashes of color along with the subtle colors but interesting shapes of dried plant parts and seeds…
The Beautyberry near the main entrance has wrinkled berries now that there has been more wintery weather.
I took a short walk down one of the trails. Some desiccated fungus on a downed limb was close enough to the trail to photograph.
Another branch had some interesting lichen that seemed to be growing more upward that usual. I regretted that I didn’t have a better camera with me to photograph it.
The other end of the branch must have broken recently…the shape reminded me of an open mouth or cave surrounded my lichen!
I long ago had ago had this stump be cut/exposed. The bark was gone from around the edges, but the rings were still easily visible. I didn’t take the time to count them.
The patches of missing back on a standing tree (probably dead) were probably the work of something looking for insects – maybe a woodpecker?
I started taking macro pictures of tree trunks…realized that it was more interesting if there was a patch of something rather than just the bark; lichen is the most common find…a bit of green and different shape among the crinkles of bark.
As I walked on the path, the floor of the forest was covered with small plants protruding from the thick layer of leaves. I realized that these small plants were an indicator that the area was not overly browsed by deer as so many places in Maryland had been…and a good indication that the native plantings I want to add around my house will survive!
Last but not least – I took one picture looking upward through the winter tree branches. Maybe next month I will do more landscape images from around the nature center….or maybe it will be cold enough to hike down to the water and take some ice pictures!
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.
Adults living in areas with high air pollution are more likely to have multiple long-term health conditions – A study of more than 364 thousand people in England. Respiratory and cardiovascular problems dominate but neurological and common mental conditions were also observed.
Best of 2022: Top 50 Photographs from Around the World – The first of the year in summary type articles. I had seen some of these photos before…but not all of them. They are worth a look.
Larger wheat harvest in Ukraine than expected – Based on satellite imagery, 94% of the winter crop was harvested…including 88% in areas not controlled by Ukraine. Some Ukrainian grain made it to global markets…however Russia is reaping the benefit of a significant portion of the harvest.
Medieval woman’s burial in Switzerland yields gold broach – A wealthy burial from a 7th century AD cemetery…excavated prior to construction work. The article didn’t say whether the finds would be going to a museum…or be reburied with the skeleton elsewhere.
More Than 52 Million Birds in the U.S. Are Dead Because of Avian Flu – It began last year in Eastern Canada and has affected flocks in 46 states since then. Wild and domestic birds are impacted…and there is a risk of infections in people too.
Study finds that experiences of daily stress decrease as people age – As we get older, we begin to deal daily stressors better. It’s a positive aspect to aging!
Archaeologists Find 1,900-Year-Old Snacks in Sewers Beneath the Colosseum – The debris from 1,900 years ago: olives, nuts, meats, cherries, grapes, figs, blackberries, and peaches!
Biodiversity unbalanced as ice-free Antarctic areas grow – Non-native species invading Antarctica
Idaho’s Potato Belt – 1/3 of the US potatoes are grown in the Snake River Plain….satellite images from NASA’s Aqua and Landsat 8.
Dam safety: New study indicates probable maximum flood events will significantly increase over next 80 years – This is a paper about 546 dams in Australia. We need to extend this type of analysis around the world…to improve the integrity of critical infrastructure into the future.
After the leaves have all fallen off the deciduous trees, plants that retain their color in the cold of December stand out against the background of browns and grays. Here are three of my favorites:
Kale lasts into the winter – particularly in protected area around houses. The plants I photographed were in a location where frost covered the grass nearby…and the water droplets from an overnight rain were probably icy. I like the color transitions on the leaves…from the new leaves that are all purple/pink…the older ones with the purple/pink near the stem then the gray/green around the edges. The oldest leaves are all gray/green..
Conifers are the dominant greens of winter…and the cones that remain on the tree are interesting too. Is this a pattern from nature that we follow when we decorate our Christmas trees?
We have some hollies in our yard, but they are young enough that they don’t have a lot of berries. The hollies at my daughter’s house are large trees and are full of red berries. While the berries last, the tree displays Christmas colors! At some point there will be enough freeze/thaw cycles for the birds to decide they are edible – sometimes the berries disappear very quickly. Note that these hollies are varieties that don’t have the prickly leaves of the wild American Holly.
The joys of early winter….
18 images in the slide show for November – less skewed toward botanical subjects than recent months. Outings to Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge, Springfield Conservation Nature Center and Josey Ranch Lake increased my opportunity to photograph wildlife. It was good to see winter and migrating birds…more of those in coming months (probably).
Enjoy the November slide show!
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.
Battle Over Bears Ears Continues in Utah – I am looking forward to visiting Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments and hope that their boundaries stay the way the tribes that have used the area for a very long time want. At some point Utah and the counties that are opposing the size will recognize the values of the tribes and country that want to preserve historical, paleontological, and geologic aspects of these places….and that the state benefits significantly from people visiting. The tourism $ may become more dependable and long term than other uses of the land.
Pyramid and Hundreds of New Kingdom Coffins Found in Egypt - An Old Kingdom pyramid, 300 New Kingdom coffins with well-preserved mummies with names of the deceased, and nearby a pyramid to Queen Neith…a previously unknown Queen.
Long-COVID clinics are wrestling with how to treat their patients – Frustrating situation.
Fenced In: How the Global Rise of Border Walls Is Stifling Wildlife – Border walls have increased since the end of the Cold War! This makes climate change an even bigger challenge to mammals…because they cannot move to better habitat if there is a border wall in the way.
Baby's vaccine responses linked to birth delivery method, study finds – Babies born via Caesarian section have lower antibody levels after vaccinations than babies born naturally.
Scientists Discover More Than 22,000 Endangered Manta Rays off Coast of Ecuador – Larger than any other Manta Ray population.
A Massive Freshwater River Is Flowing Under Antarctica’s Ice – It is flowing at 3 times the rate of the Thames. This finding helps understand some problems with existing models…hopefully it will allow for model updates to predict the impact of warming more accurately on Antarctica’s ice.
A Field Guide to Jackrabbits – Hard to see denizens of the western US (and Mexico).
France Looks to Mandate Solar Panels Over Large Parking Lots – Good idea…maybe it will begin to happen in the US even without a mandate.
Bright LEDs could spell the end of dark skies – Hope cities can learn to use LEDs like Tucson…not overuse bright white LEDs.
Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge was the birding highpoint of my last road trip to Texas, but the big ponds at Josey Ranch are too convenient to not visit every time I am in Carrollton. I was rewarded with even more wintering birds than I had seen in October.
American Coots. There were a few last month…more were on the water in November.
Northern Shovelers had arrived. There were actively feeding. They are easy to ID with their ‘shoveler’ bill.
Lesser Scaups were also new in November. There markings and bill color are distinctive – nothing drab about the birds even in winter.
American Wigeon would be prettier on a sunny day (with the iridescent green swipe on their heads)…but I wanted to document their presence at Josey Ranch even if the day was cloudy.
Ruddy Ducks were around last month. There didn’t seem to be as many this time. I had thought they were just migrating through but maybe some of them stay around.
Mallards are year-round residents. I photographed three birds….feeding in the shallows (2 males and a female). I watched for several minutes; at no time were all three heads visible!
Copyright © 2025, Gwen Morrison. All rights reserved.
Celebrating the whole of life....
Thanks for visiting my blog! Enjoy the photo picks from last month:
Copyright © 2025 Gwen Morrison. All rights reserved.
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