Camera on the Birdfeeder – January 2020

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I’ve learned a lot about the birds coming to our birdfeeder this month when I reviewed the videos from our Reolink Argus 2 camera.

The earliest bird at the feeder is a Carolina Wren that was there before sunrise one morning (that’s why the pictures I clipped from the video are in black and white). The wrens pick through the seeds and scatters seed on the ground a lot; I’m not sure which seeds are preferred. We have at least a pair of wrens…and maybe more.

There always seems to be birds at the feeder in the morning. One snowy morning I caught the sun just as it came over the house to light the trees behind our house; a male Northern Cardinal and female finch were at the feeder. Over an hour later, there was a female cardinal and a Dark-eyed Junco on the feeder…with lots of juncos waiting their turn.

There was a female Red-bellied Woodpecker in the middle of another day….and then a male came and that was enough weight that the feeder closed making it very difficult to for either one to get any seed. The female pecked the feeder (frustrated….maybe angry) and flew away leaving the male. That is the last time I saw the male at the feeder. Maybe he’s found food elsewhere (hope he wasn’t found by a hawk), but we still see the female frequently. Watching the red-bellied woodpeckers, they seem to like the bigger seeds: sunflower seeds and peanuts.

I’ve only seen the Downy Woodpecker once on the video (there could have been some instances where it came to the sides of the video not visible to the camera). Otherwise the birds we see are frequent visitors

On the 8th there was a female Northern Cardinal that spent a long time at the feeder. It was a quiet day for birds otherwise. The first time the bird was at the feeder was for over an hour and the second time it was there about 20 minutes. The bird was looking around rather than eating most of the time. It would get a seed from the feeder and then turn around so that it could look around toward the house or back over the yard. The cardinals seem to like all kinds of seeds in the feeder.

I’m still working on the hierarchy of birds at the feeder. Right now, it seems like the red-bellied woodpeckers are the top bird. Most of the other birds leave when they come. The juncos are the ones that hold back….they are at the bottom of the ‘pecking order.’ Next month I’ll work out some more of the hierarchy.

A Few Minutes at Mt Pleasant

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I went to Howard County Conservancy’s Mt. Pleasant for a couple of Winter Wellness presentations (for the HCC volunteers) on a cold bluster day. It had been over a month since I had been but it was not a good day for lingering outdoors – even though the sun was shining, it was not one of those ‘colder-than-it-looks’ days. All the leaves were blown off the deciduous trees and the flower beds were brown or very wilted green. The hay field to the left of the drive as I drove in had been cut and the round bales left in the field.

I parked as close as I could and took a picture of the farmhouse as I walked in. The big tree that previously hid the left side of the house was cut down in 2019 and the new walk was installed. It gives the area a more open – and formalized – look. The flowerpot people still look a little Christmassy…but at least the hats and scarves were staying in place even with the blustery wind. I took that picture on the way out.

Overall…it was only a few minutes outdoors – good bookends for the lectures.

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 25, 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.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week: January 2020 – Starting out with wild and wonderful birds this week.

Infographic: How does nature influence human health? – Most people intuitively know that nature has a positive impact…but now there is more and more research to quantify that impact.

The Plastics Pipeline: A Surge of New Production Is on the Way - Yale E360 – Just when I really want manufacturers to find ways to package products in something other than plastic….the industry has plans to ramp up production of plastic. Consumers can still make a difference with our purchases (or lack of purchase). I’m slowly but surely reducing the items I buy that come in plastic….always looking for alternatives.

New aqueous lithium-ion battery improves safety without sacrificing performance: Non-flammable, cost-efficient, and effective battery -- ScienceDaily – Hurray for all the battery research going on right now….hopefully there will be more and better options near term. It would certainly boost the speed we can transition away from fossil fuels.

Pylos Tomb Artifacts Suggest Trade Links - Archaeology Magazine – Amber from the Baltics, imported carnelian, pendant depicting an Egyptian goddess….the Greek site might have been a stop on a trade route.

Happy New Year from Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station – Kelly Brunt posted this on January 3rd….and I just got around to looking at it. She was one of our hosts at NASA for my HoLLIE class and then the keynote for our graduation. It was good to read about her recent activities!

Super Resilient Protein Structures Preserved a Chunk of Brain for 2,600 Years – Wow – what an amazing and surprising find! And there is has been some research to figure out how it managed to be preserved.

Towards Ecophilia: Being hopeful in spite of it all -I enjoyed the pictures and activity descriptions about children in nature.

How US sewage plants can remove medications from waste-water – Using granular activated carbon and ozonation….more than 95% of certain antidepressants and antibiotics can be removed. This is important to help reduce the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria and maybe other environmental harms as well. But it can be expensive.

The oldest person in the world turns 117 – I liked the last paragraph of the story the best: Last year, when Tanaka received her record for the world’s oldest person, she was asked about the happiest moment in her long life. Her reply was simple: “Now.” Wouldn’t it be great if we all could feel like that no matter how old we are!

Zentangle® with Howard County Conservancy Volunteers

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Every January the Howard County Conservancy host Winter Wellness sessions for their volunteers (returning and new). They usually consist of a hike followed by a lecture. Last week I was part of the ‘lecture’ segment….a Zentangle® session…very similar to the ones I did for summer campers!

I chose some nature oriented patterns for the first tile – gingo and beautyberry. The room got very quiet once we started working. We were using card stock tiles.

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The second tile was done on paper coasters….and the patterns were more architectural looking. I didn’t catch everyone to make the mosaic at the end…but there are enough to show how great the group did in just a short intro type Zentangle session.  

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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.

Through my Office Window – January 2020

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It’s easy to photograph birds through my office window – when I am in the office and not totally focused on something else. I’ve positioned my computer and raised the bird feeder slightly so I can see activity in my peripheral vision while I am working at the computer. I just grab my camera, stand up, make a few steps, and take pictures!

The Dark-eyed Juncos are around all the time although I rarely photograph them. We have our own little neighborhood flock. They are fast moving…like they are nervous all the time.

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We have a pair of Northern Cardinals that are around every day. Their color and sounds stand out.

The raucous groups of Blue Jays come to our trees and sometimes to our bird bath. I go to the window based on the sounds. One day this month there was a big thump on the roof above my office. Three blue jays (silent) flew off to the sycamore as I made it to the window and a single blue jay feather drifted down. Was there a fight? Did there used to be four blue jays and a hawk got one?

The Carolina Wren is at the feeder and the bath almost every day. Sometimes I am drawn to by their song and it takes some looking to find the bird. We have at least two around. We’ve had several instances where they’ve found their way into our screened deck….and we open the door for a while to help them escape.

The Red-bellied Woodpeckers come to the feeder almost every day. We have at least one pair….although the female comes more than the male (Could there be more than one female?...Maybe). The dig around for the larger seeds they like at the feeder.

Mourning Doves are frequent visitors as well. They are too big for the feeder, but they do clean up the seed underneath and they drink from the birdbath.

The House Finches have returned after a hiatus of a few years.

I like the White-breasted Nuthatch for its orientation and postures. It is head down on the feeder more than upright!

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The Downy Woodpecker comes to our feeder less frequently although I see them in the trees. Maybe that’s a positive indicator that they are finding enough food they favor in our forest.

There are birds that don’t come to our feeder but are probably frequent visitors to our yard since we are at the edge of a forest. Common Grackles pass through frequently. They look like small black birds at first glance but with a little zooming the different coloring is distinctive…and the yellow eye.

There are also flocks of Red-winged Blackbirds that come through. They very rarely come to the feeder. They must be finding plenty of food elsewhere.

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We have the Reolink camera monitoring our birdfeeder all the time these days; that gives us a great opportunity to catch more bird interaction. I’m saving that for an upcoming blog post!

In the Middle Patuxent River – January 2020

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Last week I was in the Middle Patuxent River at Robinson Nature Center for the quarterly (winter) water monitoring. The temperature was in the 50s and sunny – an easier sampling than most years. I always like to take some pictures from right at or in the river. It’s a different perspective that being on a forest or meadow trail.

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I was the only one of the sampling crew with just boots….everyone else had waders. But the river level was not too high. I didn’t get water in my boots…and no one fell in either.

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We caught a madtom (catfish) in one of the collection nets (collecting macroinvertebrates). We took pictures and let it go before we headed up the hill to the Nature Center.

In the lab, we divided the buckets of samples into plastic bins and we all started collecting macros from our bins and randomly putting them into the two partitioned trays.

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Then random numbers were drawn to determine the compartments we would id and count until we got to 100….and then we looked at what was left for anything unique. Almost everyone took a few pictures of macros. The most unique thing we found was a white worm!

This was the first time I participated in a winter monitoring and it might have spoiled me – being as warm as it was.

A Few Minutes at Belmont

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When I got in the car to go to Belmont Manor and Historic Park last week, it was evident I hadn’t been there since November; it was so far down the ‘recent’ list in my navigation system that I switched to the ‘saved’ list! Once there I finished my errand quicker than expected so took a few minutes for pictures.

Inside there was Katrina, the diamondback terrapin. She was very active.

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Outside on the side of the building, there were the familiar signs.

The red maple planted by last year’s HoLLIE class looked healthy (red tinged twigs) – dripping from the mists that were swirling around.

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But the small birds that seemed to be everywhere were what drew my attention. I’d seen a mockingbird as I walked toward the building earlier, but the small birds moved around closer to the ground in larger numbers – in the leaf and brush – blending in. I managed to photograph one – song sparrows!

Reeve’s Conchologia iconica

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I usually select three eBooks to feature in a monthly post…and I’ll do that in a week or so. Today I want to feature a series of books I found recently on Internet Archive: Conchologia iconica, or, Illustrations of the shells of molluscous animals by Lovell Augustus Reeve. There are 20 volumes (Vol v.01 (1843), Vol v.02 (1843), Vol v.03 (1845), Vol v.04 (1847), Vol v.05 (1849), Vol v.06 (1851), Vol v.07 (1854), Vol v.08 (1855), Vol v.09 (1856), Vol v.10 (1858), Vol v.11 (1859), Vol v.12 (1860), Vol v.13 (1862), Vol v.14 (1864), Vol v.15 (1866), Vol v.16 (1866), Vol v.17 (1870), Vol v.18 (1873), Vol v.19 (1874), and Vol v.20 (1878)) all published in the mid-1800s. The author died in 1865 and the series was continued by George Brettingham Sowerby. Soweby did the plates for most of the volumes. I found a reference about the books that said: It will always remain a standard work, although many of the species which Reeve created are now held to be invalid. That’s probably to be expected given the many years since they were published; science is always learning more. Still – the plates are beautiful and provide a broad view of the variety of shells known at the time. I collected one plate from each volume to use with this post.

The question that I wonder about is how many of the mollusks that produced these shells have gone extinct in the intervening years. How many types of shells represented in the books are no longer grown? The International Union of Conservation of Nature lists 310 recently extinct species.

Birds on Busy Days

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Sometimes I manage to see something interesting from my office window even on a day I am not in my office very much. Back in December I walked into my office, glanced at the tulip poplar at the edge of the forest….and stopped because there was a hawk in the tree. I grabbed my camera for a quick picture and then it flew away. It looked like a red-tailed hawk.

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This month – right after we got the board set up for our birdfeed camera mount, I came into my office and discovered that the doves had already discovered the new perch. The camera is only big enough for one but there are other perches nearby – the gutter above and the solar panel to the side are popular.

Overall our back yard seems to be a popular place for birds. Fortunately, the predators are infrequent and don’t stick around. Our feeder and bird bath have busy times during the day…and other times are very quiet. Some visitors come every day while others come only occasionally. I’m always thrilled to find bird action when I first walk into my office!

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 18, 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.

Earth at Night – This is an eBook from NASA that was last updated in December 2019….lots of pictures of the earth at night, analysis, and the technology behind the images.

Genomes Sequenced for Every US and Canada Butterfly | The Scientist Magazine® - Work by an evolutionary biologist at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. 845 butterfly species were studied.

Adding copper strengthens 3D-printed titanium -- ScienceDaily – Current titanium alloys used in 3D printing were prone to cracking and distortion. The copper alloy seems to overcome that problem.

When the best way to take notes is by hand - BBC Future – I like to take notes by hand….it always seemed easier to me than using a laptop (although I tried using a laptop to take notes in meetings during my career). Now it seems that it is better for internalizing concepts too. No need for me to try to change to anything else!

Blue Whales’ Hearts Can Beat Exceptionally Slowly | The Scientist Magazine® - As low as 2 times per minute! The high was 37 beats per minute.

Image of the Day: Ochre Paint | The Scientist Magazine® - Evidently ancient people heated aquatic bacteria mats growing in iron rich water to make a bright red paint which was used for rock art. The paint contains microfossils of the bacteria (Leptothrix ochracea). The red color is highly thermo-stable…something that has applicability to manufacturing.

Crows could be the smartest animal other than primates - BBC Future – Clever crows. Not so long ago we thought humans were the only ones to make and use tools.

Incredible Winners of the 2019 EPSON International PANO Awards – Panoramic photographs…a little eye candy for the week.

Trashed farmland could be a conservation treasure -- ScienceDaily – Interesting idea…but how much land is in this category and what happens to the people that are still trying to eke out an existence on that land.

Future For Silversword Plants At Halaeakalā National Park Dark – Rare plants…have not recovered as well as the Nene (Hawaiian goose) – for several reasons. Plants around the world are having to adjust to changing climate and some will not be able to change fast enough to continue to exist in the same places…some may become extinct. I hope the Silversword survives.

Maryland State House Ceiling as Zentangle® Prompt

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I am always noticing potentials for Zentangle patterns. An easy one was in the skylight at the Maryland State House (when we visited back in December). I made a tile without much thought about deconstruction. The stained glass ‘flower’ is was my primary interest.

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I used a string to guide the pointed arc shape around each flower…then just make the curves. I filled in the spaces between the ‘petals’ to add some drama…and then it was just the tried and true Zentangle auras to fill in the rest of the space.

I did a simple step out of the way I deconstructed the pattern after I made the tile!

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Zentangle prompts are everywhere! I’ve been looking at books about ancient pottery recently….lots to patterns to glean from them. I try to limit myself to one of the ‘Zentangle prompt’ posts each month, but I am very tempted to do another this month.

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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.

A Little Snow

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Last week we had a little snow…a few inches one afternoon and evening…enough to delay the schools opening the next morning. I took a picture as it was coming down in the afternoon before the day got too dark.

The next morning, I started before sunrise then took several pictures catching the changes in light as the sun came up and from behind the morning clouds.

The sycamore has a few leaves that caught the snow…but there were also branches acting like skewers for ribbons of snow on the tree.

The evergreens always hold a lot of snow. This time it wasn’t enough to break any limbs.

The red maple twigs already look a little red against the snow they hold.

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The tulip poplar seed pods act as little cups for the snow…the branches of the tree like a candelabra. The snow was wet enough to stick to almost all the branches.

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The big surprise of the morning was a hawk. When it first flew into the sycamore while I was getting my breakfast, I thought it was a mourning dove, but then decided it was a little larger…and then it turned its head and I knew it wasn’t a dove. The pictures were taken through a window with a screen but the shape of the tail is distinctive enough to indicate that it was probably a Cooper’s Hawk (rather than a sharp-shinned). No wonder there weren’t any birds around our feeder at the time!

The snow melted slowly over the course of the day. I was glad I didn’t have anything I needed to do away from home.

Memorable Picture

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I took this picture back in November. It is the side of the Missouri State University stadium. What do you think the image between the two columns represents?

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My mother glanced at it – thought it was a spider….but the logo is actually of a bear! It a rectangular clip of a squarish logo that is obviously a bear. But I can see how it does look like a spider at first glance….and that’s what makes the picture memorable. It draws me back to a moment in time on a cold November day, walking between the building and our car, noticing the fierce whatever-it-is, laughing. I took the picture just after my mother’s comment and we all pilled into the car. A happy time.

Touch Tank – January 2020

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I enjoy the volunteer gig at the Robinson Nature Center Touch Tank….getting more experienced every time I spend an hour there. The Discovery Room, where the touch tank is located, is full of activities for pre-school through elementary school aged children with the Touch Tank being available when there is a volunteer to open it.

There are two kinds of sea urchins: the slate pencil with spines that look like slate pencils from the 1800s and pin cushion with spines that are more prickles. Both names are somewhat historical for young children. Some have never seen a pin cushion! Even the adults haven’t seen slate pencils that look like the sea urchin. Everyone enjoys seeing how the pin cushion urchins ‘hide’ by holding shells and little hats to themselves. The pin cushion urchins can also hang on well enough to hang upside down for a little while on my hand…always a surprise to the children.

Sometimes the sea urchins attach themselves to something else – a rock or a conch. Do you see the pin cushion urchin on the back of the milk conch in the pictures below? The conch was on the move with eye stalks extended and vacuuming up its food from the sand.

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There are three conchs in the tank. The largest is usually the most active.

And then there are the sea stars. I like to look at them through the glass of the tank…with their suction-cup feet out and hanging on. I pick them up for the children to touch – back and front – but I like them better through the glass.

Overall, I am getting more comfortable with the animals in the tank and better at controlling the flow of people (children) around the tank. An hour at the touch tank is always an hour well spent!

Eastern Bluebird – January 2020

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On the second day of the year, a male Eastern Bluebird appeared in our backyard. I saw him first near the bird bath. By the time I got my camera, the bird was in the sycamore…looking serious. It was a relatively cold day so the bird’s feathers were a little fluffed to provide more warmth; he looks very rounded.

I thought he had flown way but when I checked the videos from our birdfeeder, I found that the bird had attempted to visit the feeder….but headed to a perch was too high to get and seed. It quickly backed away and I didn’t see it again. Even though the clips from the Reolink video are a little blurry – it does show how the bird maneuvers to back away from the birdfeeder.

We don’t see bluebirds very often so this it was a pleasant surprise to see the bird. In January 2018, I managed to photograph 3 bluebirds at our birdbath!

My 2019 in Review – Technology

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Every year there is something new from a technology perspective that I incorporate into the way I do things. 2019 was no exception.

The warranty on my old laptop expired and I bought a new one (Dell XPS 13 Laptop, Dell Thunderbolt ™ Dock TB 16-180W and Dell Ultrasharp 27 Monitor with Premier Color – UP2716D) – the current version of the same laptop I bought previously. The big enhancement from my perspective is the solid-state drive (the new one has a 1-terabyte drive compared to the 500-megabyte drive on the old one). I also got a new Bluetooth mouse and keyboard (Logitech MX Anywhere 2S and MX Keys). I’ve already learned to turn the key backlight off to extend the battery life on the keyboard. I also graduated from one monitor to two. I like to see a lot of the windows I have open all at once! The Dock centralizes all the cables mostly away from the laptop itself which makes it easier to unplug from my office when I am traveling. It took several months to get everything installed and operating the way a want. At the beginning of 2020, I am enjoying being done with the transition…not planning any more near term.

The birdfeeder camera (Reolink Argus 2) is a relatively new addition to the technology at our house. I posted about it last Friday. I think our set up has stabilized and we might be mostly through the technology learning curve. Now we’re ready to use the camera to learn how birds interact at our feeder. Maybe we’ll put a camera on our heated bird bath too.

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I subscribed to a year of the Headspace app in February 2019. It’s been a learning experience….using the app to prompt a 15 minute Headspace session for 260 days so far. I’m done a lot of the courses. I just finished the Mindful Eating course and it has been a big help in slowly changing some of my long standing eating habits….letting them go.

I am still using the same phone and iPad that I had before 2019…I make tweaks but no big changes. And they still get used almost daily. I did link my phone and laptop more closely in 2019 via the Your Phone app. That allows me to see my phone’s notifications, messages and photos on my laptop. I often type messages on the PC rather than the phone (if I happen to be in my office).

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 11, 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.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week: Seabirds – Starting with the birds this week. I’m thinking about the Delmarva birding sessions later this month…they’ll be sea birds and more to see.

Clearing damaged cells out of the body helps heal diabetics' blood vessels -- ScienceDaily – Interesting….but still a lot of research needed before it could potentialy be used in treatment.

The toxic killers in our air too small to see - BBC Future – Nanoparticles – 90% of particles by busy roads are nanoparticles below 100nm. The smaller the particles, the greater potential toxicity. Anything smaller than 30 nm can make it to through the lungs and into the blood stream (larger than that doesn’t gets past the lungs). The Global Burden of Diseases study estimates that air pollution could account for 21% of all deaths due to stroke and 24% of deaths from ischaemic heart disease.

A little prairie can rescue honey bees from famine on the farm -- ScienceDaily – Food crops can provide good food for honey bees…but maybe not for the whole season.

Adult Humans Can Regenerate Cartilage: Study | The Scientist Magazine® - microRNA may have potential in human regeneration of tissue.

Agar Art Contest 2019: See this year’s winners – Art made with live bacteria.

Infrared Reveals Egyptian Mummies' Hidden Tattoos | Smart News | Smithsonian – 7 mummies – 3,000 years old. All the mummies with tattoos at the site were women.

Gabapentin: A Risky Answer to the Opioid Epidemic - The Atlantic Gabapentin has become the 10th most-commonly-prescribed medication in the US. It is viewed as a safer alternative to opioids for chronic pain….but it is problematic in combination with other sedating medication and it doesn’t work as well as hoped….particularly for back pain. It appears that looking for a quick fix for chronic pain is – again – not working as advertised.

Photography In The National Parks: My Favorite Spots For Great Photos – From Arches, Bryce Canyon, Big Bend, Acadia, and Padre Island.

Scientists Don't Know Why Freshwater Mussels Are Dying Across North America | Smart News | Smithsonian – It’s not just in one place….and may have multiple causes. But this just highlights that some mussel species that have already gone extinct…and our rivers are very different than their ‘natural’ state.

Camera on the Birdfeeder – Setting Up

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I posted some initial results of our bird feeder camera back in December. This post is a little more about our experience…now that we’ve settled on a configuration. The camera we are using is a Reolink Argus 2. In December, we were experimenting by using a ladder to temporarily mount it; our goal was to decide where to mount the camera and the best settings.

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Our first attempt at more permanent mounting (and one that would not show in the pictures like the ladder did) was on a bracket just below the eave of the covered deck. We discovered almost immediately that the bracket was not as stable as we had thought it would be; a breeze could cause the camera to move. So – we started thinking through alternatives.

Even with a wobbly camera,  we did capture a good sequence of a male and female red-bellied woodpecker interaction at the feeder (the male is the one that has red from front of his head all the way back to where the black and white feathers begin). The female was there first but flew to the support for the covered deck when the male arrived – pecking the wood (in frustration?) then flying off.

Our next mounting scheme was to mount a board to the supports for the covered deck and then the camera with its solar panel on the borad.  So far it is working well. We’ve been tweaking some settings. I’ll post some results in a few days.

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I use the Reolink Client on my PC to view the videos captured by the camera. I download the ones I want to clip for my blog – either as single images or a sequence of images. It’s been a lot of fun to watch the antics of birds that I didn’t catch from my office window. So far, we haven’t had any unexpected visitors…but I am enjoying the views of behaviors I would not have seen otherwise.

30 Years Ago – January 1990

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30 years ago this month – my daughter was 4 months old and I was still taking unpaid leave from my career at IBM. We visited the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History on the first day of the year. My husband took pictures of me and the baby near the elephant in the rotunda! She probably couldn’t really see the whole elephant clearly, but she was wide awake for most of the museum (napping in the car on and from).

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That January had enough snow and ice that we didn’t get out very much. I had a scary fall on an icy driveway early in the month. It was icy. I thought it was just wet when I headed out to get the mail. My feet slid forward; I fell backward and hit my head. I lay on the driveway for a few seconds assessing….then crawled back up/to the side to the grass…kept to the grass to get the mail before I went back inside.

The view from the front of our house shows a newly planted Bradford Pear near the street (still has stakes on both sides). The neighborhood had organized to plant the trees along the street, and we went along with the idea. Now Bradford Pears have become invasive in our area – coming up everywhere as Callery Pear. Aargh!

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In the back of the house we had some larger evergreens. One leaned way over the woodpile. We were using our fireplace more that January than before or since.

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Our one PC and keyboards were in the basement. We had a full house upstairs with a bedroom and sitting room for my mother-in-law, a room for the baby, and the master bedroom.

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There were two baby milestones during the month: she started eating baby cereals and rolling over. At the beginning of the month the rolling over was occasional and took a lot of extreme effort on her part. By the end of the month it was so easy for her that she rolled until something stopped her…and then figured out that she could roll away in the other direction.  

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My 2019 in Review - Photos

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I managed to pick 26 pictures that were my favorites of the year either because I liked the way they turned out or because of a memory they evoked. I noticed some themes after I had collected them.

All except one are outdoors (although two were taken through my office window so I was standing indoors when I took them).

Many were pictures of plants: bare trees, witch hazel, red yucca seed pod, button bush, joe pye weed, cardoon, sunflowers, beautyberry, and red buckeye (nuts).

7 were pictures of animals or evidence of animals (other than birds): whelk shells, horseshoe crab beginning to roll over, northern red-bellied cooter (turtle), tiger swallowtail butterflies, cicada, spider, gray tree frog.

6 were pictures of birds or feathers: pelican, ibis, gallinule, bald eagle (wet), red-bellied woodpecker.

There are two sunrise pictures: one from my front porch on the first day of 2019 and one from October when we were camping in southern Virginia.

More than half the pictures are from places I go that are close to where I live (i.e. not requiring an overnight trip).