March 07, 2020

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 7, 2020

March 07, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

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.

Chasing Little Frost Trees in a Prairie Wetland | The Prairie Ecologist – We haven’t have many days for me to look for frost trees here in Maryland this year. This is always a matter of taking advantage of a frosty sunny day when it’s fun to look for interesting frost formations on exposed surfaces – grass – windshields, etc.

Stoneflies and mayflies, canaries of our streams – It’s great to see an article about the adult forms of the insects we collect as macroinvertebrates (larval form) when we do water quality monitoring either quarterly or with high school students on a field trip to a river.

Earthquakes in and around Yellowstone: How Often Do They Occur? – There are lots of them! About 5 that are strong enough to be felt have happened each year over the past decade.

Top strategies for successful weight loss maintenance-- ScienceDaily - Choosing healthy food, tracking what you eat and using positive self-talk….seems like common sense, but it is not ‘easy’ and so we struggle on. It comes down to making changes for the long term rather than just for a little while. New habits are always tough but, once truly habitual, become just the way be live our lives.

Eero Järnefelt, painter of Finnish nature | Europeana Blog – Images of the natural world in the late 1800s. Koli National Park in eastern Finland was visited by the painter frequently.

Sustainable Farming Comes to America's Heartland | CleanTechnica – Iowa farmers…leading with their actions…responding to climate and environmental changes to farm better.

Can we heat buildings without burning fossil fuels? - BBC Future – Capturing heat from nearby places…using it for heating. It’s geothermal in the cities!

Bloom in McMurdo Sound – Green swirls in the water off Antarctica (some of the green color might be on the ice as well.

Camera Trap Chronicles: Cool Critters of New Hampshire – Maybe sometime we’ll put our camera, currently pointed at the birdfeeder, in another location….see what comes into our backyard. I know we have deer but there could be other things as well. Our camera already picked up what looked like a racoon on our deck.

Top 25 birds of the week: groups of birds – Beautiful birds…a good ‘last addition’ to the gleanings list this week.

March 06, 2020

Winter Yard

March 06, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

We haven’t had very much winter weather this year. Last week I walked around my yard looking for early signs of spring and I found some. The bulbs are coming up. Daffodils and maybe an old hyacinth bulb have come up in the leaf mulch I left in the front flower beds.

There are some irises too. I’m not sure when they came up; they all have leaf damage so they may have emerged very early during a warm spell. They haven’t bloomed the last few years, but the leaves are tough enough that the deer usually don’t bother them.

The little holly that came up in the bush by the garage is growing enough that I’ll trim back the deciduous bush that has always been a challenge to keep trimmed. I’ll let the holly take over!

Under the deck where the moss died back in last summer’s drought, we have ferns that seem to be enjoying this warm winter in their protected location. I’ll spread some compost around them.

The red maple buds are swelling. The tree has had less success in making seeds these past few years with a cold snap coming as the blooms are full and vulnerable. Hope that doesn’t happen this year.

I took a picture from another vantage point of our bird feeder and the camera. The deck is 1 story off the ground where I am standing. My office window is visible in the right of the picture.

Overall, the yard looks pretty good. It hasn’t rained hard enough to make any muddy spots without grass. So far it looks like my decision to mow the leaves into the yard is working very well. There are some sticks around the base of the oak and sycamore that I need to pick up…and the front flower beds need to be cleaned out. Maybe I’ll start those chores on our next warm day.

March 05, 2020

Robinson Nature Center - Inside

March 05, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Last week, I was at Robinson Nature Center for my usual Sunday afternoon volunteering for the saltwater Touch Tank. It was a relatively busy day; there seemed to be more people in the room that usual when I started (I had one of the older children help me set up) and families seemed to just keep stopping by to see and touch the sea critters. The animals were tolerant enough of my handling and the children’s gentle (one finger) touches to still show off when they were on their own: the milk conch eating algae from the sand and the chocolate chip sea star holding firmly to the glass side.

In the only lull of the afternoon, I took a few pictures of the new extension to the wall painting in the Discovery Room. My favorite is the sycamore trees in winter.

The tulip poplar seed pods are in the scene too.

And then there are critters!

There are some people sketched into the scene…maybe the painting will be further along next time I am at Robinson.

March 04, 2020

Flower Photography Experiments

March 04, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

My husband and I set up a vase of flowers with lights and cameras on our kitchen island for some photography experiments. It was a good winter-time activity for us.

My first experiment was with my Canon SX 730 HS in macro (flower symbol) mode. I tried handheld at first…but the tripod made for the better pictures. The shallow depth of field is always a challenge.

Next I put a petal on a clip in front of the light source and used my 15x macro clip-on macro lens with my Samsung phone. Both of the pictures below were taken with the light shining through the petal.

A day or so later I realized that it would be handy to have a light source that I could easily take into the field for macro shots of things like macroinvertebrates. The solution I came up with was my iPad.

I simply turn the screen to its brightest…bring up something that is a white screen…and put the specimen on top of the iPad. Then I can use my phone’s camera with a clip-on macro lens or

Rest the phone on a jeweler’s loupe (the one I have is 22x magnification).

For macroinvertebrates that are in some drops of water, I could protect the iPad by covering it with a clear plastic bag. Depth of field is still a big issue; the specimens that will look the best are ones that are flatter and not too opaque.

March 03, 2020

Cooper’s Hawk

March 03, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

I caught a flutter in my periphery vision – a bird flying away from house toward the forest. The morning has been very quiet at our feeder; I hadn’t been hearing or seeing any birds while I browsed through an eBook on my PC. Maybe this bird was the reason. It was in the Tulip Poplar tree at the edge of the forest – close enough for my camera’s zoom. I managed several pictures before it took off.

I could tell right away it was a hawk and based on its small size – either a Copper’s or Sharp-shinned. It didn’t appear to have a snack…so maybe the little birds had stayed out of harm’s way.

The head looked flatted on top (squarish) and the coloring on the top of the head was more like a cap. It’s hard to see the tail in any of my pictures but it’s probably rounded. All those details make the ID – a Cooper’s Hawk.

I saw one of these birds about a month ago too…flying across our yard and into the sycamore tree. If I see them too frequently, I’ll take the bird feeder down for a week or so…and hope the predator forgets the location.

March 02, 2020

Robinson Nature Center - Outside

March 02, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Last week, I was at Robinson Nature Center on two sunny days. On the first day I was volunteering to photograph a public program (a class for adults teaching or volunteering young children). I took a few pictures of the building through the dried plants in the center of the circular drive

And some witch-hazel that was blooming near the water feature to the right of the walk into the nature center. The bright color of the witch-hazel stands out this time of year.

I had gone to the training offered by Robinson to photograph for them….the types of photographs they need for grants, brochures, posters. It is a different kind of photography than I normally attempt – a lot of people in action…capturing the essence of a program. As part of the sign-up process for a public program, the participants sign a waiver for the center to photograph them during the program (and that was my assignment). It’s a new photographic challenge for me and I hope Robinson can use some of the results.

There was a short hike during the program and I took a few seconds to photograph some sights along the short trail rather than people. Skunk cabbage was coming up and blooming near the stream that flows into the Middle Patuxent nearby and

Snowdrops were already blooming.

I couldn’t resist a picture of a tall snag (where piliated woodpeckers nested last year) – its the tall trunk with no branches a little to the right of center. Can you pick out the sycamores too?

The next day I was back for another volunteer gig – opening the saltwater Touch Tank for an hour. I got to Robinson early enough to do a little ‘cell phone’ photography.

I took a picture of the witch-hazel again. It’s interesting to compare this photo – which was taken with the camera close to the subject – and the images taken the previous day with the zoom on my point-and-shoot camera. Note the difference in the backgrounds of the two images.

I was surprised at how many seeds were still on some of the plants that are milkweed relatives.

Both days were warmer days for February in Maryland…and wonderfully sunny.

March 01, 2020

Zentangle® - February 2020

March 01, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

29 days in February 2020….so that’s the number of Zentangles I select from the pile I created during the month. The black background tiles are from the iPad (in the Procreate app); I opted to not carry pens and paper tiles when I traveled during the first part of the month so all the tiles from February 1st through 9th were on the iPad. I did a series using letters as strings. A few of them made it into the picks for the month.

Toward the end of the month, I was experimenting with mono-patterned tiles without a frame or string.

And then there were the rest….

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.

February 29, 2020

Gleanings of the Week Ending February 29, 2020

February 29, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

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.

Hummingbirds' rainbow colors come from pancake-shaped structures in their feathers -- ScienceDaily – Hopefully they’ll produce some illustrations for these findings; this article and the materials it came from are just text.

New Discoveries in Human Anatomy | The Scientist Magazine® - It’s surprising the things we are just now discovering about our anatomy. Back in the 1970s when I was getting an undergraduate degree in biology, I remember being disappointed that there was so much obviously missing….and then realizing there were also unknown unknowns (thing we didn’t even know we didn’t know)! In the intervening years more has been researched, but we still have lots to explore.

Processed foods highly correlated with obesity epidemic in the US -- ScienceDaily - I have kept a food log for the past few years and now am paying more attention to reducing the processed and ultra-processed foods that I buy and eat. Most of us probably intuitively know that the store-bought cookies, chips, snacks, etc. are not what we should be eating. And they aren’t even more convenient than foods like carrots or apple or grapes. I’m skewing my purchases at the grocery store to the produce aisle!

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week: Doves and Pigeons - Wild Bird Revolution and Nectarivorous Birds - Wild Bird Revolution – Two groups of bird photos this week…catching up on the backlog.

Image of the Day: Flock in the Night | The Scientist Magazine® - A huge flock of birds picked up by radar going from Cuba…over the Florida straits…on to mainland Florida.

The chemistry of snow and ice – We haven’t seen much snow and ice in Maryland this winter...but it’s a good time to bring up this topic.

Children to bear the burden of negative health effects from climate change -- ScienceDaily – We need to use these types of articles to motivate us to action rather than indifference/depression.

FS1205: Tree-Dwelling Lichens (Rutgers NJAES) – A short description of lichen. Did you know there are at least 13,000 species of lichen?

The 2020 Community Power Scorecard | CleanTechnica – A map of the US and the scorecard with some details – state by state. There is progress being made in the transition to renewable energy!

New, more appealing varieties of kale in the works - UPI.com – I like kale. I buy it in a bunch to avoid plastic bags or containers…use it in smoothies or stir fries or soups (the whole leaf and stem) and as chips. I rarely use it in salads (particularly during the winter when I tend to want something hot rather cold for meals). Chopping it up in the food processor (like in smoothies or before adding it to soups) makes the toughness of the stem and leaves a non-issue. Still – I would try the new varieties. I wonder how long it will be before some of them show up in my CSA share.

February 28, 2020

Through my Office Window – February 2020

February 28, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

I wasn’t at home for the first part of the month, so the opportunities to see birds through the window were more time limited than usual.

The Downy Woodpecker seemed to be coming to the feeder more frequently. It was always a female. Usually I see them in the trees more than at the feeder, so I wondered if the insects were not as available (maybe because of the cold).

The House Finches seemed more numerous at the feeder than last month. The males were ‘courting’ – providing a seed to their favorite female. They would occasionally accept another bird at the feeder – like a Carolina Chickadee. They were the birds most impacted by the visit of the bluebirds that we saw on the birdfeeder camera; it was only a short time but I’m sure they were relieved when the bluebirds did not stick around.

Both the male and female Red-bellied Woodpeckers are active at the feeder periodically – not every day. They had to contort themselves to get the seed they wanted or if the seed was low. The Carolina Wren learned to get a snack from the opposite side of the feeder when the woodpecker was there.

These little birds were frequent visitors to the feeder – often the first ones there in the morning.

There was a Northern Mockingbird that sat on the deck bench on a wet morning. I don’t see them frequently around our yard and wondered if it was injured.

The White-Breasted Nuthatch was around – coming like a bullet to the feeder, getting a snack and leaving again…never sticking around for long.

The Northern Cardinals were around periodically but not as frequently as in January. I wonder if they are not building their nest in the usual place near our house…they’re coming from further afield.

I always am aware when the Blue Jays come (for water) since they are so noisy. I still enjoy seeing them.

The Dark-eye Juncos are still around. They are here in about the same numbers as previous years…our little flock.

And the Mourning Doves were around to clean up any spilled seed from the other birds that were digging through the seed in the feeder to find just the one they want…throwing the seeds they didn’t want onto the deck.

February 27, 2020

Zooming – February 2020

February 27, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Yes – there are a lot of bird pictures in the February zooming slide show. That’s what happens with my photography in the winter when the plants are not competing for my attention…and I go to a birding festival. The birds that I was most surprised to photograph were the Audubon’s oriole and the Great Horned Owl. Bird behavior pictures require being ready to take a picture when it happens; there are 2 this month: 1) the egret scratching its neck and head and 2) the male finch providing a snack (seed) for the female. There are some ‘artsy shots as well: a feather in the grass, the Rio Grande at sunrise, a silhouette of a crested caracara, a partial dandelion puff. The pictures are from two places in Texas (Carrollton and Laredo) and at home in Maryland. Overall – it was a good month for photography (but note there is no snow in any of them…I am a little disappointed).

February 26, 2020

Ten Little Celebrations – February 2020

February 26, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

So many things to celebrate in February…I’ve picked my top 10 that are in roughly chronological order during the month.

I started out the month in Carrollton, Texas.

2020 02 IMG_7856 (10).jpg — **Red Yucca.** The seed pods always look interesting to me. I like their curves and points. The warm brown and burnt black colors.

Fried catfish and okra. Sometimes a high-fat splurge is OK….delicious.

A sunny and warm day. In February, the days are often gray and cold….so when the weather bucks the trend…it’s time to get outdoors to celebrate.

The Laredo Birding Festival was not that long…but there was something to celebrate every day.

2020 02 IMG_7905 (3).jpg — **Roadrunner.** What a way to start a birding trip…seeing an iconic bird of the area at a rest stop before we even got to Laredo!

2020 02 IMG_4880 (2).jpg — **Great Horned Owls**. We saw these owls on two days! What a thrill.

Sunrise on the Rio Grande. Celebrating the start of another day….the beauty of a river that draws life to a dry area.

2020 02 IMG_3928 (5).jpg — **American White Pelicans ballet.** I had never witnessed pelicans feeding together in a coordinated way. They were synchronized and graceful…the joy of watching the natural world in action.

Audubon’s Oriole. Celebrating a colorful bird that just appeared while we were relaxing on a veranda after lunch.

And then we were home again.

A Day at home. I always celebrate being at home after I’ve been away. The view from my office window…fixing my own favorite foods…relaxing.

NISE Training. Robinson Nature Center provided a class on some kits they’ve purchased from the National Informal STEM Education Network. I enjoyed the gravity well (Exploring Universe Orbiting Objects) activity and hope there are opportunities to share it with visitors to the nature center. I also passed the information (here) along to my daughter since it had potential for physics related outreach activities her university does. So multiple reasons to celebrate this training!

February 25, 2020

3 Free eBooks – February 2020

February 25, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Three picks from my February browsing in Internet Archive…..so many books to choose from.

Richardson, Frederick (illustrator). Old, old tales retold - the best-beloved folk stories for children. Chicago and New York: M. AAA. Donohue & Company. 1923. Available from Internet Archive here. I wonder how many children in the 1920s had access to books like this one. My guess is that the books were mostly available in cities and to wealthier families. There is a Wikipedia entry for Frederick Richardson that prompts me to look for other books that he illustrated. The metadata for books on Internet Archive does not always list the illustrator….so searching by title or the author of the text is required.

80e 20 02.jpg — Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing. ***Vermont Life.*** Montpelier: Agency of Development and Community Affairs. A quarterly magazine published from 1946 – 2018…all available from Internet Archive here. I started out with the first issues and am now up to 2004. It is interesting to see how the state changed over that time. I enjoy all the seasons but picked a ‘spring’ picture since that is the season coming up.

89k 20 02.jpg — Scott, Jeffries, Samantha (editor). ***Homes & Antiques***. Immediate Media Company Bristol Limited. A magazine with most issues from January 2015-March 2016 available from Internet Archive here. There were several pictures with shoes stored under the bed. Now I don’t feel as guilty about not putting my shoes in the closet floor as we did when I was growing up. At least half my shoes are by the door to outside or under my computer desk!

February 24, 2020

Bluebirds at the Birdfeeder

February 24, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

On the day both we traveled to San Antonio and then on to Laredo (February 5th )– there was a flurry of activity at our birdfeeder between 2:15 and 2:24 PM back home. It was all captured by the camera on the birdfeeder. I’ve created a slide show of the images with the most birds from the video.

Eastern Bluebirds!!! As I watched the video – I was guessing there were 4-6 birds. I looked closely at the images and found one where there are 6 birds!

The bluebirds were in large enough numbers to chase away the house finches that kept trying to reclaim their feeder. In the end, the finches were forced to wait until the little flock of bluebirds moved on after their hefty afternoon snack.

Having a small flock come through our backyard in late January/early February is not unprecedented. In 2018 – our heated birdbath was the focus of the birds’ attention.

February 23, 2020

A Pretty Table

February 23, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

The banquet/keynote on the last evening of the Laredo Birding Festival started with beautiful tables. The normal neutral shades of hotel linens had a Mexican flair instead – full of pattern and color from south of border…nothing so bland as an unadorned white tablecloth! We were celebrating the days we’d spent in Laredo already…but this was a great finale.

The buffet was Mexican all the way as well…entrees, salads, and desserts. I appreciated being able to load up on fresh veggies a bit more than I had during the earlier days of the conference…and desserts other than cookies (even though the cookies in our box lunches were delicious).

Everyone seemed to enjoy the last official items of the conference too – the thank yous handed out to the people that made sure everything ran smoothly and then the keynote.

And then it was over and we headed back to our room for a good night’s sleep before our travel day.

February 22, 2020

Gleanings of the Week Ending February 22, 2020

February 22, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

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: February 2020 – Note the new website for these weekly posts: https://wildbirdrevolution.org/ ---The posts are still the beautiful bird pictures collected into a group for a weekly visual celebration of birds.

100% Wind, Water, & Solar Energy Can & Should Be the Goal, Costs Less | CleanTechnica – A short summary of a report with specifics for 143 countries…getting to 80% renewable energy by 2030 and completing the transition by 2050. Now to vote with that goal in mind for a livable future for ourselves, our children, our grandchildren….and onward.

LEDs, Downward Lights Changing the Night in Chicago - News | Planetizen – Chicago will complete the transition to energy efficient LED streetlights in 2021. They’ve calculated that it will save the city $100 million over 10 years. At the same time, they have made an effort to focus the new lights downward to cut light pollution. It’s too early to tell if that aspect of the project will be a success.

Vegetation Filters Harmful Particulates from Air--But How Much? | The Scientist Magazine® - It’s probably better to push for the transition to renewable energy (in school buses, for example) but where that is not happening fast enough – planting a green wall of vegetation can block pollution from school yards…which could reduce the impact of vehicle exhaust on children’s lungs.

Decline in Coal-Fired Power Reduces U.S. Carbon Emissions in 2019 - News | Planetizen – Good news…but it could decline more quickly. The 2019 results are from market forces alone. If there were political will, things would happen even faster.

Archaeologists Excavate 200 More Chinese Terracotta Warriors | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – The first terracotta warriors were found in China’s Shaanxi province in 1974. Now there is more excavation and more soldiers from the same tomb. All the warriors have unique expressions, hairstyle and physical features.

Organic crop practices affect long-term soil health -- ScienceDaily – This study looked closely at organisms in the soils…along with the impact of prior soil disturbance.

Recovery: A Plague of Bullfrogs – The Eastern part of the US is the native range for Bullfrogs…but they are invaders in the West. They are clearing native frogs and eating other animals too (ducklings are an example cited). So various municipalities and conservation groups are acting.

What We Can Learn From Ötzi the Iceman's Hunting Pack | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – Ötzi was preserved for 5,300 years in a glacier until he was discovered in 1991. A lot has been studied since that time. He’s a window into Copper Age Europe.

Photography in the National Parks – More favorite spots for photography from Rebecca Larson. This collection included three National Parks I have not visited: Glacier, Olympic and Mount Rainier. Now I want to plan a trip to see them!

February 21, 2020

Laredo Birding Festival – Day 5

February 21, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Day 5 of our Laredo Birding Festival experience was reserved for traveling home – not birding. We drove from Laredo to San Antonio in the morning to catch an early afternoon flight. We stopped at all three of the rest stops along that stretch of I35 and it was a very pleasant 3 hour ‘road trip.’

The first stop was the Laredo Travel Center – outside the city, well past the border checkpoint. It’s a welcome center with interesting architecture, colorful tiles, landscaping. I managed one bird photo with my cell phone: some grackles.

The second stop of the morning was at the Lasalle County Rest Stop – across the highway from the rest stop we had made on the way down to Laredo and very similar on the inside. I photographed another of the informational signs outside.

I also noticed one of the trees that I had seen on one of our birding trips – blooming this time of year: Mexican Olive or Texas Wild Olive! It is hardy enough to be used in highway plantings but only in south Texas!

The last stop was close to San Antonio – the Medina County Rest Area. We had decided to rearrange some things in the suitcases because we thought mine might be too heavy; it was sprinkling so we did everything quickly. The rest area is smaller than then other two – more like the Texas rest areas were years ago.

They had a mosaic of the Alamo; many of the older rest stops had mosaics of some local place; I wonder what happened to the mosaics as the new, larger rest stops have been built. This one had some topiary type trees; the grounds people making the place special with what is growing there!

February 20, 2020

Laredo Birding Festival – Day 4

February 20, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

The last day of birding at the Laredo Birding Festival started with the van leaving the hotel at 6 AM! It was the earliest start of the festival, but we were accustomed to it by that time. The front of the hotel was alive with activity in the darkness.

Our destination was the La Perla Ranch, prized for its habitat and plentiful birds that thrive near its sensational water features. They had the name of the place on the chairs at the hunting lodge!

The first bird of the morning was a Great Horned Owl on an antennae. What a great start to the day of birding! The bird seemed to be very scrutinizing our van breaking the calm of the morning.

The sun was not quite above the horizon yet…I got a silhouette of a Crested Caracara through a fence. The bird has a very distinctive profile.

2020 02 IMG_4880 (4).jpg — And then we arrived at the hunting lodge the ranch provides…the sun came up. I liked the ‘barn’ birdfeeder in one of the trees.

A Turkey Vulture sat hunched in the top of a palm. Others were soring overhead. Some wild turkey moved rapidly our of my camera range…I missed photographing them entirely.

There were quite a few Meadowlarks although almost out of range of my camera’s zoom. This is an area where the Eastern and Western Meadowlarks overlap. They have such minor distinguishing characteristics; I’m just saying the bird in this photo is a Meadowlark.

We did some walking around ponds. Most of the birds were far away. Pied-billed Grebe are easy to distinguish from the Least Grebe (we saw both). My photo is of a Pied-Billed Grebe because it has dark eyes.

Just barely within the range of my zoom: a Green Kingfisher. The area south Texas along the Rio Grand is the only place to see this bird in the US. This one is female.

Cinnamon Teal were also on the ponds. The coloring of the male is indeed ‘cinnamon’!

I didn’t get a great picture – but was thrilled to see and get a photo of Peregrine Falcon. All the other ones I’ve photographed were on man-made structures (like bridges).

Sometimes I just paused and looked around at the ranch – glistening water surrounded by dry areas… wildflowers. It was a wonderful place to spend the day.

A Belted Kingfisher (female) surveyed the water from a dock on one of the ponds. We had seen a Ringed Kingfisher earlier on one of the larger ponds but I didn’t get a picture; I was surprised at how large it was.

How many birds can you identify in this picture?

The largest white bird is a Great Egret The smaller ones are Snowy Egrets. There are two types of cormorants: the Neotropic Cormorants are the smaller and darker ones; the larger and lighter ones are the Double-crested Cormorants. In the foreground are Ruddy Ducks with their tails pointing upward.

For the last picture of the day – a parade of Egrets (the Great Egret bringing up the rear)!

February 19, 2020

Laredo Birding Festival – Day 3

February 19, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Our next day at the Laredo Birding Festival had us boarding the van at 6:40 AM for the Max Mandel Municipal Golf Course for its stunning views of the Rio Grande River waterfront with over 270 acres of old growth mesquite tree and vast arroyos. We road around in golf carts (part of the adventure) staying out of the way of a morning tournament between two schools. The golf course structures were newish, but the course had been laid out to maintain much of the native vegetation along the river. We were there just after the sun came up. The morning was cold, and strands of moisture rose from the river. We had good river views all through the morning.

My first bird picture for the day was a Pyrrhuloxia. There is just barely enough light to distinguish the coloring…definitely not a cardinal.

As we headed over to where the golf carts were parked, I photographed some mistletoe….I liked its shape and density compared with the branches of the winter tree.

We paired up for the golf carts; I let my husband drive; it was a new experience for both of us since we are not golfers. The Red-billed Pigeon is just barely a US bird….and the golf course is known in the area as a good place to spot them.

The Eurasian Collared Dove was also around. The birds were introduced in the Bahamas in the 1970s…were in Florida by the 1990s…and rapidly colonized most of North America.

We saw Great Kiskadees across the river…and finally saw one on the US side so we could include it in our count of birds seen at the golf course.

The couple in the golf cart in front us spotted some American Pipit foraging in a grassy area. I was glad we were directly behind them and stopped to get some pictures.

The Yellow-fronted Woodpecker is not one that we see in Maryland. We saw several at the golf course and the sunny day made them easy to photograph.

We had lunch and a walk at the 180 Ranch – a little ways from the golf course along the Rio Grande. We did see some cows near a pond we stopped at on our way into the property.

Lunch was at the hunting lodge; they had left some snacks for us; I enjoyed the only banana for the trip (they didn’t have any in the breakfast buffet which is my usual source of fresh fruit when I’m traveling). After the hike, we sat in the shade around the hunting large and observed birds coming to feeder and the brush surrounding a very lush (obviously watered) patch of grass. There were small flocks of Northern Cardinals foraging…similar to what we had seen the previous day.

A Black Vulture posed for a portrait before taking off again to soar. The area also has Turkey Vultures as we do in Maryland.

There were several Pyrrhuloxia around as well. They were more cautious than the Cardinals.

The Green Jays can be raucous. They are a challenge to photograph because their eyes disappear in to the black around their eyes.

The Audubon’s Oriole flew in as our group lounged in our comfortable chairs. Getting a photograph of it was the high point of the day!

February 18, 2020

Laredo Birding Festival Day 2

February 18, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

We were up at 4:30 AM to prepare for our day of birding at the Laredo Birding Festival. After a delicious breakfast buffet we boarded the van shortly after 6:15 AM and headed to the Yugo Ranch - currently owned and operated by 6th generation descendants of Ygnacio Benavides, who live by the same conservationist philosophy as their ancestor – where we would spend the morning and early afternoon. We parked the van near the ranch buildings, and everyone bundled up since it was a cold morning.

2020 02 IMG_3395 (1).jpg — There was a Texas Ebony tree near where we parked. There were a lot of seed pods on the ground around the tree. The birds and other wildlife had already finished off the seeds.

All during the morning we saw Vermilion Flycatchers – the bright red attracting attention.

Crested Caracara flew overhead and there were a pair in a tree just barely within the range of my camera.

When we made a loop back to the ranch buildings, I managed to photograph a wren which was easily identified later from the picture as a Cactus Wren. It seemed to be very interested in the chimney.

We drove out to look at some ponds on the ranch…and spotted a familiar bird: a Killdeer.

There were also Great Kiskadees like we saw several years ago during the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival.

There were groups of Northern Cardinals…a small flock. In our area of Maryland they are usually only seen in pairs or males contesting turf…the small flock was new to us.

The high point of the morning was a Great Horned Owl. It was surveying the area from a tree growing on an island of the pond. It sometimes looked our way….decided our group was no threat at all.

Looking closely at the picture I took of a cormorant – I realize that it is a Neotropic Cormorant (rather than a Double-crested Cormorant) because the eye is surrounded by feathers rather than a bare patch of skin.

There was an American Wigeon just barely within the range of my camera zoom.

As we headed down the road in our van, there was a Curve-billed Thrasher in the road. I was ideally positioned to take pictures through the windshield of the van!

Also on along the road, a Pyrrhuloxia was spotted. For this picture I had to contort a bit to get the picture through a side window.

We had been seeing Harris’s Hawks and I finally got a picture of two that were near each other on a telephone pole. This species hunts as a team!

The next stop was Ranchito Road Lagoons. The high point of the afternoon happened at this location: American White Pelicans feeding in unison. I had not seen this behavior before. It was like a ballet and they did it for the whole time we were at the location.

A Black-necked Stilt and

Lesser Yellowlegs were feeding in the shallows.

On the way back to hotel we stopped at the Laredo Landfill. It was very windy (dust and some trash flying everywhere) so we didn’t stay long. There were quite a few Cattle Egrets huddled together near the entrance. And lots of Chihuahuan Ravens that were closer to where we stopped. I later wished that I had walked over to get a picture of the Cattle Egrets since we didn’t see them in any other festival location.

What a productive day of birding around Laredo!

February 17, 2020

Laredo Birding Festival – Day 1

February 17, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

My husband and I flew to San Antonio (me from Dallas, he from Baltimore) and drove down to the Laredo Birding Festival from there. We made a rest stop at the Lasalle County Rest Stop (southbound) and

Immediately saw our first stunning bird of the trip: A Greater Roadrunner. It was in the picnic area of the rest stop and then moved out into the parking area. It was a cold day, so the feathers were fluffed making it look plumper than usual.

The rest stop had well maintained plantings – some were blooming in the cold.

2020 02 IMG_7905 (10).jpg — The signage and windmill outside the building started the historical story of the county.

Inside the building were displays about the county: ranching, railroad, mining and farming. On the back of the hanging signs were metal sculptures that I enjoyed.

As I got ready to write this blog post, I checked Google maps for the rest stop and discovered that there is a short hiking trail to the south of the rest stop. I’ll walk around it next time I am make that stop (maybe next year).

We got to Laredo and checked into the La Posada Hotel which would be the hub for departures on the trips for the festival. It’s very close to the Rio Grande….in the older part of Laredo. A hour or so later we walked to the Laredo Center of the Arts for the 2020 Birds of the Brush exhibit – bird themed art from local schools. I liked the paintings on paper shopping bags and birds I recognized. The backgrounds were often what made the work memorable beyond the bird itself.