Conowingo on a Fall Morning – Part 2

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Continuing our short field trip/road trip to Conowingo (part 1 post is here)….

Today’s post focuses on the Great Blue Heron that was relatively close to our viewing location (in the lower left of the image below).

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It stayed on the same rock for quite some time. I took portrait shots when it moved any part of its body. It is a bird that was born this year…just getting in some adult feathers. I think my favorite of the portraits is the one with beak pointed down…a rather stern-loooking image. Something caught the bird’s attention away from the water at some point and it turned toward the rocky embankment.

It looked around and it became obvious that the bird was going to move.

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It didn’t fly….it started walking. Note the big toes as it takes a step (use the arrows to move back and forth between the 2 images).

And then it was off….making it’s way to a new vantage point – where it stayed until we left. It must have gotten a fish earlier because it seemed to be observing the scene rather than actively fishing.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Hawai’i Island Festival of the Birds. The festival starts on 10/15 and registration is free (site to register is here). I registered weeks ago but checked to make sure I had all the info I needed to find the festival on the 1st day. The videos are pre-recorded and made available on the day they are listed on the calendar of events. I except to see birds that I have never seen before! When I visited Hawai’i in 2015, I was so overwhelmed by everything else that was new to me that I only noticed a few birds. I’d like to go for the festival some year.

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 10, 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.

The mystery of why some vaccines are doubly beneficial - BBC Future – Vaccines have ‘non-specific effects’ that provide benefits beyond keeping individuals from catching a disease. The examples in the article include studies of the measles vaccine in West Africa and the BCG vaccine for tuberculosis.

Meet the Goat Antelopes: Strange, Large Mammals of the Mountains – I remember seeing mountain goats with young in South Dakota in June 1997. My young daughter wanted to climb rocks like the goats! This article is about similar animals from all around the world.

Researchers Say Restricted Human Access At Cape Hatteras National Seashore Benefits Birds – Hurray for management of beaches to allow these birds to successfully raise their young!

The Medieval Archaeological Heritage Of Eastern Andalusia – 10 centuries of Medieval history in one place.

Read All About It: What's New In Home Energy Storage Research – An overview of the state-of-the-art in home energy storage…and important component in the transition to renewable energy.

The surprising dangers of cooking and cleaning - BBC Future – Thinking more about what we put into the air inside our home these days. The houses are better sealed and central heat/air means we don’t open our windows as frequently (if at all).

Record Flooding Threatens Millennia-Old Pyramids in Sudan | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – A part of Ancient Egyptian history in danger…flooding and then looting too.

Top 25 birds of the week: Colours - Wild Bird Revolution  - Can’t pass up the bird photos!

Macro Photos Take Us Inside the Enchanted World of Insects – Highlighting insects now…they are full of surprises. And are challenging to photograph too.

The World's Largest Chocolate Museum Debuts in Switzerland | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – 65,000 square feet of the Lindt Home of Chocolate….includes a production line. There is an animated video in the post since very few of us will get there anytime soon. We can buy Lindt chocolate though.

The Butterflies of the British Isles (ebook)

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I enjoyed browsing through The Butterflies of the British Isles by Richard South on Internet Archive (here). It was published in 1906 by Frederick Warne & Co. – the publisher of Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit.

The butterfly illustrations are excellent with males and females…the different sides of the wings…and caterpillars.

The Camberwell Beauty is familiar to us in North America; we call it the Mourning Cloak. One of the highlights of the illustrations was the inclusion of magnified images of the eggs of most of the butterflies. They are so tiny that most of the time they appear like spheres to us (when we notice them at all) but with the right equipment, they are not all spheres and sometimes the shape is unique enough to identify the species that laid the egg!

Back in 2013, I photographed a Mourning Cloak in our plum tree in early April. It looks so battered that it was probably one that overwintered.

Note: I am finding so many interesting eBooks right now that I’ve decided to do one post per week rather than accumulating 3 for a monthly post. So – enjoy an online book-of-the-week going forward!

Conowingo on a Fall Morning – Part 1

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My husband and I took a ‘field trip’ to Conowingo dam this week – the first such trip since last February; we did it in a low risk way and will probably enjoy the fall a bit over the next few weeks with similar outings. We were gone for a little over 3 hours…with 2 of the hours on the road. At Conowingo we made a short stop at the Visitor Center for a ‘rest stop’ with masks…hand washing…and then hand sanitizer once we were back in the car. I took some pictures of the Bald Eagle carving and some of the plantings in front of the visitor center.

When we got to the fishing/bird viewing area – we noticed the low water right away. The dam was not generating so the fish were not being churned up. Note how calm the water is toward the dam. Do you see the Great Blue Heron in the lower left? Part 2 of this post will be about that bird.

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There was an adult Bald Eagle on the ’50 yds’ abutment that stayed for the entire time we were there. I took digiscope pictures (i.e. phone attached to spotting scope on a tripod) first. The bird is looking around and the breeze is ruffling feathers on the head.

Then I took some pictures with by Canon Powershot SX 60 HS (bridge camera) on a monopod….which is my usual birding camera. The bird was moving its head more….it seemed intent on not moving any other part of its body though! I’m still more comfortable using the camera rather than the digiscope.

The birds on the water today were Double Crested Cormorants. They were sometimes in groups….usually on their own diving quickly to go after fish.

I saw one come up with a fish and then noticed a Great Blue Heron (not the heron in the earlier picture) flying toward it. By the time I started taking pictures the heron had plopped down right next to the cormorant….but the cormorant made a quick get away with his prize leaving a surprised heron behind. Use the arrows to move through the 5 images.

I always try to look at the Paulownia (princess tree) growing on the cliff next to the parking area. The seed pods are maturing. It’s an invasive tree but one that it tolerated – sometimes – because it is pretty.

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Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Notification that ballot was received. I got an email from my state acknowledging that the ballot I put in the drop box has been received! I great to get that confirmation. The email included a link to the Maryland site where I can find out when it is accepted/counted too. There was a local news story saying that my county would start counting on the 12th so I’ll start checking every day after that.

Last CSA flowers? The cutting garden at the CSA is winding down. The zinnias are about done for the year. I got one sunflower and then some smaller purple ones (don’t know what they are) to make a small bouquet to sit in the kitchen window along with the green tomatoes I hope will turn red. I’ve already enjoyed 2 that turned red recently.

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Voting

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Early voting has started in Maryland.  My husband and I made a small outing yesterday to take our ballots to the drop box located at the early voting location closest to our house. We did that to reduce the workload on the Post Office. We had followed directions from the state of Maryland and requested a ballot to be mailed to us rather than printing it since that makes it easier for them to validate and count the ballot. The directions that came with the ballot were easy to follow So – we are confident that our vote is going to be counted and we’ve done what we could to reduce the overhead.

The drop box was located just outside of the polling location and there were no other people around when we first got there but as I got back in the car someone else drove up and put their ballot in the box as we drove away. It’s good to have done our voting early…and with low risk of COVID-19 encounter.

On the way home, I noticed that the red maples are changing in our area. I took some pictures through the car windshield as we drove down the street of our neighborhood. I was a coolish fall day….sunny and beautiful. It was a good finale to our small outing.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Sweet potato custard. The uncured sweet potatoes I have gotten the past 2 weeks from our CSA have been huge so I cooked them and then made custard (I’ll have to freeze some of the puree but that just means we’ll have plenty to last…probably through Thanksgiving with the addition of the butternut and acorn squashes as well. I had some left-over spaghetti squash for this first custard and it provided a coconut flake texture (without coconut flavor).

2 wheelbarrows full. I did some quick clean up on the front flowerbeds and some thick leaf piles. I did the last trimming of bushes since it is getting cool enough now that they are probably the way they will be going through the winter. Then I got some leaves off the driveway and quickly discovered that I should just mow the leaves. I quickly filled 2 wheelbarrows!

Cape May Fall Festival

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Friday through Sunday were three intense days of webinars from New Jersey Audubon’s Cape May Bird Observatory (CMBO): the virtual Cape May Fall Festival We enjoyed their virtual festival last spring as well (posts for day 1, day 2); the organization tweaked a few things for this fall one that made it even better; I noticed the roving reporters out in the field and a little bit longer breaks. The days still started at 7 or 8 AM and ended at 5 or 6 (with one evening session after a 2-hour break). I learned to use the breaks to get up and move!

There is a lot of bird monitoring activity (Avalon Seawatch, Cape May Hawkwatch, and Morning Flight Songbirds) in the fall and the CMBO makes it easy to see the results with the buttons for Real-time Counts via Trektellen on their website(near the bottom of the page).

The weather was perfect for a big morning flight of songbirds on Saturday – 27,000 birds in 6 hours! See the Saturday results here – and check out other days going forward. There were huge numbers of warblers. The little bit larger songbirds that we saw (through the great work of the person filming the roving reporters) were Northern Flickers and Blue Jays (3,538 and 1,496 were counted for the morning). The songbirds migrate at night and are funneled down from points north to the Cape May Peninsula where most of them drop down for food and rest before continuing on – most of them working their way back to the north and west around Delaware Bay to then continue their southward migration.

The Hawkwatch also saw a lot of birds on Saturday (results here). These birds migrate during the day. There were 194 Cooper’s Hawks that came through.

The Avalon Seawatch had a bigger day on Sunday with over 1,000 (each) black scoters and double crested cormorants.

There were places featured in the talks and roving reports that we had seen in Spring 2019 (like South Cape May Meadows, Cape May Bird Observation Deck, Higbee Beach Wildlife Management Area, CMBO’s Northwood Center) and then the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge which was new to us. So many places we would like to be!

There is a also a CMBO Monarch Monitoring Project that tags butterflies! Even though the large winter numbers of Monarchs in Mexico were found in 1975, it was not until 1998 when 7 of Cape May tagged butterflies were found there that the debate of where the east coast Monarchs migrated was finally settled. The results of the monitoring at Cape May are reported in a table on the website.

Virtual sessions are great for classroom type presentations too. At birding festivals, I tend to always opt for the field sessions, so this year of virtual festivals has been great for the classroom-based skill building. I particularly enjoyed learning more about raptor id (in flight), winter seabirds of New Jersey, ravens, other bird observatories (international), international birding tours, and the bird id game done by 3 NJ Audubon’s Young Birder Club members (wow….they have impressive id skills and are good at sharing their knowledge). The Cornell Lab of Ornithology provided the one evening session; I learned about Birds of the World (a new subscription based resource) and more about resources I already know about/use:

One of the sessions brought up the topic of some birds eating Monarch butterflies and seemingly not suffering any effects. My husband and I remembered that we saw that on at a previous birding festival…and I looked back through my blog posts to find out where and when and what kind of bird. It was Couch’s Kingbird on Nov. 11, 2017 and I posted about it on Nov. 27th. It was at a woodlot on South Padre Island, Texas during the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival. I have two of my pictures from that event below. It’s always great to savor the memories of previous sessions an realize how much we seen/learned over the past few years of birding festivals.

Another prompt to think about personal history that was brought up in one of the sessions: What was your ‘spark’ bird (i.e. the one that got you interested in birds)? I tried to think back to birds that I remember from early in my life. Northern Cardinal is one – definitely. They were around in Wichita Falls, Texas….and stand out in any landscape because of their color. I remember some coloring pages from 1st or 2nd grade of various bird species and learning about Baltimore Orioles…but not seeing one until I was over 60 years old! Why didn’t the curriculum feature birds that we were more likely to see where we lived? I also remember being thrilled to see a Roseate Spoonbill the first time I went to Florida for a space shuttle launch in the 1980s; I’m not sure when I first learned about the bird but it was one that I knew when I first saw it in the field.

Overall – the Cape May Fall Festival was 3 days well spent. My husband also ordered the t-shirt for me since it is red ---- a good color for me. We ware looking forward to future festivals that we can enjoy in the field…but learned a lot and enjoyed this one. Kudos to the CMBO for doing this!

eBotanical Prints – September 2020

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19 new items added to the collection in September and they are all volumes of the same publication: Annals of Botany. The Biodiversity Heritage Library has the volumes fully available from 1888 (when the publication started) until 1923; the access page has a pull down to select the volume of interest. I looked at the volumes from 1888 to 1905 in September and will continue through the rest in October. So far – most of the illustrations are more micro oriented than the typical ‘botanical print’ but it’s another aspect of illustration of the botanical world that I want to include in the collection.

The whole list of 1,982 books can be accessed here. Sample images and links for the 19 new ones are provided below. (click on the sample image to see a larger view). Enjoy!

Annals of Botany V1 (1888) * Balfour, Isaac Bayley * sample image * 1888

Annals of Botany V2 (1889) * Balfour, Isaac Bayley * sample image * 1889

Annals of Botany V3 (1890) * Balfour, Isaac Bayley * sample image * 1890

Annals of Botany V4 (1891) * Balfour, Isaac Bayley * sample image * 1991

Annals of Botany V5 (1891) * Balfour, Isaac Bayley * sample image * 1891

Annals of Botany V6 (1892) * Balfour, Isaac Bayley * sample image * 1892

Annals of Botany V7 (1893) * Balfour, Isaac Bayley * sample image * 1893

Annals of Botany V8 (1894) * Balfour, Isaac Bayley * sample image * 1894

Annals of Botany V9 (1895) * Balfour, Isaac Bayley * sample image * 1895

Annals of Botany V10 (1896) * Balfour, Isaac Bayley * sample image * 1896

Annals of Botany V11 (1897) * Balfour, Isaac Bayley * sample image * 1897

Annals of Botany V12 (1898) * Balfour, Isaac Bayley * sample image * 1898

Annals of Botany V13 (1899) * Balfour, Isaac Bayley * sample image * 1899

Annals of Botany V14 (1899) * Balfour, Isaac Bayley * sample image * 1900

Annals of Botany V15 (1901) * Balfour, Isaac Bayley * sample image * 1901

Annals of Botany V16 (1902) * Balfour, Isaac Bayley * sample image * 1902

Annals of Botany V17 (1903) * Balfour, Isaac Bayley * sample image * 1903

Annals of Botany V18 (1904) * Balfour, Isaac Bayley * sample image * 1904

Annals of Botany V19 (1905) * Balfour, Isaac Bayley * sample image * 1905

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Maple tree seedling update. The maple seedling that I pulled from the front flowerbed is still healthy in the window. It’s grown a little - both in the upper stem/leaves and the roots. It will be interesting to see if the leaves turn red at the same time as the red maple outside or if they stay green because it is warmer on my windowsill than outdoors.

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I am still enjoying flower from the CSA cutting garden but they’re probably close to the end. There were not as many to choose from this week and they don’t seem to last as long as cut flowers.

Digiscoping Peacock Feathers

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I did another practice with the digiscope set up (previous post about the apparatus) - inside the house this time. I set the tripod with the spotting scope and phone in the kitchen; the peacock feathers on the fireplace mantle were far enough away to focus. We’d taken the cover off the scope, so it was easier to reach the focus knob. I liked the results. It is easier get the macro type image without getting in the way of the light (i.e. getting close) and the depth of field is better.

The feathers are over 10 years old and they are showing some degradation, but the physical color is very stable…not fading like with pigment based color. I played around with shifting the color a little with slight adjustments in focus.

Now I am ready for a digiscoping field trip!

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Cardinal juvenile update. The young bird now has orange beak and it’s managing the feeder roosts. The crest and some of the other feathers are still developing into the adult form for this female Northern Cardinal. It came all by itself, so the parents are free from their feeding duties at this point.

Falling sycamore leaves. Our deck is catching a lot of the sycamore leaves that are falling. The patterns of the fall changes in the leaves caught my interest. All the stems are brown…and often the area along the main veins is brown or yellow. It’s surprising how much green there still is.

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 3, 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.

Domesticated chickens have smaller brains -- ScienceDaily – 10 generations from wild junglefowl toward domestication….and they already had smaller brains.

750 Million GM Mosquitoes Will Be Released in the Florida Keys | The Scientist Magazine® - Reducing yellow fever and dengue carrying mosquitos at a time when more mosquitos are becoming resistant to pesticide-based controls. Texas might be the next place this technique will be used – pending state and local approval.

Earthquakes and insects on Alaska road trips - The Field - AGU Blogosphere – I browsed this article and remembered learning about the 1964 earthquake from the Weekly Reader in elementary school. So -this was an update about what the place is like today…with the town moved completely.

Nuvve And Blue Bird Combine To Create Electric School Buses That Are V2G Enabled – I wish all new school buses would be electric…and charged via renewable means…for the planet and, more directly, for healthier air for young lungs.

Top 25 birds of the week: Colours - Wild Bird Revolution – Beautiful birds….I never get tired of looking at images of the diversity in color and form the birds display.

The U.S. drought vulnerability rankings are in: How does your state compare? | NOAA Climate.gov – Looking at states that I know well because I have family members living there Maryland, Texas and Missouri have a high ability to adapt whereas Oklahoma has a very low ability to adapt (because they have an outdated drought plan and limited irrigation combined with extensive agriculture and cattle ranching). Is Oklahoma headed toward another dust bowl?

Five myths about wildfires - BBC Future – The 5 myths debunked in this article are: regularly logging forests prevents forest fires; there is nothing you can do to protect your property; wildfires are an inevitable fact of nature; all wildfires are bad and must be quenched immediately; it is possible to eradicate (control) all wildfires

Thousands of species recorded in a speck of soil -- ScienceDaily – DNA was extracted from permafrost samples representing different points in the Pleistocene - Halocene transition (about 11,000 years ago). Genetic remnants of animals like mammoths, horses, bison, reindeer along with 1000s of plant varieties were found!

The remarkable floating gardens of Bangladesh - BBC Future – Planting on floating rafts….large scale hydroponics that is not greenhouse based.

4 Fun + Informative (+Free) Apps for Upping Your Nature Knowledge – Cool Green Science – These are great Apps to id plants and animals quickly…with cell phone: SEEK, iNaturalist, Merlin, eBird.

Chinese Teahouse in Newport

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I was browsing through the Architectural Record publication for 1916 (via Internet Archive) and discovered the June issue featured the Chinese Teahouse that I’d seen in Newport RI behind Mable House in 2014. In 1916, it was relatively new – having been added to the Marble House grounds by Alva Vanderbilt Belmont. According to Wikipedia – she hosted rallies for women’s suffrage there.

According to the article in the Architectural Record article, the structural members had lacquered surfaces written in Chinese characters. Two examples:

A woman of strong character is said to be a hero among women.

Women with pretty faces and fascinating manners really may overthrow cities.

How appropriate for this 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage! I’m belatedly disappointed that the teahouse was closed when I visited so I didn’t see them.

Here are a few pictures that I took back in 2014. I think I remember that the Treehouse has been recently renovated at that time and we being used as a place where tourists could get refreshments/take a break from tours of the Newport Mansions.

Zentangle® – September 2020

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Just as in prior months of the pandemic…I had a lot of Zentangle® tiles to choose from – getting to the 30 to showcase in this post. There are 16 square tiles in various colors of card stock and lightweight cardboard.  Note that all the tiles this month are made with dark ink (usually black) and I will make a second pass on the tiles to color them later; I have discovered that I enjoy coloring tiles as the wind down to bedtime.

The rectangular tiles are all made on lightweight cardboard from between layers of cans in cat food boxes. The short side is 3.5 inches and the longer side is the width of the cat food box.

I can’t resist the gingo pattern and have started making ones with more ‘leaves’…trying to always keep to an odd number!

I’ll do a post later this month with tiles that I’ve colored…trying to pick the top 10 is going to be more challenging than the selection for this post!

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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.

Ten Little Celebrations – September 2020

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Another month in 2020…celebrating that we’ve stayed healthy (keeping up the mask wearing – distancing – hand washing regime)….and finding plenty of little celebrations during September.

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Finding Monarch caterpillars. After not seeing Monarch butterflies or caterpillars much during the summer…there were caterpillars in September. I never did find the chrysalises…but the caterpillars were so big that I hope they made it to butterflies and are now making their way south.

Watching Enola Holmes. My husband and I enjoyed the Enola Holmes movie on Netflix…celebrating having high quality movies available for low-risk viewing (at home).

Grilling again. After months of being out of propane, we finally got a full tank (via Propane Taxi) and celebrated with hamburgers and corn on the cob.

Watching virtual birding festivals. It’s such a treat to see and learn about birds vicariously (next best to being there). In September we enjoyed Yampa Valley (Colorado), Puget Sound (Washington), and Bosque del Apache (New Mexico). We are making plans for post-pandemic but celebrating that we didn’t completely miss September birds outside of our immediate area.

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Collecting a maple seedling. I collected a maple seedling for my office window – celebrating the new life (although it came up in a place where there wasn’t room for a tree) and savoring its presence in my office through the fall.

Emptying crispers. I am finally not completely overwhelmed by the CSA share…which is good since the freezer is very full. It’s great to be cooking and celebrating the bounty of things like butternut squash and hot peppers.

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Eating potato soup. Just as the CSA started providing potatoes…it got cool and potato soup was the perfect meal. I celebrated the great timing.

Getting car maintenance. Both cars got their delayed regular maintenance…in a relatively low risk way. We’re celebrating that it’s done….hoping the vaccine for COVID-19 will be available before maintenance is due again.

Appreciating Project Drawdown. The recent webinar was uplifting….the solutions available to address climate change are cause for optimism and celebration…and then action.

September sunrise. Celebrating a beautiful start to the day…timing is key to see it!

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Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Fitbit moved from wrist to ankle. My Fitbit was bothering me on my wrist, so I moved it to my ankle. It doesn’t measure my heart rate as reliably but seems to count the steps about the same. A side benefit - I am enjoying the freedom of being ‘watchless’ again (I also turned off the silent alarm). I seem to be the type person that does too much based on what time it is. When I started my post-career, I stopped wearing a watch for a time and now remember how good it is to be on my internal clock when I don’t have to sync to someone else’s schedule.

Racoon again. Our birdfeeder cam got video of a racoon in the early morning hours of 9/19 (between 2:43 and 2:54 AM). It does reasonably well in low light. The racoon clearly is attracted to the feeder…tries several approaches to get seed…and leaves frustrated. The feeder wins again!

Wildlife in our Yard

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Lots to see on one wet morning….

A  gang of Blue Jays intimidated the squirrel from under the feeder… then called to their friends.

Some of them appear to be more in command  than others.

But they still are deferential to the Red-bellied Woodpecker at the feeder.

Eventually there were 6 Blue Jays enjoying the seed at our deck (with a female Cardinal at the feeder itself and the squirrel they had run off out in the yard).

After the Cardinal left, one of the jays contorted to get a few seeds from the feeder.

Then the Red-bellied Woodpecker returned, and all the Blue Jays flew away.

Looking out the front windows – there were 4 deer on our driveway and in the yard among the oak leaves feeding on acorns. There were two adults and two young that looked like they were getting their winter coats (the young ones appeared to like my neighbor’s Crepe Myrtle as well as the acorns).

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Watching Drawdown 2020 video. I’d heard about Project Drawdown in the Mid-Atlantic Climate Change Education Conference back in July; the project is all about how existing technology can address climate change….if we just apply it now. The video (recorded 9/21) is a little over 2 hours…and very well done. I watched it spread out over the day rather than in one sitting. The sound bite take-away for me: “Act like your home is on fire….because it is.” Earth is ours to save from ruin…and save ourselves as well. There are lots of ways we can do it!

Digiscoping. I practiced using our spotting scope with my phone to get magnified images (practicing before we are away from home). It involves a specialized case and connectors specific to the phone and the spotting scope models (available from Phone Skope). My husband ordered the gear for both of our phones (we don’t have the same type phone) and we can share the piece that is unique to our spotting scope. The assembly of the three pieces is easy enough and then the phone with the Phone Scope gear is put on the spotting scope. The friction fit is secure….so the spotting scope can be moved just as if it was being used without the phone attached.

I quickly discovered that I would need to take the cover off the spotting scope because I need easier access to the focusing knob!

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My first practice session was zoomed images of the forest behind our house….with the leaves beginning to turn. I used the optics of the scope as much as I could then zoomed the phone just enough to take away the vignetting….and celebrated the sunny day (after several wet and gray days).

Zooming – September 2020

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Less that 1000 photos this month…but still enough zoomed images for this post: 16 images. 4 of the images were inside (the stained glass butterfly and the super zoomed flowers). There are 4 butterflies (Common Buckeye, Red Admiral, Palamedes Swallowtail, and Spread-winged Skipper) and a Monarch caterpillar. All 3 birds are somewhat unusual: the Northern Cardinal is a juvenile still begging to be fed by its parents but learning quickly to find seed on our deck, the Blue Jay is contorting itself to get seed from the feeder (the roosts are too close together for him), and the Caroline Wren is tailless. Other animals in our yard or deck are also included: a chipmunk with very fat cheeks and a deer. And lastly are our trees: the sycamore leaves beginning to change against a blue sky after the smoke from the west coast that past over Maryland at 30,000 feet cleared out and an oak leaf that might be an indication that our oak tree has the infection common in our state (and not something we can treat…may eventually kill the tree).

All the pictures were taken at our house or the CSA.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Green tomatoes. I got 2 green tomatoes in the CSA share last week; they have been near the kitchen window since then. One began to turn red almost immediately and the other has stayed green. I’ll make green salsa with the one that is still green (or something else that cooks the green tomato so that it is edible) and let the other one finish turned red to eat like a regular tomato.

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The Grandcat

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We haven’t officially met my daughter’s cat yet; he became our ‘grandcat’ during the pandemic (no way for us to make the trek from Maryland to Missouri during this time). Here are some annotated pictures that my daughter has shared with us over the past month – every one of them a little positive tweak to the day. Enjoy the cat pictures!

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My morning coffee companion

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I am probably supposed to be doing something

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Someone pounced on a tote bag

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Someone is going to have to explain to his students why their papers got crinkled

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Working at his desk

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At his standing desk

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This dude flying in the sky. Or laying on a yoga mat

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Opened my eyes to this dude this morning

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He was waiting on the end table on my side of the bed. But he had been curled up against me most of the night. Right now he had made a nest on me in the futon.

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Dun dun, dun dun

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Cat thermometer says its cold

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Lounging on me right now

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Cat on his throne

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TV cat

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He wants me awake so he can snooze on me

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Blackberry Looper Moth. I finally remembered the little moth I captured in my office a few days ago….and used iNaturalist to identify it: a Blackberry Looper Moth. It’s small but a pretty shade of green with whitish markings. It probably came into my office on one of the flowers from the CSA cutting garden. My picture is magnified enough to see the antennae clearly; they are not ‘feathery’ so it is a female.

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Gleanings of the Week Ending September 26, 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.

Closing the Racial Inequality Gaps – Citi Global Perspectives & Solutions – The report (summarized by NPR in Cost of Racism: US Economy Lost $16 Trillion Because of Discrimination, Bank Says) details the analysis  done by Citi that calculates the economic impact of racism….and thus puts a value on proposed government and individual actions to close racial gaps.

Top 25 Birds of the Week: Birds in Flight and Bird Interactions – Double the bird photos this week!

Infographic: Dialing Down the Glitz | The Scientist Magazine® - The mechanism that makes dramatic sexual dimorphism in some finches.

How vitamin C could help over 50s retain muscle mass -- ScienceDaily – Another reason to eat Vitamin C rich foods (and take a supplement when that is not possible).

A guide to natural sweeteners – in C&EN – Compound Interest – A good summary of the chemistry behind natural sweeteners. I am enjoying the stevia leaves I am getting from the CSA’s cutting garden right now – building up my supply a little every week of dried leaves and stems to enjoy even after the cutting garden ends for the year.

Schooling is critical for cognitive health throughout life -- ScienceDaily – Boosting cognitive skills early in life not only expands career opportunities and provides progressively higher salaries…it also pushes back the point at which age-related dementia begins to impact a person’s ability to care for themselves. Education is a good long-term investment for everyone.

Study Tracks Geographical Gene Flow and Ancestry in the US | The Scientist Magazine® - Beginning to get deeper genetic studies that might translate to better understanding of risk of disease across sub-populations within the US.

Scientists use fruit peel to turn old batteries into new -- ScienceDaily – Recycling metals from lithium-ion batteries with food waste…an example of the types of processes we need to develop for a circular economy (zero waste).

Hike in Walnut Canyon – A short video of a special place. I first visited in 1971 in the winter. It was memorable. Maybe I’ll go again after the pandemic is over; it’s high enough elevation I’ll make sure I am acclimated before I hike the trail to see the cliff dwellings up close.

The Undoing of US Climate Policy: The Emissions Impact of Trump-Era Rollbacks – Many young people see climate change as a high priority for the government to address….so do I. This research shows that the actions of the last few years have moved the US in the wrong direction. I usually prefer to focus on solutions and what individuals can do….but the government has a roll to play and, right now, it is moving opposite of the way needed.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Letter sweater. I found my 50-year-old letter sweater (academic…not sports) from high school when I cleaned out the coat closet. It still fits! It’s a little chilly today and I am wearing it. I took the letter off years ago but the flap in the pocket has my name embroidered on it. One of the buttons aged differently than the others – looks reddish rather than black. I’ll wear it as a basic black cardigan (with the odd button) in the fall and winter. I made a small pile of some other things in the closet to give away. My pile is big enough now that I am scheduling a pickup from my front porch!

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CSA Bounty – September 2020

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Fabulous fall veggies. Our shares have been full of them all month.

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This week we got

  • The last of the tomatoes (green) which I have ripening near the kitchen window,

  • The first butternut squash and sweet potatoes (both on the large side),

  • Maybe the last of the shishito peppers (I picked a few snacking peppers in the cutting garden),

  • And the fall staples of potatoes, cabbage, lettuce, garlic, hot peppers, and kale.

I love the orange veggies (squash and sweet potatoes) and will probably use them for custards or hearty soups…although I like sweet potatoes grated and used in salads and stir fries (as I would carrots). I might have to cook them and then freeze portion sizes since their size is overwhelming to eat in one week!

I cut stevia in the cutting garden and have it drying on the counter. I’ll use it to sweeten pots of hot tea – maybe I’ll have enough to use for the remainder of 2020.

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There were still a few flowers – more on those in another post.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Sweeping acorns and oak leaves. The driveway was covered again. I noticed a squirrel sniffing the acorns and maybe taking a few….there are way too many acorns to rely on the squirrels to do the clean up! I swept the driveway and then the gutter in the street which filled the wheelbarrow. The load made a nice addition to my compost pile (lots of browns to overwhelm the few ‘green’ kitchen scraps I have.

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I am discovering joy in everyday activities….that might be considered chores. The clear driveway plus the knowledge that I’ve kept the acorns and twigs from clogging the storm drain are two positives for the day!

September sunrise. I always do the grocery shopping early and this time I was on my way to the store before sunrise. I stopped at the CSA turn out to take a picture. It was a great way to start the day.

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Mini-clover. The clover is filling in the bare spots in the yard and is still short enough that the mower doesn’t touch it. So far – it had worked better than our attempts to overseed with grass seed. We’ll see what happens over the winter. I hope we’ll still have enough warm days that it will grow a bit more and be firmly established before the first frost.

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Gobolinks

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I found a book published in 1896 – made available on Project Gutenberg – that is prompting a project: Gobolinks by Ruth McEnery Stuart and Albert Bigelow Paine.

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The book has a short introduction describing how to create the images (folding a paper…putting blots of ink on one side then closing the paper to create the ‘shadow’ side) and then some poetry about what the images ‘look like’ – goblins or insects or birds on a wire (lots of opportunity for imagination).

I decided to try some of my own gobolinks…using some food coloring that has been in the cabinet so long it had dried out completely. I rehydrated it and made a first attempt with some printer paper. Dropping the color from the food coloring bottles made huge, dark blobs!

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After a few days, I decided to try again with some lightweight cardboard/card stock tiles that I could later overlay with a Zentangle pattern. I folded them in different ways.

My plan was to make a drop of food coloring and then moved the color around with a toothpick before closing the fold. I quickly realized that the lightweight cardboard absorbed the food coloring very quickly (glad I had a newspaper layer underneath). The others turned out reasonably well although the color is very dark. I’ll use the white gel pen when I overlay the patterns.

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And I’ll dilute the color next time I make some Gobolink tiles!

Capturing Moments

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There are always things to notice…and we are often carrying around something (phone or small camera) that can capture the moment. Here are some recent nature captures:

At the car dealership while I waited for my car after its service…I photographed the flowers in urns with my phone; the water droplets on the big leaves were left from the rain earlier in the morning.

My attention was captured most by the flowers that had dropped and always to land upside down with there stems pointed skyward. They must have been knocked off by the rain.

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Next - I was walking down the driveway when I spied something round in the driveway. I went back to the house for my small camera. Once I looked more closely, I realized it was an crushed acorn that had stayed together rather than scattering into pieces. It still had the cap (on the bottom)!

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The blue jays come to our deck frequently, but I hadn’t ever seen them on the feeder. There is a reason….the roost are too close together for the birds (see how the bird is ducking and can’t perch on the roost normally) and their weight is enough to partially close the openings where the seed is available. This bird did get a few seeds but flew away and didn’t return!

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Cocoon. One of my oldest pieces of clothing is a ‘cocoon’ I made back 1985. I use it during the change in season when it’s too cool to go without a wrap but then warms up and I want something that lets in more air…then off and folded up neatly. It is made of gray cotton fleece. Its current dimensions are 19.5” x 62” – probably stretched out over the years. The construction is two French seams (narrow dimension) with an arm hole left on the fold end. It’s a semi-structured blanket!

And then a folded under hem of around the edges. I used red thread to break the monotony of the gray fleece.

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It folds neatly making it easy to carry and pack. It’s something I wear frequently enough to keep even though it is about 35 years old since I remember making it in the fall!

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First day of autumn. It was 40 degrees this morning…very autumn like. The oak and sycamore are dropping leaves, but the tulip poplars and maples are still very green. We have a lot of acorns on the driveway that I need to sweep up and take back to the forest.

Painterly Flower Photographs

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A photography project in my home office: sitting on the other side of the office from the flowers and using the zoom on the camera to get magnified images of the flowers….varying light and magnification. Sometimes I rest the camera on my knee to hold it steady – fold out the view screen to compose the image. Sit back and enjoy the slide show; it will last a little over a minute before it loops back to the beginning.

The advantage of using the zoom is that the depth of field is enough to get the whole flower in focus; getting close…using a macro lens approach…would make it harder to get the focus I wanted. The higher the magnification the more ‘painterly’ they become; the focus softens. I like that the background often is flat or washes out….even the window screen is a pale gray grid. Capturing curves and textures of the petals is the priority.

There are three kinds of flowers: black-eyed susans, zinnias, cone flowers. They all came from the CSA over the past three weeks. Some of the petals are already beginning to dry and curl; the part under the petals of the zinnias starts out as shades green…then turns to shades of brown as the flowers age..

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Sewing Machine. I have put my 47-year-old sewing machine in the pile I am collecting to donate. It still has all the things it came with – even the instruction book. I used it a lot for about 15 years. For the first 10 of those years I made almost all my clothes. I even took some tailoring classes in 1983 – thinking I would make my suits for work. Then my career ramped up and required more time; I started buying my suits and making my blouses. By the time by daughter was born I was sewing infrequently. I’m not sure why it took me so long to let it go; it was an easy ‘declutter’ decision.

Blue Skies. The hazy skies are gone…but the temperature is still on the cool side. The forecast shows a warming trend…back up to the 80s.

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