Category Archives: Snapshots

Birds, In the neighborhood, Snapshots

Ruddies

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There are finer, more carefully focused and composed photos from a chance encounter with a group of Ruddies the other day… but this is my favorite because the details give away so much about this little duck… the bluish bill, the outstretched neck and jaunty tilt of the tail.

They’re usually easy to find in the neighborhood ponds and almost always bring a smile.

: )

My go-to book for historical bird names has a very long list for the Ruddy Duck; many of which are hysterical…

Dumpling Duck, Daub Duck, Deaf Duck, Fool Duck, Sleepy Duck, Butter Duck, Brown Diving Teal, Widgeon Coot, Creek Coot, Sleepy Coot, Booby Coot, Ruddy Diver, Dun Diver, Sleepy Brother, Butter-Ball, Batter-Scoot, Blatherskite, Bumblebee Coot, Quill-tailed Coot, Heavy-tailed Coot, Stiff-tail, Pin-tail, Bristle-tail, Sprig-tail, Stick-tail, Spine-tail, Dip-tail, Diver, Dun-bird, Dumb-bird, Mud-dipper, Spoon-billed, Butter-ball, Spoonbill, Broad-billed dipper, Dipper, Dapper, Dopper, Broad-bill, Blue-bill, Sleepy-head, Tough-head, Hickory-head, Steel-head, Hard-headed Broad-bill, Bull-neck, Leather-back, Paddy-whack, Stub-and-twist, Light-wood-knot, Shot-pouch, Water-partridge, Dinky, Dickey, Paddy, Noddy, Booby, Rook, Roody, Gray Teal, Salt-water Teal, Stiff-tailed Widgeon.

Edward Howe Forbush (1917) explains that many of the common names stem from the difficulty in hunting them…

(Stub-and-twist is a personal favorite!)

Snapshots, Wanderings

Secret garden

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A couple more pics from the other day at Terrain – highly recommended for anyone suffering from the late-winter blahs…

Our lunch spot, happy with sun.

Set in a greenhouse, there is flowing water, antique stained-glass doors and plenty of sunlight!

There’s an attached shop that sells all manner of pretty things.

More pretty things!

They also sell plants, but I was barely even tempted, considering my lousy luck with houseplants.

Wandering around with my camera I found lots of things, like the winter sky reflected in silver plant misters.

; )

Snapshots, Wanderings

Sun soaked

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This is the photo I took at the beginning of our visit – a simple bread baked in a clay pot, a mason jar of ice water and the late winter sun streaming across the table where we gathered for lunch.

Every moment in the sun is a gift these days and I think we all might’ve stayed in that sun-drenched spot and happily chatted the afternoon away. We – myself, Julie Zickefoose, Heather from Wayne PA (who many of us know from her sweet comments on our blogs) and Heather’s friend Linda met for lunch and a visit to the Wyeth collections at the Brandywine River Museum.

Julie is in town to speak at Longwood Gardens. Heather was our local guide and she picked the perfect spot for lunch – sun soaked and fragrant with the scent of growing things… a place to nourish winter-weary bodies and hearten a growing friendship.

More another day!

Bunnies, Snapshots

*%^$# rabbit!!

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One of Freckles’greatest joys in life is digging through her litterbox and spreading the contents far and wide.

Ickk!

Somehow, I’d imagined that at 10 years old, she might’ve outgrown this miserable habit, finally.

Wrong!

Do your bunnies love to dig, too? How do you keep it from driving you absolutely f-ing nuts?

Help?!?

Birds, Snapshots, Wanderings

Sea mice

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also Painted Duck, Mountain Duck, Rock Duck, Lord and Lady, Squealer.


“Harlequin, well named! Fantastically decorated, but still a thing of beauty! Delightful in color, elegant in form, graceful in carriage, rightly are its little companies called the “Lords and Ladies” of the waters. This is the loveliest of the Sea Ducks, but its beauty is reserved mainly for the cold and inhospitable North and the wave-lashed rocks of isolated ledges in the wintry sea.”
–Edward Howe Forbush in Birds of America (1936)

Monmouth County Audubon’s annual frozen pilgrimage to see the Harlequins at Barnegat Light was last weekend. We had a very small group… probably due to the especially frigid temps.

It’s one of my favorite places in the world, but the walk out the jetty to see the Harlequins is not for the faint of heart. We were blessed that day with a gentle wind out of the right direction and a low tide… so the boulders that make up the mile long jetty were mostly dry and free of ice.

Still… I mostly walked along the sand beside the jetty… looking for Sparrows and Snow Buntings and Horned Larks and leaving the dangerous stuff for the foolhardy members of the group!

The jetty was constructed to protect the shoreline and prevent sand from filling in the inlet. It and a parallel jetty on the north side of the inlet are designed to keep the channel from the ocean to Barnegat Bay deep and navigable.

If you’re lucky, as we were, a couple Harlequins will be feeding in tranquil waters at the very beginning of the jetty where there’s a concrete walkway and a guardrail; oftentimes it’s necessary to walk the full length of it to the roiled waters and slippery rocks at the very end to find them.

We walked all the way out anyway because the jetty and its boulders attract a variety of marine growth (like mussels which the Harlequins feed on) and which otherwise attracts fish, which, in turn, attract more birds like Loons, Scoters, Eiders, Mergansers and Long-tailed Ducks. Purple Sandpipers, Dunlin, Ruddy Turnstones and Sanderling populate the mossy crevices of the jetty.

Even if there weren’t birds to look at, one could hardly be bored with the constant threat of a broken bone or a concussion with any misstep!

; )

I’d imagine the Harlequins to be something of a boon to the local beach communities which are otherwise mostly deserted in the winter. Someone has to serve chocolate-chip pancakes and hot cocoa to all us shivering birders!

Barnegat Light is, for those who love the sea and the immediate shore, a very special place.

Any ideas to explain the “Sea Mouse” name?