Category Archives: Pastimes

Books, Jersey Girl in GA, Pastimes

These days

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I’d been waiting ever so patiently (not) for that glorious day that felt like Spring for the first time and it finally came on Saturday last. I sat in the sun for a couple hours and finished the latest Barbara Kingsolver book. It’s a good one; I’d recommend it, especially when combined with some overdue sunshine.

I seem to have lost all tolerance for cold weather. Probably that happened around the time that I moved here and threw away most all of my winter clothing in the process.

Spring happens differently here… everything is coming into bloom at once. Daffodils and Redbud and Forsythia and Azalea are all screaming for my attention at the same time.  It’s hard to relish any one thing.

In an ongoing effort to keep myself busy, I’m starting volunteer training later this week to be a docent for Trees Atlanta in their Beltline Arboretum program. I’m doing this so that I can lead bird walks on the Beltline for Atlanta Audubon and be able to sound as intelligent about trees and art and the history of Atlanta as I do about birds. We’ll see how that goes.

: )

I’ve been reading a lot of cooking blogs these days and I think that, more than anything, this attests to just how out of sorts I’m feeling. I hate cooking, remember? I do enjoy reading about it, though, and enjoy the excuse of trying out a new recipe because I saw it on a favorite blog. Anyone have a good cooking blog to share? The blogs I enjoy the most are written by people who seem to approach cooking the way I do… as something like a science experiment. I like reading about their failures and mistakes because it makes me feel less incompetent myself…

Do you like scones? I have a couple recipes that I use often… a favorite is maple walnut scones. I tried dressing them up a couple weeks back with frozen blueberries that were leftover from some we’d picked last summer. I was wholly disappointed with the results… those frozen blueberries had no flavor whatsoever!

It turned out that the frozen blueberries I’d used were actually black beans. Ask me what they were doing in the freezer. Ask me, too, how I didn’t realize they were black beans instead of blueberries.

It’s good to be able to laugh these days.

Jersey Girl in GA, Pastimes

A picnic indoors

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We went for afternoon tea yesterday at Glenridge Hall with some other supporters of Atlanta Audubon… we’d “won” the opportunity to be treated to this special event by bidding in a silent auction at the 40th Anniversary Gala back in October.

Never having been to tea in a multi-million dollar mansion before, I was a little stressed out about what to wear and whether it was proper to eat the finger sandwiches with my hands and so forth, but it turns out that afternoon tea, like Alice Walker says, is really just an indoor picnic.

With fine china, of course.

: )

We also were treated to a tour of the place, which was a lot of fun. We’re hoping to schedule a couple bird walks on the property this spring, so if you’re in the neighborhood (Jayne!) keep your ears open for more information.

Birds, Pastimes, Wanderings

Here birdy, birdy…

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We spent the early morning hours on Saturday with Georgia’s IBA (Important Bird Area) Coordinator and some of his volunteers. They were out at Panola Mountain State Park to band sparrows.

We met before the sun was up and were pleased to see and hear American Woodcock doing their flight display over the grassy fields of Panola.

Here birdy, birdy…

I’m not sure how much you all know about how birds are caught and banded, so I played Kenny Kodak and took pictures of the process to make myself feel useful. I’m a bit too squeamish about it to actually handle the birds myself…

Mist nests are erected in likely habitat and then checked by volunteers every thirty minutes.

Removing birds from the nets is a very delicate process. Volunteers are trained over the course of years to learn how it’s done.

The birds are then placed in soft cotton bags until they’re processed by the bander.

As a side note… a couple years ago at Jekyll Island, where Charlie also bands birds, they did a study of the droppings left in the bags in order to better understand what specific plants birds were making use of in the local habitat. Neat, huh?!?

A bucket o’ birds!

This is my favorite part of the banding process… Charlie is blowing air on the bird’s keel to check for fat… you can actually see the fat deposited there when the feathers are blown out of the way. He rates the amount of fat each bird has and records it, along with the expected info like weight, wing measurements, sex, signs of molt and how much the flight feathers are worn down. The band number is recorded and the bird is set to fly away, back to its weedy patch of home.

Another quiz!

We have the idea that going to these banding sessions might actually help us learn to better identify sparrows, but I’m not so sure. Even though I know these are two different varieties of sparrow, I can hardly recognize the field marks that differentiate them! Anyone care to guess?

The morning wasn’t all about LBJ’s though…

Eye candy!

Bags and bucket in hand, the volunteers head back to check the nets again…

City love, Garden, iPhone snaps, Jersey Girl in GA, Pastimes

Gardening in a furnace

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“One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides.”–W.E. Johns

Finally (!) I’m starting to feel overrun with tomatoes. Luckily, it’s the cherry tomatoes that are first to bear and those disappear easily enough. Better than half of what’s ripe at each visit is devoured before I even leave the community garden with the day’s harvest. I munch away while I water and while I weed. Makes all the sweat seem so much more worthwhile somehow.

: )

I planted a bunch of heirloom tomatoes… Rutgers was the first of the “big” tomatoes to ripen, but I haven’t tasted one yet. Each one I’ve brought home has mysteriously disappeared before I got a bite! The first of the lovely pink Brandywines is almost ready… those are a favorite and will be hidden away in my purse, if necessary!

The heat of the sun here is something else… like gardening in a furnace! I’m surprised anything survives, really. I’m approaching this first summer as little more than an experiment to see what’ll grow and how well. Cucumbers did well, but the vines have turned to dust in the last week. Just as well… I was getting a bit overwhelmed with them. The summer squash looked beautiful and I got half a dozen that I still need to cook, but the plants were overrun with bugs. I’m still waiting on the peppers. I also planted tomatillos for the first time… anyone know anything about them? Lots of flowers, but no fruit set. Curious.

I spend some time at each visit just wandering around the garden, enjoying being around growing things. I think that’s what I like most about being there. I love to see what other people are growing and how well their vegetables are doing. There’s a couple of beehives maintained by students… those are fun to look in on. Plenty of bluebirds and towhees, too, keeping the bugs at bay.

It’s supposed to be 106 this Saturday… you’ll find me somewhere shady, for sure.

Birds, In the neighborhood, Pastimes

Plover party

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We had a little potluck party this evening to celebrate a successful nesting season for “our” Piping Plovers at Seven President’s Park… there was beer and pizza and homegrown tomatoes with basil and mozarella and homemade wine…

We plover monitors had logged better than 1500 volunteer hours (75~ of them myself) and babysat 4 healthy chicks throughout the beach season.

Wow!

I didn’t take very many people pix while out on the beach, but this random beach-goer typifies the amused sort of tolerance of our antics we’ve trained the public into…

Can’t you just see him wondering what all the fuss is about?

Endangered birds… what birds? Where?

: )

Linda is a veteran at this… she and I spent many an evening together at opposite ends of the beach shepherding people away from the chicks.

Click and look closely for two tiny young chicks feeding at her feet!

Marie is another volunteer that I spent a lot of time with… study her posture… she was fierce with young surfers who didn’t think they had to follow everyone else’s rules on “their” beach…

I had to include this pic of a plover chick running across my beach towel, just because…

: )

Someone on FB linked to an article in just the last couple days that almost suggested that Piping Plovers might do better on very peopled beaches… I wonder if that might not be true…

Public education can be our greatest advantage if we leverage it properly…

Anyway…

The party tonight was fun, but I think we all left wondering what we’ll do with ourselves all winter…

: )

Birds, In the neighborhood, Pastimes

Going, going, gone

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The photos I took on 30 July will likely be the last of the baby Piping Plovers…

; (

All 4 babies and their dad were still at the beach on 4 August, but my camera battery was dead…

; (

That evening, while we watched, 3 of them took a very serious-looking flight straight out over the ocean. It was the first prolonged flight I’d witnessed and it looked to me like they meant to head straight for the Bahamas.

; )

They came back, but I’ve heard since that dad and two of the babies have left for points south. 2 chicks were still around as of yesterday… I hope to get back for a couple last shots, but…

Seven President’s Park is the only place in Monmouth County, besides Sandy Hook, that had Piping Plovers this season… and the season was a huge success for our pair!

; )

Birds, In the neighborhood, Pastimes

Suddenly

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Adolescence is, perhaps, nature’s way of preparing parents to welcome the empty nest.

~Karen Savage and Patricia Adams, The Good Stepmother

Teenagers!

A little awkward and gawky… they don’t mind boundaries well, anymore, or their parent’s alarm call… and they’re as likely to amble unawares into a group of Greater Black-Backs as to snuggle sweetly under dad’s wing… they nap together during the hottest part of the afternoon and then scatter to the wind to feed as the sun sets.

It’s getting harder to keep track of them… harder to tell them apart from their dad at a distance.

It’s been a full week since I’ve seen them… and suddenly they have wings… suddenly they’re plovers.

(g)

Birds, In the neighborhood, Pastimes, Snapshots

I will not cry

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There was an evening last week, before the heat wave descended, when the beach was cool and thick with fog, like it is when the Piping Plovers first return in March.

I had to search hard to find my little charges, so completely gray was their world; the sky, sea and sand blending into nothingness.

I’ve come to know these birds for the little flashes of light that precede them. Their movement, on the periphery of my awareness, is the only thing that gives them away.

They seemed suddenly fearful that evening, aware of my presence and the camera pointed their way. They approached, hesitant in their feeding along the waterline, and skittered past me quickly.

This, too, is a part of their growing up, I guess.

Mama Plover has been gone for almost two weeks now, leaving them in the care of their father. He is even more vigilant since, calling the alarm at my approach and distracting me away from his chicks with a game of hide and seek in the sand.

A part of me wants to play that game with him, to see just where, exactly, he might distract me away to…

Instead I step back and stay away and try to remain separate. These four chicks are not mine. I’m not totally in love with them. I will not miss them, already, before they’ve learned to fly and are gone as the goldenrod sweeps over the dunes.

I will not cry at their growing up.

Birds, In the neighborhood, Pastimes, Snapshots

Watch me grow!

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If I’m not careful, I’m going to have to change the name of this blog to “The Daily Plover”.

: )

These are some of my favorite pix from the past week. Understand that nearly every photo is a favorite and I take upwards of 100 photos of these babies each time I’m out with them. I’m considering wallpapering my place with them I have so many!

We’re still watching over 4 chicks; we try not to hover and worry too close, but if you sit still enough they’ll scuttle right past your toes. This afternoon I was sure one was going to invite itself into someone’s beach bag!

They’re 3 weeks old now and have the funniest tail feathers… little duck butts! I saw the largest of the 4 testing its wings a bit this afternoon in the high dunes… it won’t be long before they’re flying.

Gulls continue to be a source of anxiety for us all… you need only see one carry away a tern chick one time to understand how quickly a gull can act when the opportunity presents itself. The public is still mostly supportive and cooperative, save for the occasional gang of teenage boys or the dopes on cell phones who think the rules don’t apply to them. I’ve had to use my teacher voice a lot in the last couple days!